I know, I know…I can hear many of you saying to yourselves, “That’s “w-i-n-e, not whine”. Well, perhaps it’s both. But I’d like to speak to the first spelling.
By a show of hands, (you’re not really raising your hands now, are you?) how many of you have something to complain about? Come on, you over there at your desk, why aren’t you raising your hand? You know that lower back pain you’ve had for a few years now? Go ahead, whine. How ‘bout you over there with your car in desperate need of some over needed work? Whine away. And what about you? (You know who you are!) You have been losing your temper more and more these days, and, well, everybody’s acting so stupid around you, you have every right to…go ahead…whine away. (How many of you fit all three examples?)
Here’s some non-news. The little things will always change. Car troubles, mounting bills, age related back pain, weight related back pain. (Double ouch!), intellectually challenged people all around…always will be in a state of flux. But here’s more non-news…The Big things will never change. God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s grace. Rocket science? Hardly. Just a friendly reminder.
I feel that I have a lot to complain about. Even my hair hurts. The past 5 years, I’ve been in and out of doctor’s offices and hospitals with 3 heart operations. I have 2 wonderful children still at home; the youngest is a chronic care child. He’s perpetual energy and movement. He requires constant observation, and is SOOOOOO strong, that I, more times than not, find myself sitting on the floor, having lost in the collision that was him and me! A lady once told me her definition of parenthood. She said it could be summed up in four words. “You’re always wiping something”. Well with Dylan, that is even more so. I travel ALL the time. Each year the print gets smaller. Did I mention that my hair hurts? All my trousers are shrinking! Shirts too. Have I mentioned my hair?
About 15 years ago I heard then 700 Club co-host Ben Kinchlow speak in Toronto, Canada. He talked about perspective, and our problem with problems. He took a dime out of his pocket. He told us to close one eye. Then he said to hold the dime at arms length up to the sky. He said that the dime represented our troubles, the things that we complain about. The size of the dime in comparison to the vastness of the sky is really the way our problems should look to us who believe in the scandalous grace of Jesus. However, he said that most of us pull the dime right up against our one open eye. As we do, it becomes the only thing we can see. I now ALWAYS carry a dime around with me.
What’s your “dime”? Is it finances? Cancer? Heart problems? Job? Spouse? Hurting hair? Hold it at arms length against the vastness of who God is.
Many years ago Stuart Hamblen wrote a gospel song called “How Big is God”. The chorus said this:
How big is God, how big and wide His vast domainTo try to tell these lips can only startHe's big enough to rule His mighty universeYet small enough to live within my heart. Believe me, His love is better than whine! Ten cents says I can prove it!