"Thankfulness only blossoms from a deep root of humility." J.C. Ryle 1816-1900
This quote from an Anglican bishop over a century ago was shared in a recent Sunday sermon. It prompted me to consider my own attitudes, and elusive pursuit of a life characterized by humility. The thought occurred to me that if gratitude is a measure of humility, then it might follow that complaining is a measure of pride.
Not long before this, I had become so frustrated with my own readiness to complain, that I put up a reminder sign in front of my desk in the office, "Do Everything Without Complaining" (quoting from Philippians 2:14). I wasn't thinking of it in terms of pride and humility, but was surprised to soon find myself having an attitude of complaining about the sign I had put up for myself.
So why might complaining be a measure of pride? It is identifying something or someone that obstructs my agenda for what I want to be or do, and blaming it for my shortcoming. At worst, it is denigrating someone else, for my own aggrandizement. At best, it is whining about petty annoyances that are the common lot of humanity. In any case, it is asserting that the real I is better both than the circumstances and people that surround me, and even better than how I seem to be doing at the moment, hampered by those circumstances or people.
Since sharing this simple observation with a few people, it has all too frequently already reminded me about how pervasive my pride is, and how comfortable I had become with it. But the observation that "complaining is a measure of pride" is likely true. "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." (2Cor.10:17) -philw
