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A man who spends years on a project only to watch another stumble onto the solution can easily become bitter but Scripture warns that bitterness is far more dangerous than disappointment. Hebrews 12 teaches us to cling to God’s grace, flee profaneness like Esau’s, and especially guard against any “root of bitterness,” because once it takes hold, it not only corrodes our own soul but spreads like a plague to defile many. Bitterness grows quietly, fed by comparisons, frustrations, and the sense that life has been unfair but its fruit is always death: sourness, cynicism, and a blighting influence on everyone around us. The cure is not psychology or positive thinking, but diligently holding fast to grace, pursuing peace and holiness, and refusing to nurse resentment. If we embrace bitterness, we become missionaries of hopelessness; if we reject it, we walk in the life and strength that only God’s grace provides.
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CR101 Radio - Podcast Network — How to Pollute Other People. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
C-R 101 Radio dot com. Podcasts and more. 9. How to pollute other people. I recall some years ago hearing of a man who had worked some years to solve an engineering problem without success. Then when he felt the solution was near and in particular direction, he learned that someone else had just come up with the same invention and pitted it, having learned the answer almost by accident. It would be easy for a man like that to be better. The broader view would be to say that all men are better off because a problem was solved faster, but not many of us are that thoughtful, however we should be. The Bible tells us that there is an easy way to pollute and distress many people and to infect them with a sour view of life. In Hebrews 121 to 16, we are warned to look diligently at some areas of life where much
trouble begins for individuals, churches and communities. We should not fall back from the grace of God. It should be our constant strength and confidence. We should avoid fornication and the profaneness of Esau, that is living outside of God and His Word, and thereby forfitting our Christian birthright. Another warning is especially telling, we must be aware of, quote, any root of bitterness and quote which growing up in us will not only trouble us, but also defile and pollute those around us. Bitterness is something we often nurse. We see the problems around us, the defeats we suffer, our cause suffers, and we resent it. This is an intensely personal thing. We compare our hopes with our realities and we feel our strong frustration with an intensity we cannot fully express. Another man's work thrives while our founders.
Another woman's child is a joy to see and our shims us and grieves us. We can make a long catalogue of our problems and their unfairness. We may keep them to ourselves, but Scripture says that they still pollute or defile many. Bitterness is like cancer, it grows unchecked and after appointed kills. At all times it is destructive of life. Bitterness is also like a plague, it infects other people. The answer is not positive thinking or psychological self-help. To avoid the root of bitterness, we must look diligently last, we quote, fail of the grace of God, instead of a defiling or polluting bitterness, quote, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, Hebrews 12.14. However, if you want to pollute the people around you, justify, nurse and coddle your bitterness, it will soon infect many people around you and make them as sour and hopeless
as you are. Others will soon hold that cynicism is knowledge and faith is stupidity and you will have become an effective missionary agent for pollution. Your root of bitterness will put a killing blight on everything you work with and it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. In brief, bitterness is an effective way of polluting and destroying the lives and hopes of those around you. Of course, the first victim will be yourself.
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