What I’m Thinking: Complaints

No, this is not me engaging in complaining. But when the people of Israel complained to Moses about not having water in the Sinai desert, they had cause to complain. They needed water, and they needed it badly.

Here’s a transcript:

I’m thinking this week about complaining. It goes back a long way in the Church of Jesus Christ; it goes back before the Church. This week’s text, in fact, is one of the earliest: the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Exodus.

The people of Israel were complaining to Moses that he had led them out of Egypt into a place where they would die of thirst. And in fact, that’s a pretty good way to describe much of the wilderness, the desert, of the Sinai Peninsula.

Well, you know, folks, I am not willing to blame those who complain because they are short of their basic needs. I am not going to blame thirsty people:

Thirsty for water, as in Flint, Michigan.

Thirsty for justice, as those who wonder why people die and others aren’t held accountable.

I’m not going to blame any of those people for complaining.

It is rather up to those of us in leadership to understand the complaints and to recognize the deep needs that lie below them. Recognize, and respond.

And respond with something other than, “Oh, you’re just complaining. It’s not real.”

Yeah. It’s real.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’d love to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your ideas in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.