Grumbling versus Gratitude

One of the best illustration of grumbling and gratitude is about a woman who was walking along the beach with her 3 year old son. Suddenly a big wave came and took the boy away, the woman fell on her knee and asked God to return the child to her. “Lord, he is still small and he is my only son, please bring him back to me.” Before she even finished her prayer, the next wave roll back and with it came the little child. The woman happily scoop up the child but instantly shouted toward the sky “Heh, where is the hat? He had a hat with him.”

When I saw the topic given to me to speak is Grumbling vs gratitude, my first reaction was this topic is so common and everyone knows what it is about grumbling and gratitude. Everyone should know that we should not grumble but to have an attitude of gratitude, there is really not much I can speak about. I was grumbling about grumble. You see it is so easy to begin grumbling before we even realize it.

Let’s turn to Philippians 2: 14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. Here the passage is very clear what we are to do. But before we go on, we will look at a few example of grumbling and gratitude in the old testament and new testament.

First turn to the Old Testament and read about the grumbling of the children of Israel when they didn’t get what they wanted.
The children of Israel begin the murmuring when they are in the wilderness, halfway between Egypt and the Promised Land. Earlier they had been slaves in Egypt , and had found slavery unendurable. They had cried out in those days, and God had been moved by their outcry, since they had grounds for crying out. God had delivered them with his outstretched arm. Then he had forged them into a people after his own heart at Mount Sinai when he had given them the Ten Words, a way of living that would end forever the social chaos and the spiritual disintegration they had seen in the pagan nations. The only thing left them to do was to fall on their faces in gratitude; sheer, adoring gratitude. After all, they had been spared the misery and humiliation of slavery as well as the confusion and corruption of ungodliness. But what we read is that the Israelites grumbled at every turn. God cared for the Israelites by His own hand - providing water from a rock, manna from heaven, and quail from the sky, clothes that never wore out, a fire by night and a cloud by day. And yet…they grumbled.(See Exodus 15:24, 16:2,7,8,9,11, 17:2,3) As their gratitude evaporated, reasonableness evaporated too. Now they wanted to go back to Egypt . “At least we had lots to eat in Egypt ,” they whined, “even if we were slaves.”
So what is the problem here? In 1 Cor 10, Paul sum up the whole story clearly. He wrote that the story of the Israelites can teach us a lesson. Even though God provided all they needed for the journey, the children of Israel still desired things that the Lord had not provided. So when they did not get it, they grumbled and complained and were punished. In short they were discontent with what they didn’t have and ungrateful with what they did have. This is grumbling versus gratitude.

Two other scenarios of grumbling is in the new testament.
In Matthew 20:1-16, in the parable of the workers in the vineyard Jesus points out that ingratitude, grumbling, reveals resentment and reinforces it. In this parable some men are hired to work in the vineyard. At the end of their eight-hour shift they are paid the agreed-upon sum. Other workers, hired late in the day and therefore who have worked only four hours or two hours or perchance one hour; these other workers receive the same sum. This parable, we should note right here, has nothing to do with economics or labour relations. This parable has rather to do with God’s grace and mercy and help. You see, in ancient Palestine day-labourers, the bottom rung of the working class, were paid at the end of each day. They had to be. They lived so close to the line that they had no savings at all, nothing in reserve. With the money they were paid for that day’s work they fed their families the same evening and next morning. The men in the parable who had worked a full day were given one day’s pay – and immediately used it to sustain themselves and their dependents. The men who had worked less than a day were nonetheless given a full day’s pay. Why? Because anything less than a full day’s pay would have been useless. If they had received a quarter of a day’s pay for a quarter of a day’s work, they and their dependents would have starved. Because the owner of the vineyard was generous, all the men were given what they needed regardless of what they deserved. Even so, says Jesus, people with ungrateful hearts murmur and mutter and grumble at the vineyard owner inasmuch as they resent seeing others appear more fortunate than they. Had they been grateful themselves, they would also have rejoiced to see other needy people given as much as those people needed.

