Bitter or Better
Who doesn’t love a cold glass of lemonade on a hot summer day? So good, right? That tartness with just the right amount of sweetness is perfect. No wonder kids across America are making millions selling it at their lemonade stands! Well, maybe not millions, but I know I’m not the only one who buys it from cute kids - especially ones in my own front yard!
Lemonade would not be the same without lemons, would it? Now, lemons by themselves are pretty tough to take. Most of us can usually only take a little at a time. They’re sour and bitter. You can have all the yellow Skittles or Starburst out of the bag. Not my favs.
Lemons, depending on the situation, can make something taste bitter, or they can make it taste better. Take lemonade, for example. Without lemons, it would just be sweet water. No thanks. But add the lemon, and yes!
We know that God promises to use all things for our good, but how often do we let some things make us bitter instead of better? God CAN and will use all things for our good (making us more like Him), but we have a part in it also… and our part usually makes a big difference in whether He can use it sooner, or much, much later.
When hard times hit us, when relationships are broken, or when we don’t know what tomorrow will hold, it is easy to allow those things to take control of our emotions and thoughts. They can squeeze our hearts until we can’t see anything good being possible. We feel beat up. We might even feel bitter - bitter from the pain, bitter from the struggle, bitter that God didn’t intervene and turn things around the way we wanted or asked.
In his book “Lead”, Paul David Tripp says this:
“What often beats us down is meant by the Savior to be a tool to build us up. What would make us want to quit is meant by Him to strengthen us for the battles to come.”
Everything that we go through gives us a different strength and perspective for what has yet to come. He uses it all to make us stronger and more like Him. And joy in the struggle isn’t something that happens TO us, it’s something that happens IN us. I think of the apostle Paul. Paul referred to his intense suffering as "light affliction" compared with the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" that awaits God's servants at the resurrection (2 Corinthians 4:17). Now, let’s be honest here. Paul’s “light affliction” included beatings, being shipwrecked, being imprisoned, and more. But Paul… chose to let it make him better, not bitter. When he was in prison, he saw it as an opportunity to spread the gospel there. The location and audience were different, but his mission was the same as when he was not imprisoned. At one point, he was chained to a prison guard, but he chose to see that Roman guard as chained to HIM - for the cause of sharing Christ. BITTER, or BETTER? No question. Paul chose to be made BETTER! He did not feel that he was trapped in prison, he felt that he was deployed in prison.
How can you follow Paul’s example to become BETTER instead of BITTER today? For most of us, that will not involve prison or beatings in the equation, but I guarantee there will be some lemons. How will you choose to allow them to affect your life today?