Alright, let's be honest: I'm woman, I.love.chocolate. Pure and simple. Now tell me, have you ever tasted bakers chocolate? For your sake I hope not, it tastes like dirt. Straight up dirt. I'll never forget, I did a presentation in Psychology my Senior year of high school to teach about one of the tastes that humans experience: Bitterness. We had to bring in a food as an example so i decided to be funny and bring in bakers chocolate. I broke it up in to different sized pieces, some small, some HUGE. I let each person choose their own piece. It was hilarious to see the look in the eyes of people as they picked the largest piece on the plate thinking they were about to have a delicious snack. In my head I laughed at them, knowing they were in for it when they tasted it. After each person received a piece, i told them all to eat. The reactions were priceless. Sputtering, gagging, and cursing, each person spit it out as soon as they could. The common reaction was anger; "Hey, you tricked us! This tastes awful!" I promise this relates to life. I guarantee that if you're reading this right now you've had those bakers chocolate moments. Moments of life leaving a bitter taste in your mouth. Leaving you sputtering, gagging, and cursing. Angry. That's something I've been struggling with lately. I recently went through a break-up and at first (like every other relationship-ending story) I told myself we'd be friends. I told myself, everything would be fine and that we'd still talk and be close. Wrong. The break-up left me bitter. Crying like a baby that got it's candy stolen except it's not that simple. I've been asking God over and over and over, "what is your purpose for this? What am I supposed to learn from this." The answer came to me from a very dear friend today. She told me, "It's ok to be hurt, but don't let yourself be bitter." I'd yet to admit to myself I was feeling bitter until that very moment. Nobody had called me out on it and I've spent my afternoon wondering why I should stop being bitter. After all, it's so much easier. After some searching I found two verses that answered my question: "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger; brawling and slander, along with every form of malice" (Eph. 4:31) and "All of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble" (1 Pet. 3:6). Humble. Wow. I had never compared my anger to a lack of humility and today I realized that's exactly what it is. Every day I am reminded of a quote from my pastor, he said "When you truly understand what was done for you on the cross it makes it impossible for you to hold anything against another". Oh man, well doesn't that just kick my faulty logic to China. Here I've been seeing my bitterness as nothing more than "righteous" anger for being *dumped* (Yes, I really just admitted that I was dumped). What on earth is my ego's problem? The only person with righteous anger is a just and powerful God who gave me *his only son* to die on the cross to forgive me and here I am having a temper tantrum over a boy. Wow. Ephesians 4:26-27 says "Be angry, and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity". Well I'm in trouble because the devil's been having a field day with my emotions. However, my bitterness, my lack of humility, has already been forgiven. Washed away in a flood of mercy and grace and I'm a lucky duck that gets to surf on the waves of that ever lasting grace. So, the moral of the story is; don't choose the bitterness of bakers chocolate when there is a God offering you all the Hershey's you need. For a girl with a love of chocolate that sounds like a pretty sweet deal.
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