One reason that bitterness is so extremely dangerous is because it can take root, grow, spread and spiritually contaminate and defile your heart and spirit before you even realize.
In 1932, comic book artists Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel created the Superman character. For six long years during the Great Depression the two tried to market their comic book hero, but no one was interested. Then in 1938, editor Vin Sullivan chose it as the cover feature for National's Action Comics. The following year, Siegel & Schuster initiated the syndicated Superman comic strip. As part of the deal which saw Superman published in National Action Comics, Siegel and Schuster sold the rights to the company in return for $130 and a contract to supply the publisher with material for ten years.
In 1946, near the end of their 10-year contract, the two artists sued over rights to the characters. They ultimately accepted $94,000 to stop pursuing the claim after a court ruled that National Action Comics had validly purchased the rights to Superman when it bought the first Superman story. But after this bitter legal battle going national, it cropped Schuster and Siegel's byline. Soon after, Schuster began going blind and dropped out of drawing comics. But his bitterness remained unabated. In 1975 he sued and was awarded an annual stipend of $35,000. Schuster died in 1992 of congestive heart failure and hypertension, nearly blind and very bitter.
We all experience a bout of sour grapes from time to time, but experts are warning that being too bitter too often can actually make you ill. Researchers who have examined the relationship between failure, bitterness and quality of life found that blaming others can lead to physical disease. In order to deal with bitter emotions there may need to be something else required to enable a person to overcome the negative emotion - that something is forgiveness.
Whatever bitterness you have tasted, do not let it consume you. Ask God to give you the grace to forgive and forget the source of every bitterness you feel in you. Think of the better days ahead; if you allow bitterness of today to draw you down, what about tomorrow? What happens to all your future expectations?
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