Sweet Mouth and Bitter Belly

Rev. 10: 10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it and it was sweet as honey in my mouth; but when I had eaten it my stomach became bitter

Remember that endorphin thing from yesterday? No you don’t? Ok, well you should remember that endorphins are chemicals produced in your body that give a sense of well-being when you are having a pleasant experience; eating a ice cream, sharing a joke or getting some good news. They therefore contribute to your happiness and have you feeling real good. Each time you have a pleasant experience this happens. Endorphins are in some ways pretty much like another substance. It’s called morphine.

Morphine takes away pain and gives a high feeling. But morphine is a drug, produced outside of you and you have to choose to take it. Unfortunately, some time after you take it, the high feeling it gives you wears off and leaves you with a kind of low feeling and a strong craving for more morphine to get that high feeling again. It resembles endorphin but it is a dangerous drug that is seriously addictive.

Here is the point. Whatever it is that you enjoy, that brings you pleasure, stimulates the production of endorphins; but not everything that you enjoy is good for you. A drink of alcohol, excessively sweet dessert, some sexual misbehaviour, though enjoyable for the moment and producing endorphins, often lead to regret afterwards. The thrill of the moment stimulates the production of endorphins, but the regret, guilt and negative feelings you get later produce other chemicals that have the opposite effect to endorphins. They bring on sadness, depression and even physical illness. In the end, the pleasure wasn’t worth it.

It is like the situation described in this morning’s text. What you enjoy is sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the belly. We can seek out the wrong pleasures and we can get addicted to them as well; choosing to do them over and over, even when we know that we will wind up with bitter regret. We need God’s spirit to lead us to the true pleasures, the kind that will last and not turn to bitterness.

Dear Lord, help me to choose those things that will bring lasting happiness for myself and others and to avoid the disappointing pleasures of this world, in Jesus’ name, amen.