"Sour Grapes"
I have come to understand that the grapes that are the most sour are those where we despise what we cannot have. In his famous fable "The Fox And The Grapes", Aesop makes the moral point that bitterness of heart leads to devaluing of goal. The term we use to describe this bitterness is "rationalization". Rationalization comes after we have failed to reach an expected achievement. We come up short and therefore declare "we didn't really want it anyway".
James 1:13-14
13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.
James describes a wisdom learned from attempting to live a good life, a life of deeds done. He is aware that failure occurs even though we attempt to accomplish good. The real failure is wrong motive obviously and should not cause denial of truth. When we rationalize we wrong in two ways 1) We say our effort is not real 2) We say our goal is not worthy. Is there an area in your life where failure has allowed bitterness to prevent you from giving your all or caused you to expect less? It might be time to crush the sour grapes of failure and live in the humility that comes from wisdom.
