October 26, 2008 ~ Overcoming Sourness
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
~ 2 Corinthians 5:17
My bitterness will turn into peace. You save my life from all danger; You forgive all my sins.
~ Isaiah 38:17
The other day when I was searching the garage for some garden fertilizer, I was surprised to find one of my favorite travel mugs that I’ve been missing for at least a couple weeks. I must have set it down on the workbench one day when I was rummaging around in there, in much the same way I was doing when I found it. I was 
really happy to find that mug, too, because it keeps my coffee really hot for a good long while – much better than the others in my collection of mugs. It was only a little dusty on the outside, but what was lurking inside . . .
Sour! Even before I fully removed the lid, that sour odor charged straight at me and assaulted me in an overwhelmingly offensive way! What a surprise, considering this mug had been a good “friend,” but I had lost it and neglected it, and it had turned bitter and sour on me, in the way coffee with cream has a tendency to do over the course of weeks in the heat of a locked-up garage.
So I threw the remaining curdled “chemistry project” into the lawn, as far away from me as my pitching arm would allow. But the sourness remained. I took it inside and soaked it in a hot sudsy sinkful of water for over an hour, but I was unsuccessful in removing the offending scent. Into the dishwasher it went, and from Friday until now, it has ridden through at least six cycles of wash on the highest “pots and pans” level. It looks the same – the stainless steel case is shiny and new-looking, but - well, it’s not. It’s sour.
So, realizing that the total removal of sourness will take more knowledge and wisdom than I possess, I went to the internet for additional research and now my mug is sitting on the edge of the sink, marinating in a mixture of hot water and baking soda. I still have my fingers crossed. We’ll see.
My mug made me think about the whole idea of personal sourness. A wounded or self-centered heart can sometimes develop a root of anger and bitterness that grows so deep it can be difficult to dig it out 
entirely. In fact, I don’t think it’s possible to remove it on our own. Even when we recognize it in ourselves (and sometimes that takes a great deal of time) it is beyond our ability to remove, and we have to seek help from a greater power than we possess because even if we clean it up on the outside, plant a smile on our faces and try to behave better, often the scent of it still remains. It’s embedded.
What is true for us though, when we realize our own bitterness, is this: God is able to remove the deepest, 
most embedded, most stinky, root of bitterness that tangles its way around our attitudes, behaviours, and heart. He can make us new again without even a remant of the old sourness. He can remove it and fill our attitudes, our behaviours and our hearts with joy!
My mug may never be the same – time will tell. But when His children become embittered and sour – God has promised to make us a new creation if He will seek His help!
xxoo
