Eating Bitter Stuff?
July 4, 2002
An article by Sam George

During my early childhood in Andamans, my Dad had a cow. Everyone at home had their share of tasks in order to enjoy the fresh milk each morning. My task was to leave or fetch the animal from the grazing fields behind our home. One of the standing instructions that I received was not to let the cow eat those big leafy bitter plants.

Once I asked Dad, "Why? What will happen if the cow eats those bitter leaves? Will it die?" 

"No", he replied, "It won’t die. But the milk will be spoiled." 

"If the cow eats those bitter plants", he went on to explain, "it would start producing bitter milk. You don’t want to drink bitter milk, right?" I learned something new that day.

Later during my software career days, I often heard/used the jargon - "Junk in, Junk Out." Even advanced technological tools like computers churns out what you give to it. Output depends solely on the input. 

Whether it is the cow or computer, there is an important insight on life and relationship. When cows feed on something bitter, they start producing something that's bitter. When you feed rubbish information into the computer, what you get will be rubbish. So is it with us. 

That's why God warns us in the Bible (Hebrews 12:15) - "See to it that no one misses the grace of God." Now, that's a horrible thought. God's grace is something we cannot afford to miss. How does that happen? It goes on to say "...and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." Don't let any bitterplant - or bitter root - grow up in your heart. If you do, it will ruin the taste of many things in your life.

And bitterness grows when it's fed. When you allow yourself to feed on things that are bitter. There is always plenty of bitterplants around us to feed on. You can focus on your frustrations (there are always plenty of those) ... on your failures or the failures of others. You can focus on how you've been hurt or how you've been mistreated. You can hang out with positive people or negative people. You can listen to and participate in conversations that tear people down or that build people up. You can store up resentment in this emotional savings account, constantly rehearsing the bad things that have happened - or you can count your blessings and concentrate on the positive things around you. 

A bitter spot in your heart never stays the same size. It just keeps growing if you don't deal with it. And one problem with bitterness is that it really doesn't much hurt the person you're bitter against, but it eats you alive on the inside. You don't hold a grudge - a grudge holds you. Those spiritual toxins you've allowed to grow in your system can ruin some of the beautiful things in your life. Remember, bitterness "causes trouble and defiles many" - including people you live with, people you work with, and people in your neighborhood. 

What are you letting into your life or family? Are they junk stuff – television, magazines, music, internet, or friends. Not all of them are trash, but you know what I am talking about. If you let people dump trash into your life, your life will soon become trash in itself. And what will come out of your life will also be trash! 

And it apparently limits what God can do in your life. Either the grace of God pushes out your bitterness or your bitterness pushes out the grace of God. Think about it. Do you find yourself turning harder, more critical, more caustic, more negative? Then consider what you've been feeding on. It could be you've allowed yourself to spend way too much time grazing on bitterplants. 

If you need to forgive someone, forgive them. If there's something you need to let go, please let it go. Apologize if you need to apologize. Go talk to that person if you need to. Drop out of the gossip chain. Avoid those negative people. If bitter plants have taken root in your heart, pluck them out. Do whatever it takes to attack the bitterplants in your heart, or it's just going to keep growing and you've got to stop before it grows any more before it makes everything taste bitter.

GO BACK