“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” –Heb. 12:2-3
We sing “Thanks to Calvary” and say “Thanks for Calvary”, but there are times when we ought to say, “Thank God it’s not Calvary”. That would stop a lot of complaining. Regardless of our situation— the intensity of the pain, the degree of injustice, or amount of misery, it is not as bad as Calvary. Considering that no one ever suffered as did Jesus, we all can say, “It could be worse”. Considering that we all have sinned, we should say, “I have it better than I deserve”. Yet, knowing that to be true, we still complain. Although it does no good, pales in comparison to the suffering of Christ, is less than we deserve, and depresses those in our company, we murmur about our miseries. And we reason?—-“Why not, after all _____”. You fill in the blank. To our way of thinking , we can always find something to justify our complaints. But that doesn’t make it right in God’s eyes.
Do you not see the danger in this? Such complaints robs us of peace, ruins our testimony, and results in harm to the cause of Christ. And most of the time it involves others. We often allow their faults to become the reason for our fall. In some ways we become like the people we complain about. Jesus, however, did just the opposite. He expressed love and extended forgiveness toward those who mistreated Him. Rather than curse them, He expressed concern for them. So remember this— our likeness to Christ is never more apparent than when it appears in times of adversity. Now, if we would just learn to view our difficulties as opportunities rather than obstacles we would have a chance of making things better. If the goodness of God led us to repentance, overcoming evil with good gives us the best chance to change someones life.
