The Consequences of Bitterness

This morning's headlines contain the story of a blonde-haired mother who was once a straight A nursing student- now a hate-filled follower of Islamic extremists. How did she get there? Actually, it's an easy downhill slide. It starts with bitterness.

Bitterness is one of the worst things that can infiltrate a person's life. As soon as it takes root, it starts growing exponentially.

As we grow up, many things can happen to us in this difficult world. People can hurt us. People we trust can betray us. By the time we reach adulthood, we can choose to walk past such bad situations into a good life with joy, or we can live in the past and hunker down into bitterness. From there it's a build up of darkness that eventually overloads and starts an avalanche of problems. Forgiveness renders that bitterness unable to grow!

Hosea Ballou, one of our nation's founding personalities (1771-1852), once said that "A religion which requires persecution to sustain it is of the devil's propagation." If he were alive today, he would see that play out in the most destructive of philosophies: the idea that "infidels" should be killed.

Hatred is the blossom that blooms as bitterness grows. Soon it releases its pollen to others, and a whole field of evil is produced. It ALWAYS produces some sort of death in the person in which it resides. It is a self-punishing hell to those who choose to live in it. Their thoughts are consumed. Their ability to truly love is destroyed. Their actions become destructive to others. Their joy becomes perverted into hate. Life is no longer worth living, so whatever their mindset becomes plays out in a drama of evil actions. All because at some point in their lives, they chose to be bitter.It's not worth it, folks.

Television, movies, games, all teach our people to be bitter and angry- revenge and violence fill their minds. "Get even" is the cry of these media. We don't know what we have done. Religious people who blindly indoctrinate others without regard for life itself propogate such terror. In a world that is messy and harsh, we have shown children and adults alike how to grow a bitterness seed. And when confronted by someone (like a jihadist) with a method of revenge and anger against those they have chosen to hate, they move easily into a world of extremist thought and plot to blow people up. Or they find weapons and shoot innocent people in a school, business, or shopping mall.

There is only one answer- the forgiveness of Christ. Free yourself from the pain of bitterness, and let go of the past. It's not worth it. It's not worth destroying families and friends, nations and cities over the way you feel inside. Get free of it!