Ponderations on Complaining...

As you may or may not have noticed I’ve not blogged in quite some time. There are several reason for this.

1.     Those who know me well know I’m very cyclical with my interests. I’ll do something for a few months and then cycle to the next thing.  After a few months I was on to something else in the cycle.

2.     General busyness. I do happen to have a full-time job so my daytime hours are pretty much spent doing that. For me, writing often tends to feel like work so in my downtime I tend to want to do things that don’t feel like work.

3.     Laziness….doesn’t require any explanation.

While the above-mentioned reasons definitely contributed to my hiatus they aren’t really the main reason. The real reason relates to the topic of this ponderation.

My intention for starting this blog was to have a way of sharing the thoughts, questions and ideas that bounce around in my head on a daily basis. I tend to spend a lot of time in mentally pondering all sorts of topics, hence the name for the blog. As I continued blogging my entries turned out to not be as random as I had intended and had devotional quality to them. This was all well and good until I started reviewing my next wave of ideas.

I tend to be very critical and logical by nature. Because of my upbringing and current employment many of my thoughts revolve around the way that churches are structured and do business. Since I’m part of the Seventh-day Adventist church many of these thoughts have to do with that specific denomination. As a result, my next crop of ponderations were critiques of Adventists, the Adventist church and the way that they (we) do things.

Given the devotional nature of my previous blogs it was a bit uncomfortable to then switch to ranting against the church. Even worse was the fact that most of my criticism was not coupled with some type of solution or remedy. As I began to try to rework my thoughts and come up with something more productive to write I got discouraged and just quit.

Now that I’ve blabbed for several paragraphs I come to my point and the point of this particular posting.

• Is it appropriate to rant and complain about the church in such a public forum as the internet?
• Does the fact that the complaints are accompanied with a solution make a difference?
• What is the motivation for publishing these complaints? Just venting? Hoping to change the church in some way?
• What will be the actual effect of the words on those reading them?
• Will my words push them towards or away from God?

The last question I think is the most important. In this age of Twitter and Facebook we have gotten in the habit of publicly posting whatever crosses our minds without regard for how that will affect others and what kind of witness we are being for God. While I am free to think, write and speak as I please, I must remember that what I do affects others. Given that, willa my complaining cause others to stumble and lose faith?

As I continue to blog I’m going to attempt two things. First I want to continue to post my actual thoughts on topics and not be afraid to tackle certain issues. Second, I will put in the work to at least attempt to write in such a way as to be a blessing and not a stumbling block to those who may be reading it.

Check out Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 and let me know what you think of them in the context of complaining.

That’s all I’ve got….just some ponderations…