The 3rd of 7... part 1...

We've been through the two huge ones, and now we're moving into a more easily masked one.  Please know, though, that just because it's easily masked does NOT mean that it is any less pervasive in our culture.  It is just as bad, and just as rampant, but this one gets to be covered with fanciful buzz words like "ambition" and "drive."  Of course, I'm speaking of envy.

"For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice."

James 3:16, ESV

In one of the discussions about lust, I mentioned that it relates to envy in a huge way, because to lust after something is to chase it with excessive (unnecessarily excessive, I might add) means.  It is something you don't need, and something you really want... something that stirs a jealous envy in you until it's yours.  It happens with people in affairs, it happens with people who steal from others, it happens with people who lie to achieve greater success than they should have.  After reading this, please look up to the verse above again, and see if it is starting to sound a bit familiar.

As for the cultural buzz words, notice that I did mention ambition as being one of them.  Please do not misunderstand me, though, because ambition is necessary.  We all should want to achieve something great for our God, for our families, and for ourselves.  However, the difference in the verse is that when there is "selfish ambition," things begin to change.  This kind of ambition is no longer used to better the Kingdom or a family... it is only used to better a single person, one who is thinking only of a single person.  It absolutely is used in deceitful means for selfish gain, and nothing matters other than the achieving of that one goal.

I'm reminded of a popular cooking show a few years back where one contestant claimed to have been a Marine with service time in Iraq.  It was discovered midway through that not only was there no officially recorded time in Iraq, this man was not even a member of the armed forces.  The sympathy he had gained on TV (fighting for votes to stay on the show, of course) was called out into the light quickly by the network, the show, and the contestants still on the show, and that man probably still has not lived this down.  His ambitions were entirely selfish, and he took the position of a true American hero (referring to any soldier in our military), and attempted to use that for his own means.  Yeah, folks, I'd call that pretty vile.

But it's not just that one guy, is it?  I can remember a few others who've managed to make the news, and they ruined the lives of many, many people in the process, thanks to their lies and deceit.  This also ties to another sin that we'll get to rather quickly, which is greed, but it always begins with envy.  One person sees a thing or lifestyle or salary or position that someone else has, and they want it so badly that they cannot want anything else... they also cannot chase their one dream with proper avenues and check points of advancement, because the want has grown bigger than the requirements to succeed.  Envy, Christian siblings, does this to people.

To close, though, it isn't just about the ones who make national headlines for enormous ponzi schemes.  It is a problem right in our own hearts and homes, too, every time we start to look at someone else's life or job or money or car, and all of a sudden they begin to compare their won to the other person, and grow jealous of what they do not have.  However, as I told my children just yesterday, we need to look at the blessings God grants us, and count how full our own bucket is.  We can only control us, and we are to be grateful and mindful stewards of the blessings bestowed onto us by our Father... not envious and thankless drones who serve only ourselves.

God bless you all!!!