Of Freedom and Squeaky Wheels

By Brent Buttler –
Those who profess to follow Jesus should not whine and complain like those who do not.

I had to run a quick errand last night and as I was doing so I turned on the car radio.  I tuned in part way through an interview with an Iranian man who talked about the various death threats he had received and how he was living in hiding in Germany.  It turned out this situation came as a result of a song he had written and performed.  Yes that’s right, the Iranian officials were so offended by a song (that the artist stated was simply meant as satire) that they sought to kill the one who performed it.

This lack of freedom was especially contrasted to the abuse of freedom I saw yesterday where people cussed and complained ad naseum because the propositions and politicians that were passed and elected were not the ones who they wanted passed and elected.  Now I do not know the profession of those who had posted all this vitriol, but I sincerely hope that they were not professed followers of Jesus.

The prevalent philosophy in this world seems to be based on the old adage “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” which means that if we make enough noise (i.e. complain) we will eventually get what we want.  However, such a philosophy is in direct contradiction to the way Jesus lived His life when He was on this earth.  He took all sorts of abuse, but not once do you see Him muttering to Himself or venting to His disciples, “Those stupid blankety-blank Pharisees . . .”  If anyone had an excuse to complain it would have been Him because being God, He had the unusual position of always being right.  How much less room to we as flawed human beings to complain when people do not agree with us and our views.  Maybe they are right and we are wrong, or maybe both of us are wrong and the correct view is held by someone else.

So next time we are tempted to complain, maybe we should follow a not-so-old saying and check ourselves before we wreck ourselves.

Have you had an experience where complaining only made the situation worse? Share your story at Brent’s blog, Educational Litter.

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Brent Buttler is a part-time writer and full-time child of God. Follow him on Twitter @bbuttler, and Like his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Educational.Litter