No complaints

I read an interesting article in the paper the other day. It was about a pastor, the Rev. Will Bowen, in Kansas City. He proposed that members of his church wear purple bracelets to remind themselves not to complain. He asked each member to go 21 days without a gripe, criticism or gossip. If a mistake happened, the person had to switch the bracelet to the other wrist and start over again. Most members liked the idea but found out it wasn't easy. After four months, only 12 church members had reached the goal. Even Bowen himself wore out several barcelets before he reached the 21-day mark, which took 75 days. Then a ripple effect happened last October after a story appeared in the Kansas City Star and was reprinted in more than 30 newspapers across the country. People from nearly 80 countries have asked the church for 4.5 million bracelets. The list includes American Samoa, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Tatarstan. Bowen has appeared on Oprah, NBC's Today and radio shows in the US and Great Britain. He gives five to 10 tv interviews a week. The church Web site (AComplaintFreeWorld.org), once had only 85 hits a week, now gets more than 40,000. Although the church has had only a slight increase in membership, Bowen said people from Japan, Portugal, the Philippines and the Virgin Islands say they listen to his sermon online and consider Christ Church their church. Bowen's big push now is to encourage the government to proclaim a National No-Complaint Day the day before Thanksgiving. "Then we would spend a day of gratitude, because the opposite of complaining is gratitude." It gives pause for thought. I don't know about ya'll, but if it takes a pastor 75 days, I can't imagine how long it'd take me! I may not have a purple bracelet, but I am going to try to make a concerted effort not to complain, criticize or gossip as much.