Every individual in the working class has some idea of a dream job. Dreaming is a great way to empower and motivate us more to continue striving to grow and reach more. But sometimes we might look at our dream job and current state and get so discouraged with the disparity between the two and start complaining.
The first thing we must understand is that there is a difference between complaining and expressing concern. To express concern is to look to the current challenges and seek a solution. Complaining, on the other hand, is a toxic, unfruitful and self-seeking pattern of focusing on the bad in expense of the good.
Here are three reasons why we need to stop complaining, most especially about our jobs today.
1. Complaining Destroys Relationships
Personally, I have never seen complaining to be beneficial in all kinds of relationship. The toxicity that comes with complaining can and will always affect one relationship or another even if people get used to it. That’s because many times complaining will always be directed to another person—a workmate, a boss, or a client.
God is a God of relationships and desires for us to live in unity with all, especially in our work place. Colossians 3:14 urges us, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
2. Complaining Leads to Questioning God’s Work and Timing
When we complain, what we’re actually doing is questioning God’s current work in our life and His timing. There is always room to inquire about what God wants to do in and through us in certain seasons in our professions. However, a complaining heart desires something that may not be necessarily what God wants.
We complain about salaries, forgetting it’s God’s will; about our colleagues, forgetting they’re God’s will; and about work challenges, which are also God’s will. God makes all things work for your good (Romans 8:28) and while we don’t have to always like what God is doing, we are to put our trust on it.
3. Complaining Closes Our Eyes to the Grace of God
Truth be told, our jobs and professions are simply the outcome of God’s complete and unmerited grace. You don’t deserve your job. It doesn’t matter if you’re qualified for it educationally, professionally, or physically. In the spiritual, all we deserve is death and separation from provision and purpose.
Deuteronomy 8:18 reminds us, “You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”
Our jobs are God’s grace, and complaining will often cause us to forget that. The entitlement of complaining closes our eyes to the grace God has so lavishly poured out on us.
