Indian summers are days of relentless heat. Temperatures soar between 36°C (96°F) and 46°C (115°F) depending on where you live. As the mercury rises, the air conditioning runs nonstop, cold lemonade becomes a staple in Indian households, and people complain about the intolerable, inconvenient weather. No one likes the hot, sultry sun.
During the Indian monsoon season, we experience days of relentless rain. Then we turn the air conditioning down, hot cups of chai make the rounds, and people complain about the intolerable, inconvenient weather. No one likes the cold, wet rain.
As someone who resides in Chennai, where we experience sweltering heat in the summers and cyclones during the monsoon seasons, grumbling about the weather is customary small talk and deeply ingrained in the culture. We Indians perfectly personify Benjamin Disraeli’s pithy statement:
“As a rule, man is a fool. When it’s hot, he wants it cool; When it’s cool, he wants it hot. Always wanting what is not.”
Such grumblings about the weather reveal deeper realities about our hearts.
Lack of Contentment
Firstly, such grumblings reveal our lack of contentment in God’s providence over the ordering of our lives. Instead of being thankful for the numerous things God has abundantly blessed us with, we complain about the weather as victims who have no control over it. Instead of accepting God’s sovereignty in the seasons of this world, we express our resentment that the weather is not how we would have it.
We believe we are somehow entitled to “perfect” weather and are frustrated when it does not turn out that way. Thus, we cast aspersions upon God’s providence. We are not very different from the ancient children of Israel who grumbled and complained in the wilderness, testing God every step of the way (Num. 20:3-5).
Idolizing Personal Comfort
Secondly, such grumbling about the weather shows how much we value personal comfort, making it an idol in the modern world. In attempting to secure the comfiest life possible, the smallest inconvenience or discomfort becomes a cause to grumble.
The Israelites preferred the comforts of Egypt, which they imagined, over the provision of God in the wilderness (Num. 11:1-15). Every time we complain about the weather, we too prefer the comforts of our imagination rather than the present provision of God.
Lack of Trust in God’s Sovereignty
Thirdly, such grumbling about the weather reveals our inability to fully trust God as the sovereign one who rules even the weather. We desire to be gods who are truly in control. However, since it is very evident that we have little power over the weather, we simply lash out like little children.
The Antidote to Complaining
What is the antidote to such complaining about the weather? We need to remind ourselves daily that God has ordained all things for good and trust his marvellous wisdom in making his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sending rain on the just and on the unjust (Matt. 5:45).
We also must remember that we are sinners who deserve nothing but the judgment of hell. Thus, we should receive every day which God graciously gives us with thanks in Christ Jesus.
God, who gave us his very son Jesus Christ to die for our sins upon the cross, also sets the natural thermostat to the perfect temperature we need. It might be uncomfortable and inconvenient. Perhaps, it is through these things that God is weaning us from finding our refuge and joy in the comforts of this world and calling us instead to depend upon his grace.
A Lesson from Alexander Whyte
The story is told of the Scottish Presbyterian minister Alexander Whyte, known to be a cheerful man who always prayed with gratitude for every small thing. One particularly gloomy Lord’s Day, the congregants discussed among themselves, saying, “Certainly the preacher won’t think of anything for which to thank the Lord on a wretched day like this.”
To their surprise, when Reverend Whyte mounted the pulpit, he began by praying, “We thank Thee, O God, that it is not always like this.” Like Whyte, we too must learn to see what God is doing in our midst and respond with gratitude.
