Complaining

J. Michael Shannon

According to the authors of the book, Significa, the world’s champion complainer was a man named Ralph Charrell. Charrel received over $100,000 as a result of his systematic complaining. His smallest refund was of $6.95 and his largest was $25,000. Charrel spent time every day making phone call and writing letters of complaint. He even wrote two books, How to Get the Upper Hand and How I Turn Ordinary Complaints into Thousands of Dollars. While we all have the right to stand up for ourselves, would you want to be known as the “World’s Champion Complainer”? Wouldn’t it be better to be the “World’s Champion Encourager”?

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Complaining

Robert C. Shannon

Charles Dickens once visited America and gave some lectures across the country.
He told one audience that we here in this country are a bit mixed up. He said
we should not have one Thanksgiving Day, but that we should have 364
Thanksgiving Days. The one day left over would be used just for complaining and
griping; the other 364 to thank God. We do just the opposite. We complain for
364 days and then, perhaps, on one day count our blessings.

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Complaining

Robert C. Shannon

In the Old Testament we often find the Israelites “murmuring.” What a
wonderful expression. In the church we often find people murmuring, too. The
only thing some people are willing to give is advice.

In 1884 in Princess Ida, W. S. Gilbert wrote a verse that must surely be the
feeling of some Christians:

Oh don’t the days seem lank and long

When all goes right and nothing goes wrong

And isn’t life extremely flat

With nothing whatever to grumble at

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