15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
Bitterness affects not just the person who is bitter. That root spreads out and touches many other people’s lives. That is why it is especially prudent to deal with the roots of bitterness. When we lived in Massachusetts, we had a vine growing all through the back yard. We worked very hard to get rid of it because it grew so fast it killed all the other plants in the back yard. It would choke them out, starving them of light and moisture. We could have simply chopped the vines off at the soil line each time they grew, but we would never get rid of the plant. It had greater capacity to put up shoots than we had capacity to cut shoots. We spent almost two years pulling it out by the roots. Every time a new shoot would arise we would take hold of the root and pull. Fortunately, the root grew near the surface. But just as unfortunately, it only took a small piece of root left in the ground in order to grow again. We finally conquered it. We knew it took pulling the roots, so that is what we did. Once the vine was gone we discovered a great variety of wonderful flowering plants and shrubs we had missed before. Once the root was gone the other plants could thrive. Our lives can be like my backyard. They can get filled with invading parasitic growths. One of those growths is bitterness. When we don’t think things went our way, we can get bitter. When we feel treated unfairly, bitterness can pop its ugly head up. Bitterness takes root when we have an inflated view of our self-importance. The cure is a proper view of self in proportion to God. We have importance, significance because of the value God assigns us. We are the crowning jewel of creation. Without God’s perspective of our worth, we could get an inflated view of our worth. We have worth because of Him. Apart from Him we are just dust. If we have bitterness growing in our yard it can cause us to miss the grace of God. And nothing is worth missing God’s grace!
The Arnold Journey 