Lessons learned from a whiner at the gym.

I was at the gym this morning and encountered a familiar phenomenon.  There was a man who had contracted the help of a personal trainer, assumedly to help himself get in shape.  So there they were, the trainer and that man.  The trainer would tell the man what to do and the man would look at the trainer in disbelief and ask if that was really what they asked.  Or the trainer would instruct the man to repeat an exercise and the man would reply that he was getting a little tired.  The trainer would repeat the instructions and assure the man that it was the last time.  And on and on it went.  And this has always baffled me.  Why would someone go seek out a personal trainer, ask that trainer for help, go to the trouble of setting up appointments and then show up for the appointments and pay the trainer for their time only to grumble and complain the whole time they are in the trainers stewardship.  I often have to fight the urge to turn around and yell, "You wanted the help!  You asked for it!  You are paying for it!  Now just do it and stop complaining!"

And then the brick fell. 

How many times in my life have I asked for help from a higher being?  How many times have a plead for insight and instruction and knowledge and peace?  And then how many times have I turned around and complained about my ordeal...about what I was being forced to do.  I approach the Lord in faith that He has the power to help me and that in the end the results will be worth it--just as that man approached his personal trainer hoping that it would be worth it.  And that man was performing, doing, acting...and complaining the whole time.  Am I performing, doing, acting...and complaining the whole time?

Ahhhh, the hard truths we are sometimes forced to learn in our judgement of others.  I am no better.  I just complain about different things.  Just call me Lemuel...or man that complains to personal trainer...either way it's the same.

And to quote good 'ole Jeffrey R. Holland, "No misfortune is so bad the whining won't make it worse."

Time to turn over another new leaf!