And the Winner Is....

“And the award for “Best Whiner” goes to - and there is no surprise here ladies and gentlemen - Lisa!”

Yes, I am a whiner. If things don’t go exactly my way, I will complain to anyone who will listen. I also tend to exaggerate the grievances done against me, somehow always managing to make myself so innocent in the situation. Do you remember the old catch phrase from the original Star Wars movies, “It’s not my fault!”? I believe George Lucus got that from me.

It’s never my fault.

It’s an exhausting way to live though, and let’s be honest, it’s also sinful. Why? Because the root cause of whining is pride, greed, and selfishness. It’s boils down to me putting myself ahead of everyone else, including God, and pointing the finger of blame instead of accepting my own culpability.

It’s also the root cause of the original sin. Yes, you can trace it all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden. Eve knew good and well what God had said. He had given them everything they needed, and he told Adam he could eat from any tree in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said, “for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17) Eve, however, chose to listen to the serpent, “You will not certainly die. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)

“What!?! I can be like God!” And in that fatal moment Adam and Eve set humanity on the course of destruction. Because of their sin, in all our hearts lurks our own desire to be like God. I know to our minds though it seems unfair because we weren’t the ones in the Garden. We didn’t eat the fruit, but substitute me or you for Adam and Eve, and we would have been no different. We too would have taken a big bit, and then done our best to deny any guilt:

He (God) said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:11-13)

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” However, what is most shocking to me is how quickly sin took root in their hearts. Instead of immediately confessing their sin to God, they just started pointing fingers. Perhaps here is where we find the origins of our well used line, because from the lips of Adam and Eve came, “It’s not my fault!"

While God gave Adam the opportunity to confess what they had done, Adam never admitted his guilt. Instead, he blamed God and his wife: “Wasn’t it really your fault God for giving me this woman to start with?” (Genesis 3:12, my paraphrase) This also seems to have been the thought process of Eve. When God confronted her, she pointed her finger at the snake and even though she didn’t say it out loud, you wonder if under her breath she didn’t mutter, “The serpent that You created.”

I am ashamed to admit this, but I have said the same thing to God. I remember so vividly a time in my life when only excuses came out of my mouth too. Instead of confessing my transgressions, I would complain to God. I would tell him how unjust it all was, and yes, I told him that it wasn’t my fault because He made me this way. It’s wonder he didn’t send a bolt of lightning to put an end to my insolent behavior.

But we are a people full of excuses; excuses created in our attempt to gloss over sinful actions. Billy Sunday, an evangelist from the last century, said “An excuse is the skin of reason stuffed with a lie.” Yes, Eve gave Adam the fruit because the serpent deceived her, but Adam didn’t have to eat it. He could have made a better decision, which makes me think of Aaron, the brother of Moses.

While Moses was on the mountain with God, Aaron was down below with the people.

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:1-4)

I can see Moses telling Aaron before he ascended the mountain, “Keep an eye on these people and don’t let them get into any trouble.”  But Aaron didn’t and the people committed “a great sin” because they became impatient (Exodus 32:21). They could not understand why Moses was taking so long, and we know that impatience has gotten more than a few of us into trouble. Like Sarah, we get restless because God is taking longer than we think he should, and we take matters into our own hands (Genesis 16).

The Israelites did not yet understand how to live by faith and trust God regardless of their circumstances, but we expect more from Aaron. Yes, he was sorry later. However, instead of confessing, he did his best to shift the blame, and once again we hear the excuse, “It’s not my fault!”

“Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” (Exodus 32:22-24)

And the award for the “Most Creative Excuse” goes to Aaron: “They gave me gold and out came a calf. I just don’t know how that happened.”  Did he really expected Moses and God to believe that he had no control over the image that he made?

We shake our heads, but are we any different?

Friends, we need to own our mistakes. We will never get it right one hundred percent of the time. That is the reality of a fallen world; however, we need to stop making excuses and whining that it was someone else’s fault. We need to come clean with God, because there are consequences to sin. Adam and Eve were forced to leave the Garden and go into the world where they had to toil for their livelihood (Genesis 3:17-19). The children of Israel were punished as well with the slaying of those involved in the worship of the golden calf (Exodus 33:28,35).

Sin is always costly, but we are not a people without hope: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) Friends, here we find the antidote for whining, and it is confession. John tells us that when we sin, excuses and self-justification are irrelevant. The only thing that will remedy our problem is a humble and repentant confession to God. And what will God’s response be?

He will forgive us!

God has promised that he will never despise a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17), and he never breaks his word (Hebrews 6:18). Thus, instead of wasting my breath whining, I have a new plan. Like the writers of the psalms, I want to use my words to bring glory to God: “I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” (Psalm 146:2)

And who knows, maybe one day I will win the award for “Most Likely to Praise God”.

Amen…. So be it!  Lisa

Discussion Questions

What are you most likely to whine and complain about?

What does our whining say to God?

How can we keep from becoming impatient with God?