Today’s Scripture Reading
(October 27, 2018): Numbers 11
“Complaining
does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we
spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won't make us
happier.” Randy Pausch spoke these words in his speech entitled “The Last
Lecture,” which later became a book that Pausch co-authored. The story behind
“The Last Lecture” was that Pausch was diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer in September 2006, and by August 2007 he received the
terminal diagnosis that he was expecting. In the words of Pausch’s doctor,
Pausch had “three to six months of good health left. Pausch was forty-six years
old. “The Last Lecture” was given at Carnegie Mellon University on September
18, 2007. Randy Pausch lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008, at the age of 47. There is no doubt that
Pausch reaction to life could have been that he had received a raw deal. But he
also knew that complaining about his illness was
not going to allow him to accomplish his goals. Complaining was a waste of his finite
time and energy.
There
used to be a saying that “a squeaky wheel gets the grease.” It has been given as the excuse to keep complaining,
to make your voice heard, because, in the end, maybe, you will get what you
want just to shut you up. But the advice is out of date. We don’t grease a
squeaky wheel anymore; we replace it. And I see it all of the time on Social
Media. The complainers in our society are not
given what they want. They are discarded and forced to live on the edges
of our world. In today’s culture, Pausch is right; complaining does not work as
a strategy.
Israel
had forgotten all that they had received from God. They left Egypt as an
unorganized group of slaves who had been
mistreated in Egyptian society. They had no power over their future, and they existed only on the margins of
Egyptian culture. And then God, and Moses,
stepped forward and worked for the release of the Israelite slaves. God had
protected them during the time of their escape from Egypt. He gave Israel a
sense of order. He organized their society in a way that worked. He placed his
blessing on the nation and called them his people. He placed his presence at
the center of their society and gave them a future in Canaan that they had not
possessed since the days of Jacob and his sons.
But
there is also no doubt that their nomadic life in the desert was not fun, but
then again, neither was life in Egypt –
and being forced to make bricks without straw. Israel’s response to everything
that God had given to them was to complain about their nomadic life. And God’s
response to the complaints of Israel was not to give in to their wants.
Instead, God drew a line that revealed to Israel that complaining would not
work in his kingdom as a viable strategy for getting what they might want. All
Israel’s complaining had accomplished was to arouse the anger of God.
As
Christians, complaining should not be our strategy for life either. We are
commanded to be the salt of the earth. We are to be the builders, not the ones
who tear down. And Paul makes this comment:
Do
not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful
for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who
listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with
whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with
every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one
another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (Ephesians
4:29-32).
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 12
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