You Call that a Bagel?

My family moved from New Jersey to Texas in 2011.  We love it here.  It’s in the Bible belt, the weather is great, no state income taxes, and real estate is affordable.  As Pastor of my church, I feel like I have the best job in the world!  I have no regrets.  But I do have things I miss.  I miss family and friends.  I miss the beach.  The nearest beach is 5 hours away.  Good pizza is another thing I miss.  In Texas, Papa John’s passes for good pizza.  I shudder at having to eat it.  Another thing I miss is a good bagel.  I ate something this morning that was called a bagel, but was a pathetic imitation. It was like the two ends of a loaf of white bread facing each other, crust sides out, with a hole in the middle. No self-respecting northeasterner would have eaten that bagel, but I was really hungry and there were no other options.  

My point is this: Sometimes it is easy in our lives to overlook all of our many blessings to complain about the things that we do not have.  I would love to have access to a beach, good pizza and bagels.  But if those are the worst things that I can think of to complain about, then my life is pretty good.  How about you?  What are the little things in your life that cause you to complain and draw your attention away from the many blessings in your life?  I’m not talking about the real physical and emotional pain that life brings. I’m talking about minor daily complaints that we all mutter about life.   

In Exodus Chapter 14, God parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could escape from Pharaoh and the Egyptian army that intended recapture them and either kill them or return them to slavery.  Immediately, in Exodus 15, the Israelites complained that there was no water in the desert, so God provided water.  In Exodus 16 they complained again: “² The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ³ The sons of Israel said to them, ‘Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’”

In less than two months from the parting of the Red Sea and their escape from Egypt, the Israelites had already become chronic complainers and revisionist historians.  They had been slaves in Egypt.  They were brutally and shamefully mistreated for 400 years.  By the hand of God and Charlton HestonJ, they were led from their bondage in Egypt to freedom.  The first thing they did was to grumble and complain about the things they didn’t have, and to romanticize those things as if they were better than they actually were.  Their complaints would make you think that they were living like kings in palaces eating fois gras and caviar, rather than as slaves making bricks without straw. Some people will always find something to complain about and sometimes complainers have the loudest voices. Even after this chronic complaining, you can imagine God shaking His head at their unfaithfulness, and yet, God provided meat for them to eat.

Complaining is the result of discontentment with what God has provided. It is the result on an unthankful heart, a lack of faith, and a focus on self rather than God and others.  The Bible says, “every good thing and every perfect gift is from above.”  Everything we have is from God.  We ought to give thanks for what we have rather than complaining about what we don’t have.  We ought to trust God to provide the things we need, and not complain that we don’t have some of the things we want. We ought to be less focused on ourselves and more focused on God.  Often, the reason we complain is because we are spending too much time thinking about ourselves and our own selfish preferences and desires, and not enough time thinking about the goodness of God or the needs of others.  

The best thing God has given us is His Son Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins so that we can have eternal life with Him.  Let’s not complain about what we don’t have.  If you believe in Jesus, you already have everything!  Rejoice in that.  Now, if anyone can recommend a place in Texas where I can find a decent bagel, I’m all ears!