There’s No Pleasing Some People

I travel a great deal for work and people always ask me if I enjoy all the traveling. I say yes and its mostly because of the really neat places I get to see as an off shoot of my job. Right now I am sitting in the Airport in Miami, FL waiting for the boarding call that will eventually lead to my return flight to Atlanta. I have been here since 10AM and my flight leaves at 12:40.

For what ever reason I decided not to go with my normal routine of iPod music to drown out the other people in the waiting area, I am not sure why. About the same time I arrived at the gate a family arrived straight from a cruise. They are tan and in beach attire. They have also been complaining about everything that happened on their vacation. I don’t mean they had a really bad experience, I mean they have literally complained about the karaoke DJ not being good enough, the noises around the airport, the security at customs, and each other. They even attended meetings on board the ship for people dissatisfied with the cruise. They have also talked trash about almost everyone they know back at home. They have complained about the price of the food and drinks at the airport.

I just want to walk over and say, “SHUT UP!” You have just spent thousands of dollars on a vacation and it sounds like you should have just stayed home. Currently they are complaining that it was too hot in the Caribbean this week.

I guess you just can’t please some people. How do people get so negative? How do people go on a very expensive vacation for a week and not have anything good to say about the time they spent together. It is amazing to me how some people can go through life and never see anything good.

Apparently from their not so loud conversation, between F-Bombs and GD’s, I learned that they go on a cruise every year together. Now they have shifted to complaining about how the driver drove too slow on the way to the elevator, and the porter didn’t get their bags quick enough. Just a few minutes ago when they apparently ran out of things to complain about for this year’s trip, they started to complain about things from last year’s trip.

I don’t get it! I know that sometimes things are bad and you have a need to complain, but from the tone of this conversation, this is how they are all the time. Maybe it works for them. Maybe if I asked them if they had a good time this week they would say, “Yeah, it was great fun, we had a BLAST!” I would hate to have to ask the next question, “Then why have you all sat here for the last 2 hours and complained about everything under the sun that had to do with the cruise?”

You know, in my experience some people are just more negative than others. Some people would say that these people are missing Jesus in their lives and they may very well be right. I think it is deeper than that. “How on earth,” you may ask, “can it be deeper than that?”

I am glad you asked. Growing up as a ministers son I have learned that some of the most sour people I have ever come across claim to be Christians. They attend church and Sunday school. Their kids are in youth group and young life. But they have no outward appearance of Christ in their lives. Their mood is always negative they never seem to have fun. They are the people that try to block any attempt for the church to change something so that others might come to know Christ in a real way.

The interesting thing is that sourness is contagious. Everyone has heard the adage, “One rotten apple spoils the barrel.” So it is in life. When we have a bad attitude it will hamper everyone’s ability to have a good time. The challenge is this: Check your attitude often during the day. Are you letting Christ show in your daily life?

This will be a long flight…Now they are complaining about not winning some sort of lottery…I love traveling!