Envy and Ahab

             A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. (Proverbs 14:30)

Some people complain that once upon a time, a college student could earn their tuition with a summer job, and single paycheck household could purchase a house. I’m not sure how true these things were, and I know that the prices today have skyrocketed. I’m not saying otherwise. At the same time, the folks who went to college on their summer incomes and bought homes back then didn’t have multiple cars, multiple cell phones, multiple subscriptions to a wide variety of entertainment sources, gym memberships, dish washers, smart houses, expensive hair-styles, or gel fingernails. They didn’t go out to eat except on very special occasions, and wouldn’t have considered stopping for coffee.    

And some of those who complain about how impossible it is to get by today decide the answer is for someone else to fund their dreams. It’s not fair, and it should be made fair. And I can relate. I’d love for someone to pay for the new roof I am having put on, or fix plumbing issues, or work on my truck, or redo the brick wall along my front garden, or set up my gardens better. I’d love to have a little elf that cleaned up after me instead of a little gremlin that follows me and makes messes, and it’d be even better if its name weren’t Karen!

It's sad how easy it is to fall into envy. We don’t even call it. We call it fair, just, or equitable, but it comes down to the idea that if we don’t have as much or better than someone else, we deserve to, or they don’t deserve to have it either. And because things aren’t what we consider fair, we have no peace. And if we’re being honest, if we were given all we needed to be equal to that someone else, we’d find another someone who had more. We’d also likely resent someone who claimed that we should reduce ourselves to be equal with someone who has less.

In order to have peace that gives life to our bodies, we must stop looking at others to set the standards. We must be willing to be as we are. That doesn’t mean we turn down opportunities when they come, but in the meanwhile, we don’t case ourselves in the role of Captain Ahab, obsessing over the white whale known as “fairness.”