November 7: There were really 10 dwarfs in the story...why am I Grumpy again?

Ezekiel 16:42-17:24

Hebrews 8:1-13

Psalm 106:13-31

Proverbs 27:7-9

Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Doc, Bashful, Dopey and Grumpy.  Those were the seven dwarfs in the story, and in my life, I have been each and every one of them (and a couple of others, come to think of it - Hungry and Thirsty.  And Clueless.  They don't show up in the story because one was in a food coma, the other hung over, and the last one was always missing.)  Yes, I have been all of them - but I have been particularly good at being Grumpy, at grumbling.  I don't do it often, but when I do, I would make the Olympic team.  Maybe even medal.

It isn't something to be proud of.  The psalmist today reminds us that Israelites grumbled - at Moses, at God, as they were being saved from the Egyptians, and being led to a land of milk and honey, as God had promised.  The grumbling - which was really the sinful rejection of God's providence and plans in favor of their own - wasn't just unwarranted, it blinded them to all God had already done for them, and to all God was going to do.  And it led them to put their trust in an idol they thought would be more amenable to their demands - a helpless, powerless idol appealing only because it wasn't capable of ordering them down paths they did not want to go, an idol whose value was really only to be able to justify their choices, their actions.

Grumbling hasn't changed much.  When I grumble at my situation, it takes me a while but I eventually realize that I am grumbling at - and rejecting - what God, in His infinite love, wisdom and power, had determined was best for me at that point in time, however difficult.  And, like the Israelites, I seek other idols - good intentions, hard work, logic, pleasure, money, success - to justify the choices I make apart from God.  

The thing is, just as grumbling hasn't changed much, neither have its consequences.  Apart from God, is there any reason to believe our descendants will not "fall among the nations"?  Thankfully, just as there was Moses and there was Phinehas, just as there was the old covenant, there is the new one, and Jesus is there to save me from the consequences of my being Grumpy.  And when He does, perhaps my heart will reflect still another two dwarfs - Joy and Peace.