Mark 14:1-8. A woman fell at the feet of Jesus and poured out on his feet the costliest bottle of cologne as she wiped his feet with her hair. Why did she do this? She did it out gratitude to him for all that he done for her. Mark tells us that several bystanders, people who plainly were possessed of no gratitude at all, carped and complained, muttered and murmured, groused and grumbled, “This money could have been given to the poor.” Since when were these grumblers concerned with the poor? When have complainers ever been concerned with the poor? Every time Jesus had eaten with the poor the murmurers had murmured. They weren’t concerned with the poor. They were ungrateful people whose mean spirits found them relishing every opportunity to complain.

My work in the hotel involves a lot of listening to grumbling and complaining. Usually a customer will complain when something went wrong. Some are easy to forget while some are still fresh. I remember a case about the stolen swimming suit. The incident happened on the previous day evening and I was to meet this lady in the morning. When I met up with her, there were four other ladies with her. Naturally she was unhappy that how can a 5 star hotel allowed a thief to steal her swim suit that was hang on the balcony. What happened was that during that time, terminal 2 was being built and a lot of foreign workers were hired and these workers love to wander into the hotel and pose as tourist. As it happened, this worker went to the guest room balcony located on the ground floor and stole her swim suit. This was saw by the security on duty and he called for help through the walkie talkie. What happened was also witnessed by the lady. Our Security was probably over zealous. A few of them gave chase and pin the thief down and in the process also gave a few blows to the thief. I suspect they have seen too many movies also. The thief was sent to police station and the swim suit returned to the lady. So I apologized to her and agree that this incident should not have happened but I assured her that we have in place enough security but unfortunately because of he large area and the many access and entry point to the hotel, it can pose a challenge to us. I told her she may be interested to know that we managed to catch the culprit and recovered the swim suit. I understand that she may not want it back so she can go down to our shop and choose any swim suit she like for free. Now you have to understand that the swimsuit is not cheap and each one is at least RM200. She was not happy because number one, she was traumatised to see the thief being caught and didn’t feel the hotel is secure. Secondly the replacement of another swim suit is not enough. I told her, alright, then take 2 swim suits. She said not good enough. So I asked her, what will she be happy with, She asked for free stay for the entire group of 5 rooms. Any way, to cut the story short, ended up given her a voucher of 2 complimentary night stay and 2 most expensive swim suit which she happily chose. But this is not the end of the story. After returning home, she wrote a lengthy letter to our head quarter further complained that I was indifferent, insensitive and unhelpful to her.

The second case involved a pastor, yes, you hear me right, a pastor. He complained to me that while taking shower, suddenly the water became very hot and he was scalded. Again, I apologised to him and offered to take him to hospital but he declined. Since he declined , I assumed that it must not be very serious. I told him that I will have the shower checked and may be there was a faulty valve. What else could I do? Offer doctor assistance and have the shower check so that it will not happened again. But this pastor spend the next half hour complained and whined that this should not happened in a 5 star hotel. I apologised, offered him dinner to make up for the inconvenience. He was not satisfied. His reason was that he was taking a group of youth, 17 to be exact for a visit to KK. If I buy him dinner, I have to buy all or none. I told him I cannot and he asked to see my Boss. My Boss came and spoke to him with me as a translator, this lasted for almost 40 minutes, again with no outcome except to hear him grumbling again and again. At the end my Boss left it to me to close the case and I ended up giving him 18 hotel T-shirts.

My point of sharing the story is that as you can see, we can complain and grumble under any circumstances and it can happen to us, even the children of God. I give the benefit of doubt to the pastor as a child of God. I myself is a good example. I cannot tell you how many times my wife did something for me such as making me a cup of coffee, I will tell her it is too hot or too sweet and failed to appreciate the good intention and good act.

Enough on grumbling. Now let us look into thanksgiving. In the old testament, there are not as many incidents of thanks giving although we do read about the Lord asking the children of Israel to set aside a feast of thanks giving. Thanksgiving is more common in Psalms. About twenty psalms command or invite Israel to sing songs of thanksgiving.

Chronicles and Nehemiah often mention thanksgiving, as both take strong interest in the temple and the offerings and songs that rise from it to God. For example, when David brings the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, the people sing psalms that call Israel to give thanks again and again (1 Chron 16:4,7,8,34,35,41). David also appointed Levites to thank God morning and evening in the temple (23:30), and he thanked God as his life ended, exhorting the people to join him in giving to the building of Solomon's temple (29:13-20).

