“He lives to hear my soul’s complaint” (Samuel Medley, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”). “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Most of us, like the unjust judge, will get up and help a person with their problem if they complain for long enough if for no other reason than so that we can finally be rid of them. But our Savior can listen to us complain until we are blue in the face and then some and He loves us enough that even after all of that He still does not want to get rid of us. If we are pouring out our souls’ complaints to the Lord, then it is because we still retain some degree of faith in Him and in His power to help us with our problems. The Savior rejoices when we will turn to Him with all that is bothering us because He actually has the solutions and would much rather that we focus on Him and His solutions rather than dwelling forever on the problems themselves. Holding onto our problems and murmuring about them with no intention to lift a finger or reach out for help kills our faith and our hope and prevents us from connecting with our Savior. If we hold our complaints in and rehearse over and over again our pains and grievances then we will allow bitter resentment to eat us up from the inside. But if we hand over our complaints to Jesus Christ, we open the pathway for His Grace to build us up and make us mightier than the problems that we face. Christ knows what is bothering us far, far sooner than we know ourselves and He is only waiting for us to recognize and then share with Him what our complaints are, so that we are sufficiently humble and submissive to accept the solutions that He has prepared for us.
