Complaint

But I call to God, and the Lord will save me.  Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.     Psalm 55:16-17 ESV

I've been feeling a little overwhelmed of late.  If, as they say, 2020 was a "dumpster fire," then to me it feels like in 2021 the whole neighborhood's on fire!  It just seems that everything around us is changing -- and not in a good way.

Maybe everyone else is just handling all this change better than I am.  I hope and pray that this is the case.  

So you may have noticed that I don't really have a lot to say these days.  Really, I just don't feel like I have anything encouraging to say.  This bothers me, and has kept me somewhat stuck.  The primary reason that I write is to encourage, yet the thoughts swirling in my head currently do not seem at all encouraging.  Still, I feel called and compelled to write, so here I am today, checking in with you.

Psalm 55 has much to say that seems pertinent to life in 2021.  Verse 17a is where I find myself stuck -- all day long I "utter my complaint and moan."  That is an apt description of my status, even in this moment.  Perhaps you can relate.  I can't imagine that I'm really the only one feeling this way.

Context is key, and perhaps that's the path to getting "unstuck."  In writing this psalm, David didn't just utter his complaint and moan.  He complained and moaned to God.  And even in the struggle - in the complaining and the moaning had a confidence and a faith that sustained him.  He knew that God heard his complaints and moans, and he was confident that God would save him.

I've been trying to give myself daily pep talks about stopping my moaning and complaining.  I've tried to convince myself to just snap out of my funk.  I may or may not have cried an ocean of tears and sought any number of less healthy outlets for my frustrations, all while thinking that I  need to get my act together and just "cut it out."  But that's not working, clearly.

David didn't try to talk himself out of his funk.  He let himself feel it and express it, but he expressed intentionally it to the One he knew could fix it.

Today's thought is short and simple - complain - but do so with confidence.  Take your complaints to the Lord, all day long, if necessary.  He hears.  He will save.  He is enough.

Cast your burden on the Lord,  and he will sustain you;      Psalm 55:22a

...Just a thought...