Is it human nature to complaint and murmur? Perhaps that it is so. We can all be very pessimistic about life in general especially when life is giving us frustration sometimes caused by ourselves and sometime by our family members, friends, colleagues and people in authority over us. Taking the example of Exodus of God’s chosen people, they too complaint about their situation to God and Moses for taking them into the harsh condition of the desert, even though they have escaped from their cruel Egyptian masters.

Though they were now free, it did cost them in some ways. They now have to face bleakness of the desert and leave behind the security of what they knew before. God in all His wisdom and kindness gave them a guide by way of a plume of cloud and provided provision with manna that fell from the sky. When the cloud moved the people followed, when it stops, the people set up camp to rest and wait. Manna will fall from the sky, and they will collect and make their meals. Of course though it nourishes them fully, I presume having to eat the same thing day in day out would certainly bore their taste bud. Shifting camp is also no small matter; you could imagine unpacking the various amounts of equipment, utensils, and tents. In those days, they made their stuffs sturdy so very likely the things were heavy and bulky.

After doing it for some time, the people began to murmur and complaint. Because of the complaints, God has decided these people should roam the desert for 40 years! Enough time to remove one whole generation of people. They would not get the chance to enter their promise land.

So likewise, we too in our daily life face situation and we bring our grievance to God, would it be any different? You may say it is different. For example, people in authority decided to impose rules and condition that seemed rather trivial but made it such that you have to abide to it no matter what the cost seem rather counter productive. We all have our limits, and if a situation takes more effort to achieve that little extra, may as well save the trouble and save some energy to do it. Firstly though God has place people of authority over us, and even if they are rather draconian, it pleases Him for our obedience. However we have our limits, though we follow as best as we can, no matter how trivial the rule we followed, sometimes we think it makes both us and the person in authority much of a fool for issuing such rules and following it.

Sometimes, rules may be stupid, but God just wants to see whether you can follow it. Sometimes you get rewarded, but other times it just leaves you banging your head for following it. But that is life. Why there is such amount of waste in the world? Because we have to abide by the rule no matter what. The rules can help or hinder, for example if we want to have safety first, to save time, or simply to have some convenience it becomes necessary to waste in order to gain.

For example the much hype of reduce, reuse and recycle. In paper it seems good. In actuality, how much of it can you follow? We can reduce, but not much. If we need to use, you can’t run away. Reuse? Empty containers are an eyesore, you will need to spare storage space, and space is a premium in your house and how much can you reuse? To recycle you have to spend energy to do it. Old newspaper? The van that drives around is burning fuel to come and collect your old papers. You need to drive out with bags of aluminum cans and glass bottle to drop off at recycling bin thus burning fuel and using up your time and effort. Unfortunately we have to try to save our limited resources and sometimes we need to spend a little energy to save a bit more energy but whether in the equation of thing it actually saves remains to be seen. As they said a few drops per person per day can amount to quite a lot when you take it in collectively as a whole.

So what would be the way to go about life and the frustration that comes with it? When Paul was place in prison, he just praises the Lord. Situation arose that he was able to share the gospel to people there and lead them to Christ. Being optimistic is good for the soul. Thus it is much better to just praise the Lord no matter what the situation. Praise Him even if you don’t feel like it. The law of attraction is such that like attracts like, and having good thought would attract good fortune. It seems like some mambo jumbo, but the person that laughed last was the author that made millions writing a book about the law of attracting good fortune. Funny how the world works.

So let’s have some good thoughts and praise the Lord for all the misfortune and frustration; for life may be like that but we have the ability to choose to be affected emotionally or limit its impact by not to be so.

Cheers!