1983 November/December issue Part 1

Where will complaining get you?

When we were in Dallas a few months ago, we were the guests of our dear friend Nina Jean Obel. As we sat one morning in her beautiful sunshiny yellow and pale green kitchen, she reminded us of the story in Deuteronomy 1 of how, when the Israelites were within fourteen days of the Promised Land, they complained. Complaining was a habit which had angered Moses, their leader, to the point where he wished he were dead. “How can I bear the unaided heavy burden you are to me, and put up with your complaints?” he asked. They headed for Horeb, but when they reached the hill country of the Amorites they refused to believe the promises and insisted on sending spies to see what sort of a land it was. The spies came back with a glowing report, but the people didn’t believe that either. Never mind the lovely fruit the land offered. There were giants there. They’d be killed. There were huge fortifications towering to the sky. How would they ever conquer them?

It was the neurotic’s attitude. No answer would do. No solution offered was good enough. The promises of God, the direction of Moses, the report of the spies- all unacceptable. The people had already made up their minds that they didn’t like anything God was doing. They "muttered treason.” They said the Lord hated them. He brought them out only to have them wiped out by the Amorites. O God, what a fate. O God, why do you treat us this way? O God, how are we going to get out of this? It’s your fault. You hate us. Moses hates us. Everything and everybody’s against us.

Nina Jean said that she made up her mind that if complaining was the reason God’s people were denied the privilege of entering Canaan, she was going to quit it. She set herself a tough task: absolutely no complaining for fourteen days. It was a revelation to her- first, of how strong a habit it had become, and second, of how different the whole world looked when she did not complain. I get the impression that when I’m around Nina Jean that the fourteen- day trial was enough to kick the habit. I’ve never heard her complain.

It’s not just the sunshine and the colors that make her kitchen a nice place to be. It’s that Nina Jean is there. I’d like to create that sort of climate for the people I’m around. I’ve set myself the same task.