THE SIN OF WHINING

Let’s make sure we have the right word. I’m not talking about wining, which may or may not be a sin. After all, Jesus came both wining and dining, even if John the harbinger did not. Wining may be appropriate, but whining never, except perhaps when one is a child. So whining is always a sin, or something close to that. There must be a connection between our selfish pride and our impulse to whine, for we presume that our whines are justified. In our self-pity we “complain or beg in a childishly undignified way,” which is Webster’s definition of whine. For our purposes we can think of whining as complaining, which may be a far more serious sin than we realize. Far more serious than wining!

One of our readers sent me this poem, which set me to thinking about the sin of whining in my own life. Maybe it will touch your life as well:

Today upon a bus, I saw

A lovely girl with golden hair.

I envied her --- she seemed so young ---

I wished I were one-half as fair.

When suddenly she rose to leave

I saw her hobble down the aisle;

She had one leg, she used a crutch.

As she passed, she flashed a smile.

O God, forgive me when I whine!

I have two legs, the world is mine!

And when I stopped to buy some sweets,

The lad who sold them had such charm

I talked with him --- he seemed so glad ---

If I were late, ‘would do no harm.

And as I left he said to me:

“I thank you. You have been so kind.”

You see,” he added, “I am blind.”

O God, forgive me when I whine!

I have two eyes, the world is mine!

With legs to take me where I’d go

With eyes to see the sunset’s glow ---

O God, forgive me when I whine!

I’m blessed indeed! The world is mine!

Complaining is a sin of our affluent, undisciplined society. We do not know how to count our blessings because we have not learned how to do without. We are like spoiled children, like those that Jesus spoke of in Lk. 7:31-35, who would not make the expected responses when their playmates called to them. A whining generation is a satiated one, one that knows little about thanksgiving in that it has never learned gratitude.

When I read the above poem, I resolved once more that I would never complain about anything. The flesh makes it hard for us to do that; pride dictates that we should grumble when things do not go our way, especially when we know we are right! I am most inclined to complain over my children’s fiscal irresponsibility. They waste their substance and then come to me for help. I complain over this injustice, pointing out that the reason I have money to bail them out is because I didn’t do as they are now doing. I sometimes whine. Poor me, sacrificing all these years only to have my children waste it! I think it is all right for me to refuse, leaving them to sweat it out on their own, as I sometimes do, but it is not all right for me to whine about it. I am persuaded that complaining, mere fussing, is always wrong, for me at least (even if I am right), and I am seeking to overcome it.

I am tired playing the game of “Ain’t it awful,” whether in the family, the church, or the world. It does no good to fuss about inflation or complain about the way things go at church or grumble over the condition of the world. God placed me in this world to light a candle, not to complain about the darkness. I can do this with enthusiasm if I keep His goodness and mercy in view. That one leper that returned to Jesus praising God (with a loud voice, the record says) had the antidote for a grumbling tongue, gratitude. I am persuaded that if we are sufficiently grateful for our many blessings, we will never whine and complain. It is a terribly selfish sin! Jude included this sin when he listed those things deserving God’s wrath: “These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flattering people to gain advantage” (v. 16).

The apostle Paul says it all too plainly: “We must not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents; nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:9-10).

Nor grumble. It is easy to go through life as a grumbler, one who never finds anything right and always looks on the dark side. It is sinful to so live, plainly sinful, and it is inexcusable for one who is resolved to follow Jesus. Did he ever grumble about anything? He was critical of what he found in men’s hearts, but he always pointed men to God and was always positive. He was not a complainer nor a fault-finder. One wise man has said it well: “Just as you are pleased at finding faults, you are displeased at finding perfections.” Our Lord was not that way, and we should not be that way.

Finally, whining and grumbling are sinful in that they reflect a life of discontent. Joy is fruit of the Spirit, while discontent is a work of the flesh. We have too much to do in this world than to wallow in impious discontent. Robert Southey teaches us a great lesson when he wrote:

“A good man and a wise man may, at times, be angry with the world, and at times grieved for it; but no man was ever discontented with the world if he did his duty in it.”

That’s where I stand in reference to the church, especially the Church of Christ (the Lord in his mercy granted that I should be born into the right church!). I may have a lover’s quarrel, and I may sometimes be angry or grieved. But discontentment I renounce as Satanic, and I do not intend to grumble and complain. If and when I do, you can know to that extent I am not doing my duty. --- the Editor

The editor will be with a gathering of folk from various persuasions of the Movement to share in our common zheritage in Flint, Michigan, Jan. 8-10. For more information contact Hoy Ledbetter, 8494 Brush Hill Ct., Grand Blanc, Michigan 48439.

He will be with the Gold Coast Christian Men’s Retreat in Florida, Jan. 15-16. Contact Ron Mobley at First Christian Church in Boca Raton, 305-368-2513. Following this occasion he will be on campus of Milligan College for two weeks, teaching a course at Emmanuel School of Religion.