Jolted

"For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted."
- Amy Carmichael

Imagine that you are a glass of water that gets jolted. I am not a fan of cleaning up messy spills. If you get jolted, what comes out? When life throws things your way, what spills out? Sweet water? Bitter water?

Amy Carmichael, a missionary to India gave this illustration in her book "If":

"You see, the jolt does not change the water. If you spill a glass of sweet water, sweet water comes out. If you spill a glass of bitter water then bitter water comes out. The jolt only brings out of the container what is already there. Likewise, if you are filled with sweet water and jolted, only sweetness will come out... but if you are filled with bitterness and jolted, your bitterness will come out. It is not the fault of the person who jolted you. The question is not, “Can I prevent being jolted?” since we all are, and frequently; the question is “What is inside that will come out?”

Listening to a message from Ephesians 4 by Mark Driscoll today I began thinking about the issue of bitterness in my own life. Now, I don't consider myself an overly bitter person but, hey, I am a sinner and that means that bitterness has probably crept into my life at one point or another.

In fact, I KNOW that bitterness has crept into my life. And I've allowed it. Just last week I struggled with it. I have been bitter against someone and someone has been bitter against me. I have been the recipient of bitterness. I have harbored resentment against someone else. As I began thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that bitterness probably affects lots of people because it has a way of creeping into our lives.

So many times I feel justified in my bitterness. "So and so did that to me so I deserve to be bitter at them..." or "...If only they hadn't responded in that way, maybe I wouldn't have a reason to be bitter at them." It irritates me that I give into the schemes of the evil one. The evil one knows our weaknesses and takes every opportunity he can to bring us down.

When someone rattles my cage or jolts me, I want sweet water to spill out. Don't we all? It all comes back to spending time with Jesus, our perfect Savior. His Holy Spirit is gentle in pointing out my faults and I feel Jesus' Spirit gently nudging me back to where I should be.

"The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love." Psalm 103:8