Robert was a young boy who always complained. He complained about the weather, he complained about his friends, he complained about his parents, he complained about his food, he complained about his teachers, he complained about the preacher… he complained about EVERYTHING!

One day at church, the pastor heard Robert complain about the pews squeaking, the sermon being boring, and therefore, maybe not coming to church again. He said a quick prayer in his mind and asked God to give him wisdom on how to help Robert stop complaining. He called him to have a quick chat and asked him…

“Do you feel like life is hard sometimes?”

“Yes, pastor, I actually do,” answered Robert.

“Do you feel that sometimes your friends are not supportive?”

“Yes, definitely. I was just talking with someone not so long ago about how unsupportive they can be.”

“Do you feel that sometimes even coming to church can be a burden and pointless?”

“Yes, pastor, you just hit the nail on the head!”

“Well, in that case, I have a challenge for you.”

“OK…”

“Here I have a glass full of water. Do you think you could walk around the church three times without spilling one drop of water from the glass?”

“Easy!” boasted Robert and took the glass, setting off to complete the challenge.

After completing his three rounds around the church, he triumphantly presented himself, holding the glass with not a drop of water spilled.

The pastor congratulated him and asked him, “Tell me something that you noticed on the way as you were completing the challenge.”

“What I noticed on the way…? Well, nothing. I did not pay attention to what was happening on the way. I was looking at the glass and trying not to spill any water,” replied Robert.

“So you mean to say that you didn’t hear the dog barking from next door?” asked the pastor.

“Was the neighbor’s dog barking? I guess I didn’t notice as I was focused on the glass.”

“And you didn’t see Eliza wearing that outrageous cape?” insisted the pastor.

“No, I kept my eyes only on the glass, ignoring everything else till I completed the challenge.”

“Excellent answer,” said the pastor and continued with a loving face, “I must admit there was a reason for my challenge. It happened that I overheard you complaining about a few things for quite some time. You see, when you are focused on Jesus Christ and on successfully completing life’s journey, you do not stop and waste time paying attention to all the little things that happen around you. Just like during the challenge, you should stay focused on your mission and ignore any distraction that the devil tries to devise to distract you from focusing on what’s important. So I pray that in life you will use the same strategy you used for the challenge, keeping your eyes only on Jesus and ignoring everything else, until you complete life’s journey.”

Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. John 6:43