Embittered

There are some things that aren't supposed to happen. Like outliving your two sons. Or like watching all your plans for a better life disappear into the dust of your husband's grave. It's hard to count your blessings when you're counting alone.

Selections from Ruth 1:6-3, 19-21 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

Naomi's husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons. . . . She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people's [need] by providing them food.. . . . When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival, and [the local women] exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi?"

"Don't call me Naomi!" she told them. "Call me Mara - for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I left full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has pronounced [judgment], and the Almighty has afflicted me?"

Look At It This Way

Moab literally means ease, and Bethlehem means house of bread. Naomi and her family, scared away by famine, left the land of God - the "house of bread" - to go to the land of ease. They were hoping to find some relief from their troubles, unaware how costly life in Moab would be. Yet widowed, homesick, and alone, Naomi looked past their poor choices and saw a God who deserved all the blame. How easy it is to forget God's face in the pleasant times, only to see his hand everywhere in the bad.

You could be a devoted young mother who must watch her two-year-old child die slowly of cancer while you overhear other parents worry about their children's scratched knees and bruised elbows. You could be a 39-year-old single woman who has served God faithfully for decades and has always longed to be married, only to watch your spiritually shallow 25- year-old friend wed a wonderful godly man. Life isn't fair. Inequities hit us from all sides, prompting those wretched "I'm a victim" feelings. But Scripture presents us with a view of life from the eternal perspective. This perspective separates what is transitory from what is lasting. What is transitory, such as injustice and injury, will not endure; what is lasting, such as the eternal weight of glory accrued from that pain, will remain forever. What could possibly outweigh the pain of permanent paralysis, the pain of a life of singleness, the loss of a child from cancer? The greater weight of eternal glory. One day the scales of justice will not only balance, but they will be weighted heavily - almost beyond comprehension - to our good and God's glory.

- Joni Eareckson Tada

Final Thought

Bitterness is born when we hold on too tightly to the things - even the people - in our lives. Treasure every moment as a precious gift from God, but never claim it as a right.