Tag Archives: Complaining

—Geronda, where does complaining come from and how can one avoid it?

It comes from wretchedness, but in giving glory to God one is able to defeat it. Complaining gives birth to more complaining, and glorifying God gives birth to glorifying Him more and more. When someone doesn’t complain about a difficulty he finds himself in, but instead glorifies God, then the devil is thwarted. He goes off to find someone else who complains, for whom the devil can turn everything even more upside-down. To the measure one complains he also destroys…

Sometimes the “little-horned one” steals from us and we never give thanks for anything; but others are able spiritually to escape everything with glorification and thus be blessed by God. I know someone on Mount Athos who, if it rains and you say to him “rain again?”, he starts with “Yes, it’s always raining! We’re going to rust away because of all the humidity.” If, after awhile the rain stops and you tell him, “Eh, it didn’t rain that much,” he says, “Yeah, was that what you call rain?! The ground is going to dry up…” No one can tell him that he is sick in the head because he has become so used to complaining. To be created with logic and to think illogically! Read more →