An article in the Wall Street Journal the other day called attention to the fact that though the economy is in the tank, people seem to be complaining less.  In fact, gratitude is up: people who still have jobs are grateful they at least have one, and though homeowners are sorry to see their home values go down, most are glad they are not facing foreclosure.  Our portfolios may be way down, but at least we can say we didn’t invest with Bernie Madoff.

Whining just isn’t cool nowadays; no one wants to listen to it. The article notes that there is even a growing "noncomplaining" movement.  A pastor from Kansas City, Mo, Will Bowen, has established A Complaint Free World Inc. – a non-profit organization that touts the belief that whining doesn’t work as a strategy for happiness.  This organization has distributed almost six million purple bracelets emblazoned with the group's name. When wearers find themselves complaining, they're asked to switch bracelets to their other wrists. The goal is to go 21 days without having to switch.

This is a tough time for many of us. Perhaps the good thing about it is that it has forced us to re-evaluate our lives and to think about what is important. When times are good, we tend to take for granted what we have and whine about what we lack. Bad times tend to make us more grateful, more appreciative of what we have.

I, for one, am monitoring my tendency to complain and each day I am consciously cultivating gratitude for all the Lord has given me. It’s a matter of focus - calling to mind what I have and not what I lack, counting my blessings.  Just to be alive is a gift in itself. Praise be to God!

Some say people are only trying to absolve themselves of guilt by blaming the Devil for what they do- as in “the devil made me do it.” Surely human beings are responsible for the evil choices they make; evil is resident in the human heart and human beings are guilty whenever they give in to their evil passions. Satan, however, has a way of “whipping up” individual human evil – making it a dynamic thing and causing great destruction in its wake.  To me, this explains corporate acts of incredible evil like the ovens of Auschwitz and other acts of genocide.  It seems to me that it is more than just bad individual choices at play here; there is a Power determined to cause havoc in the world. Thankfully, because of the victory of Jesus Christ, that Evil Power shall not prevail.

There are a number of reasons for this decline. Clearly, the Christian church has done a lousy job of making its case to an unbelieving world.  Sadly, the church has shot herself in the foot with her hypocrisy, her insensitivity, and her judgmentalism.  The church has a huge image problem. How do we overcome it? Not with sweet-talk or hard-sell persuasion; the world is tired of our seemingly empty words. The church can only win a hearing for the gospel through extraordinary deeds of love. In short, the only way we can change our image is to be more like Him. The Apostle Paul told the first-century Christians: “You yourselves are our letter . . . known and read by everybody.”  It behooves us to ask ourselves what people are “reading” when they look at our lives. When people “read” us do they see Jesus?