Joel M Bradshaw

16But I call to God, and the LORD will save me. 17Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. 18He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage…

...22Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you…–Psalm 55

Gripes come in many forms. Some are more legitimate than others. And a person has two responses to an issue that they have with someone else. They can either gossip about it or address it.

The gossip wants to be heard, but the gossip also wants to control the narrative. He or she wants to selfishly be heard. Rather than talking to the person who has wronged you and lovingly confronting them (or having a mutual friend or acquaintance along to help mediate), the gossip instead talks about the other person.

Gossip is sin. It is selfish and destructive. It is not to be you. It made the list in Romans 1…

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. (Romans 1:29-31)

David does not gossip here. He has a gripe with God. He was being oppressed by actual enemies, but he also had an enemy within himself. His very soul was waging battle. So he took those issues before God. He lamented. He trusted God for deliverance and took his issues to the one who could adequately address them.

If David was a gossip he would be talking selfishly about God. “God doesn’t care for me, because my enemies are many. Let me tell you about how God has let me down.”

Instead David is a lamenter. He doesn’t complain about God, he complains TO God! And he does so with the perspective of faith and trust.

I journey with people who are going though pain, grief, and loss. They have suffered abuse. They are hurt and angry. And they believe in God.

So I encourage them to lament to God instead of gossip. Gossip thrives in self-talk, which is the story you tell yourself most. If your story is that God doesn’t care, then you will maintain it and nurture bitterness against Him. But if your story is that God does indeed care, then you will instead go to him and complain directly to him in prayer. This is the only path away from the bitter life.

So be a lamenter and take your complaints directly to God. But do so in faith and trust. Lamenting is not gossip.–JMB