Lemonade From Lemons: How God Transforms Bitter Into Sweet

As we move through life, we experience an unpredictable mix of pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow. As we grow older, we become more aware of adversity and its affect on our lives. But if we recognize God’s ability to make lemonade from lemons, we see how God transforms bitter into sweet. Though it isn’t always a rollicking adventure,  the process can be a fulfilling and satisfying one with the proper attitude.

Approaching Life as A Lab of Learning

The key to accepting the lemonade lifestyle involves adjusting expectations. This can be challenging in a world where indulgence is culturally in vogue. Alas, sacrifice is passe. People enter into relationships with contractual mindsets. And when it comes to cars, homes or even apparel, rentals of all types are all the rage.  Even getting food delivered is easier than stocking up on ingredients for the future. Here and now, that’s today’s emphasis. Expecting instant gratification is paramount to looking ahead. But God has a different perspective.

God’s Economy Hinges on Tomorrow

When we adjust our expectations for today by putting them on a back burner, God helps us live for tomorrow. He alone helps us see beyond current comfort and pleasures. Though counter cultural, this mindset isn’t without precedent. Consider Abraham who waited hundreds of years for a baby.  Or Elizabeth, who was also well advanced in years when she became pregnant with John the Baptist. And let’s not forget Ruth, who endured widowhood and a move away from her homeland before meeting Boaz, her kinsman redeemer.

Someone I didn’t know who’d heard my name received a leading from God about me. She said told me I won’t see the fruit of my labor from my fourth upcoming book in my lifetime. I’m keeping this firmly in mind. Which is good, because with this particular project I’ve experienced many disappointing setbacks and road blocks. But God doesn’t pay out on demand like a slot machine. His gifts are dispensed on His time table alone. Our job is to go along with His game plan. He alone can see the total picture, as opposed to our narrow periscope view.

A Bitter Root Can Produce a Surprisingly Sweet Harvest

Thank heaven for God’s transforming nature. He can take a tragedy and turn it into a triumph. In Judges 15 we read of the story of Samson. A strong, married man who falls for the seductive charms of a prostitute, Samson is weakened and stripped of God’s favor. In that weakness, he prays to God for one last infusion of strength. He sacrifices himself to accomplish the Lord’s purposes: defeating the Philistines. After Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, and Potiphar’s wife comes on to him, though he rebuffs her he still gets thrown into the dungeon. Even then, Joseph continues to trust God and is eventually promoted. God used all those crimes against these men to bring about good.

God also used Esther’s life to take lemons and turn them into lemonade. First she is taken into a harem and away from the only family she knows. Then she asks permission to give a feast and reveals a plot against the Jews that would destroy both her and her people. The plot is then thwarted due to Esther’s courage and God’s favor. Like all the other heroes of the Bible mentioned here, Esther experienced that it’s always darkest before the dawn. But when we focus on each step, illuminated by God’s direction, we don’t have to see a path infinitum.

Doing Everything Right and Still Ending Up in the Dungeon

Not everyone who juggles lemons gets to taste lemonade in this lifetime. Shut out of the Promised Land, Moses missed an up close and personal view and must wait for the New Jerusalem for his milk and honey experience. John the Baptist enduring a deprivation-ridden existence and was decapitated by a king who caved into the demand of a manipulative stepdaughter. Of course, the most obvious example of a “lemonadeless” life is that of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus endured rejection from His hometown, abandonment of His closest friends, physical beatings and an excruciating crucifixion. Unlike us, He knew all of it was coming and He would be called to endure. But, like us, Jesus knew His life on earth was the dot and not the dash.

Living the Lemonade Life One Tomorrow at a Time

Finding the balance between sucking lemons full time and expecting an unrelenting supply of lemonade requires discernment and trust. We can continually pray for God to reveal to us exactly when lemons must be endured and when we may be delivered into a season of lemonade. That deliverance may come in the next few moments, days, weeks or not at all this side of eternity. God only knows the answer to that question. What we do know is that we can trust Him with our outcomes and do our best not to circumvent His plans.

This past weekend, I felt frustrated about a lemon moment I was having in one of my primary relationships. It was one of those thrown in the towel and the lemons kind of moments. Suddenly, I heard the Lord speak to me in a still small voice that these were my lemons to endure and when I was able to be trusted with that sacrifice, only then would He take me to the next level of promotion in my ministry. What did I do, you might be wondering? I picked up my lemon cross and accepted it for today. I resisted throwing a pity party in the moment or believing that I would forever carry my lemon cross. Because only God knows what tomorrow will bring. I am only responsible for today’s response. Tomorrow, as we learn in Matthew 6:34, has enough ‘troubles of its own.’

A Momentary Trouble

What trouble do you see in your tomorrows right now? If you are holding a bag of lemons, or hoisting a lemon cross above your shoulder, take heart. This experience is, as Paul described in 2 Corinthians 4:17, a “momentary trouble” for you. Whether you taste lemonade in this lifetime or the next, you can trust that God will eventually bring about a harvest of goodness for those who hold fast to His promises.

And if you’ve gotten more than your share of lemon juice in your eye and felt the sting, this next verse from Revelation 21:4 will surely resonate. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Now that’s a future harvest worth betting the farm on!