A Dark and Bitter Heart

The story began to break this past Sunday evening, July 6, 2003. In the town  of  Oaklyn,  New Jersey, an  alarming  plot began to be  revealed.  Eighteen-year-old Matthew Lovett was arrested by police and charged with plotting to kill at least three people.  He was in fact, planning a killing spree that some referred to as  "another Columbine." (Columbine was the high school in Littleton, Colorado, where two young men killed several of their classmates, a teacher, and themselves in April of 1999.) It was said that he intended to kill several young people at his school this week, and then he and his coconspirators  would turn on the public at large. No one knows how many people would have been killed had he and his two partners (ages 14 and 15) been able to carry out their plans.

What motivates such a young person to devise such depraved plans? We are told that Lovett and his brother had been mistreated for years and he had kept a list of people on whom he intended to take revenge. Jesus said long ago that all such sin begins in the heart (Matthew 12:34-36). Further, we should not be surprised that Proverbs 23:7 (NASB)— “For as he thinks within himself, so he is” is proven true over and over again. Our thoughts become our actions. If we go deep within ourselves and brood upon our losses, disappointments, and hurts, that brooding will bring forth bitterness and hatred. It may not be expressed in the same way as that of Matthew Lovett, but harm will nonetheless follow.

The writer of Hebrews  addresses this very point: “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;” (Hebrews 12:15, NASB). The biblical description is accurate, for it likens bitterness as a weed that takes root and becomes stronger day by day. Our demeanor must be such that we do not allow bitter feelings to build to the point of harm to ourselves, or others.

The writer of Hebrews also gives the antidote to bitterness: personal attention to the problem by the individual as well as those who are around him. “Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is {still} called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 12:13, NASB). We must guard our heart and try to keep bitterness from building within us. In addition, we can help ourselves and others by directing some of our attention to the nurturing and care of our fellow Christians.  

  —Lance Cordle