In the new testament, the Lord Jesus show us example of giving thanks such as over a meal. Jesus also thanked the Father for hearing his prayer that God hide his secrets from the wise and reveal them to children (Matt 11:25; Luke 10:21) and to raise Lazarus (John 11:41).

Paul likewise show a life of thanks giving in his acts as well as in his writing. He thanked God for his final meal on the storm-battered boat (Acts27;35). Thanksgiving is also a central component of prayer for Paul. He prays that his churches will be thankful (Col 1:12), and gives thanks in turn for answered prayer, especially for the extension of the gospel and the strength of his churches (2 Cor 4:15). Paul begins most of his letters (Galatians, 1 Timothy, and Titus being the exceptions) with expressions of thanksgiving to God for the church or individual to which he writes.

Both the gospels and the epistles introduced and developed the concept of gratitude for God's deliverance. When a sinful woman interrupted a dinner party to anoint Jesus with precious perfume, Jesus told his shocked host that her action sprang from gratitude for forgiveness (Luke 7:40-47). When Jesus healed ten lepers as they walked to the temple, he marveled aloud that only one, a Samaritan, returned to thank him (Luke 7:11-19). Paul agrees that believers should be thankful for every individual provision, and that gratitude for God's saving grace envelops the entire Christian life. Those whom God has brought from death to life should offer their bodies to him as instruments of righteousness (Rom 6:13). In view of God's mercies, knowing they were bought at a price, they should offer their bodies to God as living sacrifices in general and honor him with purity in particular (Rom 12:1; 1 Cor 6:20). Those who have received an unshakeable kingdom from God should be thankful, worship God, and faithfully endure the hardships of persecution (Heb 12:28 and context ).

One good lesson we can learn is from Psalm 13. Here we read that David was feeling lonely and the enemy is pressing against him and he began to complain to his God. Bur half way through this short Pslam, we see that David has turned his grumbled heart into one that is dependent on his God and finally into a heart that trust and rejoice in his God.

Philippians 2:14 is very clear that we are to avoid complaining or arguing. We need to have an attitude of gratitude, but how do we do it? Max Lucardo sum it up: The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart: Sin. To sin is to disregard God, ignore his teaching and deny his blessings.
But God does leave us helpless. The clue is a few verses before. Phil 2:12 - ..continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
It is God who works in us and not we work in God. We must involve God .

Let me elaborate here by first referring to the familiar verses in Ephesians 2:8-9. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. But how often we forget about verse 10. As Woodrow Kroll said, the next time you quote Eph 2:8-9, please include verse 10.

You see, as a result of our salvation, which we obtain not through our effort but simply because of God’s grace and gift to us, we have a new nature and that God has created us to do good works. Good works must be the result of our conversion. The time when you received Christ, you become a Christian but you are not yet a disciple. You need to work on it in order to become his disciple and to be Christ like. A disciple is a follower who adhere to the teachings and belief of your master. The moment I enrol in a university, I am a student of the university but I am not a graduate yet and I need to work on it. So this bring us back to Philippians 2:12. Nobody tell you that to have a humble heart, a thankful heart, a grateful attitude, a healthy behaviour , all those goodness as a result of your conversion is going to be easy. These attitudes have to be cultivated with effort. Remember we were sinners and need conversion. It takes effort, we need to work it out with fear and trembling that we may fail, we may disappoint our Father. I remember my university day that I worked so hard because I don’t want to fail and disappoint my family, so I literally studied with a lot of fear and trembling. The next time, you grumble, or do any negative thing, remind your self to stop doing it and work on it hard.

But brothers and sisters, the good news for us is that our journey is not a lonely one. Firstly, God will help us as we read in Phil 2:13 it is God’s purpose for us since it is His will, he will help us. With that, He sends the Holy Spirit to help us. Secondly, Christians are asked to grow together as an organism and so there is a lot of interaction, support and help from and to one another. We see this form reading the bible about commenting one another, about rebuking one another all for the sake of building a strong church that is fill with imperfect yet striving to be Christ like people.