Read: James 5:7-10
“Beloved, do not grumble against one another”
Everyone needs to vent their frustrations. it feels good to share difficulties with someone we feel understands. However, I think we have to be careful so our venting doesn’t turn into gossip. Something people at our church often say is “don’t say anything about anyone because everyone is related.” Grumbling, venting, or gossip can so easily be communicated to the subject of the complaint–sometimes in a distorted or decontextualized form–and lead to unnecessary conflict. What if we employed this rule in all of our lives? If we’re all children of God, we may want to question how a complaint or gossip might seem to the person we’re complaining about.
It may be that there is still room for private conversations and for venting frustration. However, it’s worth contemplating how an attitude of grumbling can seep into all of our lives. Constant grumbling can easily lead to cynicism. We don’t always control our feelings, but a habit of gossip or complaint may be as damaging to our souls as it could be the people we gossip about. Above all, conflict and subterfuge of this kind divides us the blessed body of Christ that is truly our family. If “the coming of the Lord is near” (v. 8) will we be found as good stewards of our lives and of each other?
Blest be the dear uniting love
that will not let us part;
our bodies may far off remove,
we still are one in heart.
Joined in one spirit to our Head,
where he appoints we go,
and still in Jesus’ footsteps tread,
and do his work below.
O may we ever walk in him,
and nothing know beside,
nothing desire, nothing esteem,
but Jesus crucified!
We all are one who him receive,
and each with each agree,
in him the One, the Truth, we live;
blest point of unity!
Partakers of the Savior’s grace,
the same in mind and heart,
nor joy, nor grief, nor time, nor place,
nor life, nor death can part.
-Charles Wesley
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