Complaints and Catharsis

Toilet training is a rite of passage for parents of young children.  It can be challenging to train little ones to learn to stop playing and use the toilet in the bathroom.  Training children to wake up and go to the toilet at night takes things to another level!  I remember we had friends over who had a toddler still in nappies who we all observed crouching under a table and was strangely still while kids happily ran around.  Within moments he was back to playing with friends--which soon came to an end when he was picked up by a parent because he needed a nappy change.

This week while preparing for a Bible study, this memory came flooding back with conviction and spiritual insight.  We studied and discussed Psalm 102 which has this description in my Bible:  "A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the LORD."  At times we have all been afflicted, felt overwhelmed and poured out our complaints, but I was convicted that I can to do this before other people who cannot help, change me or others.  Complaining can be cathartic, albeit for a short while.  When our problems remain unchanged, feelings of frustration and annoyance can build until we dump them on someone else.  I learned "cathartic" is defined in the Webster's 1828 Dictionary in a medical sense as "purging; cleansing the bowels; promoting evacuations by stool."  While it is welcome relief to have the bowels cleansed, one problem we always face is needing to go again.

It struck me just as we all as children needed to be trained to use the toilet properly and have taught our children as well, this has a spiritual implication:  we need to learn to take our complaints to the LORD.  Had it been my child choosing to lazily use a nappy rather than stopping and going to the toilet, it would have displeased me.  Many times in the Bible we see the LORD was displeased when His people complained and wept due to unbelief, feelings of hopelessness and despair.  God expressed strong displeasure towards murmurers and complainers in Numbers 11:1:  "Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp."  Complaining in itself was not the problem, but they refused to bring their complaints to Him--believing He was willing to hear and able to help them.

Based on Psalm 102 and other passages, a personal application for me is to understand complaining to people is evidence of spiritual immaturity.  Like the writer of Hebrews rebuked his readers for their spiritual immaturity evidenced by being unskilled in the word of righteousness when they should have been teaching others by then, we ought to learn to bring our complaints to the LORD.  God will hear the prayers of faith brought to Him by His little ones and will not despise the afflicted who cry out to the LORD who loves and gives more grace.  As the psalmist said confidently in Psalm 102:17, "He shall regard the prayer of the destitute, and shall not despise their prayer."  Have you learned to bring your complaints to the LORD rather than releasing them in earshot of people who cannot bring deliverance, peace or rest for your soul?