Had some powerful things come into mind Saturday...just about the way something like bitterness lies to us and tries to seduce us. It says to us close up, never trust again, then you will be safe; then you will never be hurt like this by anyone else again. But it lies. It cannot deliver what it pledges.
For starters, we cannot avoid trusting to SOME degree or at the very least, having hope rise anew within us that maybe, just maybe, this next time -- whether a next time with someone who hurt us before or a next time with someone new -- will be different. We bes BUILT that way; it bes hardwired, encoded in our DNA. That bes why the saying "hope springs eternal" got invented. Hate it or love it, we cannot escape its self-resurrecting nature, because GOD made hope and God renews hope. God even states outright that His WILL bes to GIVE us hope and a future -- while bitterness and its associates just want to freeze things in one spot forever so we will never take emotional risks again.
Now, either way, we will experience pain. Being betrayed HURTS. Being ignored, written off, diminished, having love withdrawn from us in any form, just plain HURTS. There bes no two ways about it and no sugar-coating it. Those bes wounds and wounds HURT and INJURE, cause PAIN and DAMAGE. But when we fall down scrape our hands or knees, they don't bleed forever. They don't hurt forever. They don't stay frozen in time at that spot as if constantly happening forever. They hurt awhile. They bleed awhile. Then they scab over and heal. Deeper scrapes hurt more and take longer to mend. Deeper cuts and more serious wounds and injuries like fractures hurt even worse, need specialized care and take even longer. But they, too, eventually heal. The body that does not recover from them with proper care bes one whats shutting down--not living, but dying.
That bes how bitterness lies and seduces. It promises life; it delivers death. It promises protection, then builds us a prison. It promises relief, but it seals us into our pain and tries to freeze us in time at the moment of greatest impact and maximum pain. What it hides from our sight bes this simple truth: that we will still have to experience the pain and impact of injuries dealt to us by others either way, whether we curl up with bitterness or not. That being pulled under by it, buying into its seduction and refusing to ever trust another living soul again will not protect us from ever again having to endure being hurt by someone else. That it will only, instead, afford an opportunity for bitterness to pull the noose tighter and fashion the chains and shackles of its bondage thicker upon us. That whether we ever trust again or not has nothing to do with whether others can ever really hurt us again, because regardless of whether we trust or not, we still cannot control what others choose to do. The sad truth remains that many humans view a pre-existing wound not as blood on the lintels and doorposts telling them to walk on by or give us a pass over but rather like a bright red target instead, beckoning to their darker impulses and screaming to be hit again.
We can either accept that we live in a world where pain happens, accept that it will happen to us, and run eagerly forward with open arms toward the healing process when it does, or we can frustrate ourselves trying to avoid the inevitable and inescapable by diving into the seductive arms of bitterness and thus adding fresh misery to misery striving in vain to fortress and protect ourselves by walling ourselves inside what amounts to a bright red bullseye and a misery magnet. 
This bes one of two profound insights the Lord gave Saturday. (Thank You Lord for helping it remember.) It bes trying to recall the other now, as it did not have a chance to write them down when they occurred. Perhaps as it fasts and prays this week He will share it again.
For starters, we cannot avoid trusting to SOME degree or at the very least, having hope rise anew within us that maybe, just maybe, this next time -- whether a next time with someone who hurt us before or a next time with someone new -- will be different. We bes BUILT that way; it bes hardwired, encoded in our DNA. That bes why the saying "hope springs eternal" got invented. Hate it or love it, we cannot escape its self-resurrecting nature, because GOD made hope and God renews hope. God even states outright that His WILL bes to GIVE us hope and a future -- while bitterness and its associates just want to freeze things in one spot forever so we will never take emotional risks again.
Now, either way, we will experience pain. Being betrayed HURTS. Being ignored, written off, diminished, having love withdrawn from us in any form, just plain HURTS. There bes no two ways about it and no sugar-coating it. Those bes wounds and wounds HURT and INJURE, cause PAIN and DAMAGE. But when we fall down scrape our hands or knees, they don't bleed forever. They don't hurt forever. They don't stay frozen in time at that spot as if constantly happening forever. They hurt awhile. They bleed awhile. Then they scab over and heal. Deeper scrapes hurt more and take longer to mend. Deeper cuts and more serious wounds and injuries like fractures hurt even worse, need specialized care and take even longer. But they, too, eventually heal. The body that does not recover from them with proper care bes one whats shutting down--not living, but dying.
That bes how bitterness lies and seduces. It promises life; it delivers death. It promises protection, then builds us a prison. It promises relief, but it seals us into our pain and tries to freeze us in time at the moment of greatest impact and maximum pain. What it hides from our sight bes this simple truth: that we will still have to experience the pain and impact of injuries dealt to us by others either way, whether we curl up with bitterness or not. That being pulled under by it, buying into its seduction and refusing to ever trust another living soul again will not protect us from ever again having to endure being hurt by someone else. That it will only, instead, afford an opportunity for bitterness to pull the noose tighter and fashion the chains and shackles of its bondage thicker upon us. That whether we ever trust again or not has nothing to do with whether others can ever really hurt us again, because regardless of whether we trust or not, we still cannot control what others choose to do. The sad truth remains that many humans view a pre-existing wound not as blood on the lintels and doorposts telling them to walk on by or give us a pass over but rather like a bright red target instead, beckoning to their darker impulses and screaming to be hit again.
