Complaining

Some days I look around my new home and all I feel is discouragement. Yesterday was one of those days of just complete down in the dumps disappointment and disillusionment not only with the social injustices I am witness to but also with the role of the Church in the midst of these broken and oppressive systems.

To say I am angry or sad would be an understatement, I feel like my heart is constantly grieving and lamenting the lack of this or the lack of that. In particular, yesterday I was upset to realize that the closest domestic violence services in the Delta are located in Greenville, Mississippi, a town around 40 minutes away from me. Having conducted research on and worked with victims of domestic violence last summer, this piece of knowledge concerns me for a number of reasons. The first being that in numerous studies the most highly correlated factor with prevalence of DV is poverty, which the Delta has a lot of, the second being that due to this poverty families may lack transportation and the resources to gain knowledge about these kinds of services, thirdly, families fleeing domestic violence (an already traumatizing experience) do not necessarily desire to uproot their whole lives, for a mother this could include having to find another job if the shelter is 40 minutes (or more) away from her workplace, if children are involved this could mean switching to a new school, adding a lack of instability to their lives. I mean really, the list could go on and I don't think it is really necessary for me to go ahead and list all of the possible scenarios and reasons why having just one shelter is problematic.

The point is this piece of knowledge pissed me off. It made me want to scream. It made me want to angrily ask every congregation in the Delta why more was not being done about this. It made me want to demand action. It made me want to do it myself. It made me want to complain, which I did. Unfortunately, it is all I did.

I've gotten rather good at it by this point, there is much to complain about no matter where you are. However I've begun to realize that my complaining is not  helpful. As frustrated as I may be with the lack of racial unity in my town, even within the Church (John 17, people!)  and as frustrated as I may be with what I perceive to be hypocrisy, my complaining really does no good. I had a humbling moment last night when after a round of complaining about the lack of Christian action that I was witnessing and criticizing and judging some other things I am frustrated with, I realized that I was a hypocrite.

It is the classic don't look at the speck in your brother's eye until you have removed the log from your own. I had to really assess whether my complaining was getting anybody anywhere or whether it was just pushing us further into a cycle of inaction, the excuse as to why nothing was getting done instead of doing something about it yourself. And I determined that my complaining was well on its way to becoming the excuse for my inaction, that it was becoming the reason why I couldn't do this or do that.

I think there is something to be said about righteous indignation and I think righteous indignation can be a good and holy thing. We should be angry about injustice. We need to and should want to be angry about injustice. However, the problem arises when this anger does not compel us to meaningful action. The problem arises when we simply allow this anger to fester and manifest itself in complaints. Complaining is useless. Complaining leads to making excuses, it leads to stagnancy and it is the way of hypocrisy.

This is not to say that we shouldn't talk about the things that bother us. We should talk, it is fine to talk, it is necessary to talk, but we should most importantly do. Doing should be happening a lot more than talking. A whole lot more.

As I teach I know that this will look like me throwing myself into the little things and hanging on to my Heavenly Father for dear life and sustenance. I pray that this will look not like a ceasing of righteous indignation but as a ceasing of useless complaining and as lovingly encouraging others to seek righteousness instead of pridefully judging them.

In the midst of it all I praise Him for this, Jonh 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

I praise Him for the promise to set all things aright and I praise Him that He is already doing so, and while it may not be on my time table I still have the utmost trust in Him.