Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Although I am wary of generalizations, I'll venture to say that we live in a culture of complaint or, if that is an overstatement, I will venture to say that the temptation to moan is ubiquitous and alluring. Karin Stetina, blogging at Biola University in Biola Magazine (October 31, 2016), draws reference to a New York Times article about celebrities who complain on social media titled The Microcomplaint—Nothing Too Small To Complain About. The article mentions complaints about the lack of decaf coffee, a story about a celebrity who couldn't get a Persian rug with the image of a specific cherub that she wanted (such misery, eh?), and outside the world of celebrities, a cruise ship passenger who complained about the sea being “too loud.” It’s all too funny, too sad, and too “us.”
When complaining is not constructive criticism directed to solutions, it can be a sign of ingratitude and, if not checked, become a habitual rut, a spiritual and moral sickness. The New Testament scholar Frances Young is unafraid to say that there is a noticeable “lack of gratitude and appreciation in modern life” She detects an over-emphasis on “rights and claims” and thinks we “breathe in the constant atmosphere of complaint and objection to the conditions of life.” So much so, that “thanksgiving is not natural for us in our culture." (Living the Eucharist, pp. 85-89)
She's not alone of course. But her story, which I'll relate more of next week, involves caring for a severely handicapped child. This gives her testimony, I think, a special weight. With impressive resolve she set her course on making her life one great big thanksgiving to God, a perfect response, let’s say, amid life’s imperfections.
She writes:
"It seems to me that in the Great Thanksgiving Prayer we are asserting a fundamental spiritual stance, a response to life, the universe and everything which is sheer gratitude and wonder. This stance is potentially immensely liberating....... It is immensely liberating to give thanks. So it is right to give him thanks and praise. Indeed it is our duty and our joy at all times in all places. The basic response of thanksgiving is something that spills over into the whole of life. True, we do not always feel like that, but the Eucharist keeps us in remembrance that it is not about feelings: it is about a whole perspective on reality, which requires this response, because we are creatures who owe everything to our Creator, and we are making a thank offering. Let me remind you, too, that this making of a thank offering is one way in which the Eucharist is a sacrifice, the sacrifice of the best we have and the best we can be."
How strong, how resolute is that piece of writing. Her response to the good news is also good news for us, evidence that we can do more than just shoulder burdens and field disappointment and grieve over bad news. We can learn—yes, it won’t come naturally at first—to give thanks and praise. There’s much that goes into building a life of gratitude, but taking in the testimony and the insights of Professor Young, who is also an ordained Methodist minister, would be a good first step.