Envy — Blog — Glenn E. Pearson

Every speaker and teacher I know agrees that organizing their thoughts into a talk or written piece leaves them feeling they learned more than their audiences did. I’m no exception.

At this time of year, we tend to reflect on the previous twelve months. As I did a quick scan of my 2018 blog posts (www.glennpearson.co/new-blog), I thought all of them had something of value. Of course I did, or I wouldn’t have written them 😊. But as an undergraduate English major trained to notice literary patterns, I recognized some inter-related themes in four of my blogs:

January 24 – The Absolute Best Bible Passage for Resolving an Age-Old Debate – References Daniel 3:17-18 where the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar threatened to incinerate Daniel’s three friends if they didn’t worship the golden image he had set up – “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it . . . . But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
July 19 – got envy? – Tells of my envy over seeing people having the luxury of running when I had to drive to work, but then my equal envy when I was the one running in the park when my business was slow and saw people on their way to productive jobs
November 15 – When God Uses You to Answer Someone Else’s Prayer but Doesn’t Answer Yours – Relates the story how God supernaturally allowed me to establish a mentoring relationship with a young man at LA Fitness who specifically prayed for someone to take him under his wing as he was literally driving to the gym that very morning
December 12 – Contentment: 2 Obvious But Life-Changing Ideas – Reminds us of two things:
· Contentment consists not in great wealth but in few wants
· Since God controls absolutely everything, loves me completely, and knows what he’s doing, I have exactly what he wants me to have

Here’s how these four fit together. I see others’ favorable circumstances but envy them (the envy blog), and I rejoice when God uses me to bless someone else but wonder why some of my prayers aren’t answered (the blog about using me to answer someone else’s prayer), resulting in more envy. The antidote is to ponder Daniel’s three friends’ faith as they recognize God can do the absolutely impossible if he wants to and to emulate their astounding commitment to trust him even if he chooses a different path for them. Internalizing these three lessons leads me to contentment as I see that my circumstances reflect exactly what God wants me to have.

Ironically, literally one hour before I posted the contentment blog, I received some very disappointing ministry-related news. God graciously reminded me of these four blogs and, although I was still disappointed, he allowed me to exhale and trust his loving sovereignty. So, I’m thankful I had the chance to unexpectedly minister to myself 😊. But of course, I am ultimately thankful to God for driving these lessons into my heart and allowing me to live them out.

During my 19 years as Executive Vice President of Georgia Hospital Association, I drove through a half-mile stretch of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Marietta on my way to work every day. Although metro Atlanta is very crowded, I could at least for a few minutes pretend I lived in a less developed area.

More than once, I had to stop for runners crossing the road during their morning runs through the park. And more than once, I got jealous, wishing I could join them instead of having to drive to work.

One morning right after I left Georgia Hospital Association and started my own consulting business, I had one of those days when I had nothing of real substance going on. Rather than sit around the house all morning, I decided to go run in the park. As I approached the very same road crossing I had driven past so many times, I found myself being jealous of “all those people who have somewhere to go this morning when I’m treading water.” I wonder how many of them wished they could be me at that moment.

How typical look right past our countless blessings and become envious of what we don’t have.

Several months ago, I attend a professional healthcare conference and ran in to some younger colleagues I hadn’t seen in a while. Of course, we checked in with each other and asked how we were all doing. One of them commented, “Boy I wish I could be doing what you’re doing. You can set your own schedule, do what you want, and serve as master of your own destiny.”

I didn’t verbalize what I was really thinking: “Yes, you’re right about all those things. But guess what? I don’t have a steady paycheck, I’m paying my whole Social Security withholding amount and healthcare coverage, and I have no one to delegate to all the administrative tasks I either don’t fully understand or hate doing.”

Every choice we make and every circumstance we face has its upsides and its downsides. God has designed life so that we constantly face challenges. I have yet to meet anyone who would not change a single thing about his or her circumstances. It’s easy to get sucked into the Face Book version of people’s lives where we only see their fabulous vacations, incredible accomplishments, and perfect-looking families. It’s easy to look at my areas of disappointment and envy those who seem to have it so much better than I do.

Instead, we should focus on our many blessings and thank God for the things we often take for granted. And we should also thank him even for the rough spots we would ditch if we could. It’s all part of his plan to transform us into thankful people who acknowledge his grace in all areas of our lives – the bad as well as the good. I believe this is part of what Jesus had in mind when he referred to his followers as the Light of the World.