Greed and Envy
I cannot speak for you but I have had mixed results with greed and envy. This was very noticeable with the death of family members and their possessions. Let me tell you a couple of stories.
The first story involves my mom and a couple of great aunts. One of those aunts was a widow of a doctor in Petersburg, Illinois. She was well connected and was on the cemetery committee (which I understood to be the pinnacle of power in that city). The other aunt was a spinster who, eventually, moved in with the widow aunt leaving the house they both grew up in fully furnished. When she passed, my grandmother (my mom’s mom), invited my mom and her two brothers to come and take whatever furniture they wanted. My mom and dad got there a couple of hours after her brothers arrived and started and my mom was upset that they took the best stuff for themselves (at the time, one of the brothers owned a consignment shop). This made a significant impact on her determination to not let this happen to their (my mom and dads) estate.
Many years later, my mom and dad have both passed away. I found out that my mom had a will and in it, there were a few special bequests. The significant part of the will was the stipulation that my sister and I could agree to whatever stuff each wanted and any contentions would result in the property being sold by the lawyer and the proceeds split between us (if it sounds impressive as far as estates go, it really wasn’t). My sister who lived next to my mom’s house was in no hurry to clean it out and was grieving our loss while I lived six hours away and was more focused on getting the house cleaned out even through my grief. My sister was worried about the chance that the house would get sold and she would have no control over who was her next-door neighbor so that became the focus of, imagined, concern of what I would do.
I could have been more sensitive to her concerns at the time but I was focused on getting the estate closed. There were never any words spoken in anger but there were hurt feelings on both sides.
Several years later, my grandmother (my mom’s mom), passed away and all of a sudden I became a co-heir with my sister for a 1/3 of the estate with my mom’s two brothers (not a huge estate). Again, there was a house full of furniture and possessions to deal with. By this time, I realized that there was only one thing I wanted - a lounge chair my grandpa had in his den. You see, in all the years I had gone there as a kid, I was not allowed to go into my grandpa’s den. That lounge chair was the symbol of my exclusion from that small room in their house. I asked for this and my uncle immediately said I could have it (when I picked it up, I found out that it had no intrinsic value and had been recovered in vinyl). As I walked through the house, I saw all the other furniture that my cousins had claimed and was glad that I had not succumbed to the greed.
Sorry, to throw all these (to me) very complex and emotional sinful situations at you but they too have been a part of my faith walk. This morning, I was reading a Crossway devotion regarding this type of sin.
“Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” - Psalm 73:1-10, 13-14, 23-26 ESV
I believe that we each are born with a God shaped hole in our life. When we look to the horizontal to fill it through possessions, we end up with the sin of greed and envy and malice. It is only when we look to worship God (the vertical) is that hole filled and we find joy. Hopefully, I will remember that when I see the next shiny bobble that I think I need.
