Deep-Seated Bitterness

Hullo, people who actually read my blog! It's been quite some time, has it not? Summer has begun, I have completed my first year of teaching (*gasp*), owned two cars and borrowed three (different cars... after all, you can't really borrow from yourself when it comes to cars), been camping twice (once with a 16-foot canoe on the top of my tiny, borrowed car), stood up in my sister's wedding, square danced with my Mexican cousin AND her daughters (lucky me!), organized my toolbox (if you know me and my tools, you know that this one is HUGE), grown a beard and shaved it off again, sprained my thumb and fallen into a pool (WITH my cell phone... ugh...), helped a friend move, had a new guitar GIVEN TO ME... pretty awesome... and used it to help with worship leading at church, freaked several people out, and read nine and a half books. Needless to say, I've been busy, and if it wouldn't take so long, I would tell you all about it. Besides, I already included one incredibly long sentence in this post- what need have we of another?

Have you ever wondered what the HECK God is growing you into through all these trials and tribulations? I have. Up until recently, had I known the answer to that question and been willing to verbalize it, I would have said, "Deep-seated bitterness." Life isn't fair... it's not supposed to be, I never expected it to be, but knowing this doesn't make it hurt any less. However, I'm beginning to realize that every blessing has a flip side, and every hard circumstance in life has a blessing just beyond view. There is no blessing without pain, and there is no pain without blessing; it is for us to ask for the patience to clearly see the goodness of God in them both. Furthermore, when we find ourselves in circumstances that cause us to come face to face with our own depravity, we can choose to grow and learn or we can choose to gradually settle into a deep-seated bitterness that eventually causes us to emotionally and spiritually stagnate. Both options hurt, but only one of them brings peace in the end.