Real life lesson on complaining--Part 1:
Okay, I'm sitting here at the Raleigh Durham Airport waiting...praying...waiting...praying. And trying hard not to fall into the complaining mode. The Lord clearly has a sense of humor. Wonder if He's saying, "Alrighty then. She said she's learning about not complaining. She said she's going to write about how to battle complaining. How about we give her a golden opportunity to put all that theology into practice?" (Imagine a smiling, winking face placed here. God's smiling emoji, not mine.)
Let me explain. I was supposed to fly to NYC to meet our girls for a fun weekend in the big city. But instead, I'm staring at airport Departure signs that say all the afternoon and evening flights to Laguardia are cancelled, except one. That one lone flight, praise God, is mine. But before I start praising too exuberantly, I'm brought up short by the lady at the desk saying, "Well your flight may be cancelled as well. We don't know anything yet..." Apparently the airport up there is a mess due to fog, rain, and thunderstorms. But hey, otherwise, it sounds like a lovely day in New York. Oh mercy. So, here goes--Operation No Complaining now being put into effect! Well, let me rephrase that--attempting, tentatively, at least for the moment, put into effect the No Complaining policy. (Hey,we're all works in progress right?!)
Here's the list I mentioned in the blog yesterday that our minister recently shared. It's eleven ways to battle complaining from John Piper....
Real life lesson on complaining--Part 2:
Not so fast! It's now three days since I wrote the above, and I'm back in the airport waiting--only this time it's Laguardia in New York. This time I'm waiting to go back to home sweet home. As Paul Harvey used to say, here's "the rest of the story."
Right as I prepared to share Piper's pearls of wisdom, we got word that we would, in fact, be flying to New York. Yahoo!
Uhh, actually not yet. We boarded and finally taxied out to the runway. But then the pilot announced that there were thunderstorms in Laguardia, and the airport had just closed. Thus, he said we'd shut down the engines and wait on the runway to see if Laguardia reopened. We waited for two hours. Whew! Eventually the pilot came back on the intercom and informed us that Laguardia had just reopened. Yahoo!...but now we were low on fuel so we'd first have to go back to the terminal and refuel before trying to fly out. I'm all in favor of having plenty of fuel so despite the delay, that sounded like a good idea to me.
And more great news--we refueled and taxied out to the runway again. Things were looking up...until the pilot came on again and said now thunderstorms had rolled into Raleigh. We'd have to wait on the runway till they passed. We were starting to feel a bit more desperate, so suddenly thunderstorms sounded slightly less threatening than they usually would have. We're all thinking--"Thunderstorms, smunderstorms. I'm sure we'll be fine. Let's fly already!!" (Waiting and impatience not only exponentially increases the likelihood of complaining but it also dramatically decreases patience and wisdom.)
We waited...and waited, but eventually the sun was shining again. Yay!...until the pilot came back on and said that now Laguardia was closed again due to bad weather and congestion. We'd sit on the runway and wait some more. And wait and wait and wait. Over five--yes FIVE--hours of waiting on the plane on the runway before....oh no, we'd have to return to the terminal for a second refueling. Now again, I'm all in favor of plenty of fuel, but by now we were about six hours late leaving, and this was getting mighty old. But it was great to finally get off the plane and get some food. Not exactly the relaxing dinner meal I'd been dreaming about in NYC with my girls, but when you're really hungry that Brueggers bagel tastes mighty good.
I must add, however, that our pilot was really friendly and really good about communicating to us in the midst of a stressful situation. He and the stewardesses (who were also extraordinarily nice and forbearing with some passengers who had grown, let's just say, mighty grumpy)were obviously doing their absolute best.
This is going on too long, so I'm going to cut to the chase. We eventually reboarded the plane--back to good old seat 10C--and when the pilot told the stewardesses to prepare for takeoff, everyone onboard started cheering! When we actually got off the ground, there was wild applause! And when we finally landed in Laguardia--at around 11:30 p.m. (a mere seven and a half hours late)--we all felt like crying for joy and relief.
Why am I sharing all this? Mainly, because I wanted to COMPLAIN...in a blog post about not complaining! I do see the irony in this...or at a minimum, the fact, that the Lord most definitely has a sense of humor. (And I, on the other hand, at the time, did not.)
I've gone one for so long that I no longer have time, space, or desire to share John Piper's fabulous list of ways to kill complaining. I'll just have to get to that in a day or two...I surely have some more things I want to complain about first. Sigh. Let's just say that no complaining was killed that day, but at least there was an feeble attempt to at least injure it. So Piper's Kill Complaining List will be coming another day.
But I did want to add several things for which I'm very grateful--because nothing fights complaining like gratitude.
First, thank You Lord that I had a number of really nice folks sitting around me on the plane--and believe me, we got to know each other over our nearly eight hour saga. And the lady sitting beside me was especially sweet. Thank You, Father! Second, thank You that the plane did eventually take off and land safely in New York. Third, thank You that I did in fact get to spend the weekend with my daughters and had an absolutely wonderful time. Fourth, thank You that we got to see the AMAZING show "Ain't too Proud"--which, if you go to NYC, you must, must, must see! It's the story of the Temptations and is absolutely fabulous!
Fifth, thank You that we got to eat our way through New York and that's just always a good thing. A really, really good thing. (And an addendum to this--thank You Lord for the taste of yummy food and for the joy of sharing it in fellowship with others. What a gift!) Sixth, thank You that we had great weather once we got past the torrential downpours, fog, and thunderstorms of Thursday when we were attempting to fly in. (Am I sensing a slightly sarcastic, complaining tone in those words? Hmm, forgive me. I'm trying.) Seventh, thank You that the return trip home was a piece of cake and went perfectly. Eighth, thank You taht I have a home to return to, people that I love, and a Lord who loves me no matter what a nitwit I can act like. Ninth, thank You that, as our minister Joel reminded us, "Being satisfied is a choice. It doesn't begin with a feeling but with trusting that God is all I truly need." And finally, tenth, thank You Lord that You are always and forever good, no matter whether our circumstances are happy or painful and You are always with us and will never leave or forsake us.
Sorry for all that blabbing, but here's my prayer--that we'd all start fighting our tendency to complain by choosing to thank. To kill complaining with praising. What a difference that would make in our world--less grumbling, more gratitude. And by the way, I'm thankful for you! Thanks for reading all this and putting up with me!
To God be the glory.
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