Pessimism

Day one hundred forty-four

Today I am grateful for the good people in my life. The ones that are trying to do their best and let me tag along to watch and learn.  I am grateful for their patience with me, for their willingness to teach me, and for their efforts in being a good example for me.  The Lord has blessed me with so many good people that I thought it was appropriate to take some time in my prayer to thank Him for putting the people I need in my life to watch over me.  I also asked Him to bless me that I might be that type of person for those that are in my life.

Numbers

"I am certain that life is 10% of things happening to me and 90% of how I react to it."  ~Charles Swindoll

How am I using my 90%?  Am I choosing a life of pessimism filled with complaining and doubt or am I choosing to be an optimist filled with faith and hope?  Before I read chapters 10-14 I would have answered I am mostly an optimist, but after reading I realize that there is a bit of a pessimist in me too!

We find some good examples of the pessimistic point of view in chapters 10-14:

Complaining
Numbers 11 The Israelites complain about having to eat manna all the time and say that they want meat

Doubting
Numbers 12 Miriam and Aaron join in the complaining and begin to doubt Moses

Rejecting
Numbers 13  The Israelites reject the Promised Land

Murmuring
Numbers 14  The Israelites murmur about wanting to return to Egypt

I think most of us have experience in the complaining, doubting, rejecting, and murmuring department.  What brings this type of behavior about?

Complaining:  In the Israelites case the word used is lusting.  They could not let go of the memory of the food they had had in Egypt, and were ungrateful for the manna that the Lord supplied them.  God had given them this gift of manna each day, with little effort on their part to sustain them, but they seem to focus on the things they don't have instead of the things they do have. 

I have found myself in this trap before, longing for something more than I already have, even if what I have is sufficient.  Maybe its wanting more money, a newer car, or a newer house, I get caught up in the things I don't have and forget to be grateful for what I do have.  It's an easy trap to fall into.

Doubting: Miriam and Aaron start speaking against Moses because they don't like the fact that he married an Ethiopian woman.  Then to top it off, they start talking about how great they are and thinking that they are equal to Moses.  They are doubting the Lord's choice of Moses as His prophet.

How many of us have complained about someone in authority over us?  It is easy to focus on someones weaknesses or perceived faults.  It is much harder to look beyond those things and look for why they were chosen to be the leader and how we are supposed to help them succeed.  It takes more work to support them, then it does to tear them down. I have always thought it interesting that the number of people willing to tear someone down is usually larger than the number of people willing to put their egos aside and support the person.

Rejecting: Reading about the Israelites rejecting the promised land is a little like watching someone give a gift that they have really worked hard on and watching the person they give it to reject it.  It leaves the giver heartbroken.  I imagine the Lord has felt that way several times now with the Israelites. 

Have you ever been guilty of rejecting a gift from God?  I think about all the opportunities that the Lord has put in my path that I threw to the side.   I have rejected these opportunities because of fear, doubt, impatience, and the many other excuses that I have come up with.  The sad thing is none of my excuses have merit.  I wish I could say that I have lived a life with no regrets, but I do have regrets, all those lost opportunities that I didn't accept. 

Murmuring:  Things are looking bleak to the Israelites, they have travelled in hardship only to be faced with the fear of the giants to keep them from their land.  And so they start murmuring against Moses and Aaron and questioning the Lord.

We are all faced with 'giants' in our lives.  There are times when we will run away and there are times when we feel like we can take them.  The problem is that the times when we run away, we usually don't blame ourselves, but try to cast it on to someone else.  That's when we start to murmur and hope that others will see it our way.  In reality, I have found that murmuring only makes it harder to take accountability for our actions later, no one likes to admit they are wrong, and to have to do it in front of a lot of people doesn't make it any easier!

The worst part about these behaviors is that they are easily spread, people are quick to jump on the bandwagon in these cases.  The one rotten apple making the whole barrel of apples go bad is true.  The Lord knows the dangers of such behavior and tries to teach the Israelites to recognize this by destroying the wicked with fire, plagues, pestilence, and so on.  

This got me thinking about the trials and challenges that I have faced in my life, were some of them brought on by my own behavior?  Was the Lord trying to teach me something?  Fortunately, the answer is yes!  I say fortunately because it means that the Lord loves me, just like He loved the Israelites.  In my moments of pessimism He is giving me opportunities for optimism, which is good because pessimism leads to weakness and optimism leads to power!