Day 64: 3/5/13- Seven Deadly Sins Week: Envy

Day 64: 3/5/13- Seven Deadly Sins Week: Envy      
New Thing- Make a "Green-Eyed Monster" List, Learn a New Hymn   
Inspiration: Lent, Matthew 6:24-33  
Time: All Day     
Bottom Line: "Our envy always lasts much longer than the happiness of those we envy." - (1680, French Author) 

Reflection: Today, we continue this week's wrestling with the seven deadly sins with envy. While the last two day's vices, wrath and sloth, are ones that I consider lower on my list of cardinal sins, envy, on the other hand, is right up at the top. It is probably only second to pride (tomorrow!). Here is wikipeida's view of envy:

Envy is best defined as a resentful emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another's (perceived) superior quality, achievement or possession and wishes that the other lacked it."

For me, envy seems to creep in, not so much from the desire for the possessions of others. No, for me, it is tied much more to that feeling of lack described above that comes from seeing the talents, skills and success of someone else and feeling as though it is somehow a commentary on my own inabilities. It is that nagging and persistent voice in my head that always plays the, "if only you could do X you would be better" litany that feeds that envious desire to want to be more like others. It is a kind of fear that that "perceived lack" will always stay lacking.

Thus, as I started the day in Morning Prayer and was asking God to help me deal with this fear, the phrase "consider the lilies of the field" came into my mind. This is a phrase from one of Jesus' most famous speeches (found in Matthew 6:24-33) and is used by him to tell us not be concerned with earthly possessions and to not worry about what we think we lack in this life. He says;

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry. 

 
Now, I have normally thought of that message as an admonition not to care to much about money and possession since God will provide. However, I think it can be used for all kinds of fears of perceived lack. It tells us that God provides us all with beautiful gifts and talents, each one unique and complete for the growth that God calls us to. 

So, to help render that fear pointless, I started to keep a "green-eyed-monster" list during the day of all the times I noticed when I was feeling envy. At the end of the day, I laid all those things out in prayer in litany form. After each petition, I sang a line from a new hymn that I found on line (see below) that was centered around considering the lilies of the field. It was very freeing considering something beautiful like a lily--a traditional symbol for God's eternal love--that God has planted to grown in my life, rather than focusing on only on the flowers in others fields. The grass of God's field is the greenest of all.
               

  Consider the Lilies of the Field by Steve Sedberry