Of All the Seven Deadly Sins, Only This One Is No Fun At All

It has been said that "of all the seven deadly sins, only Envy is no fun at all.”

Envy is so erosive and destructive that God included it twice in His Ten Commandments. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." Nor any of his stuff. Envy makes the list of other cancers of the soul like murder, adultery, idolatry, theft, and blasphemy.

The antidote to envy is gratitude. The key to gratitude is less about having what we want and more about wanting what we have.

It's particularly human to feel envy. We often measure who we are, what we have, and what we've done against others. For many of us, that leads to covetousness. We want what they have - her attractive romantic partner, his fancy car or big house, her achievements and recognition.

The root of envy is comparison. We feel diminished when others are smarter, stronger, faster, leaner, thinner, or when they have nicer things or accomplished more. You'll notice that those words end in -er... strong-er, thinn-er, etc. Remove those two letters and we remove the comparison. And the envy.

There is no joy in comparison.

Perhaps the most common and troublesome object of peoples' comparison and envy is their younger self.

"When I was in my mid-20s, I weighed 115 lbs."

"Back in the day, I could lift twice as much."

"Before I had babies, I had abs!"

"Back when I was a young lieutenant, I ran sub 6 min miles and would max the APFT."

Must be a very human thing to do because virtually no one is immune to it, even me. But it's sad. It diminishes our current achievements and depreciates the effort we put into them. It drains us of the joy and gratification we should feel.

When I catch myself slipping into this negative doom loop, it requires a conscious effort to interrupt it and reorient my mindset to one of gratitude.

This little shift in mindset can magically dispel envy. It begins with a smile and then a deep breath which quickly delivers a sense of inner peace when I remember that I already have what I want because I want what I have.

My prayer for each of us this Thanksgiving is the clarity that we likely have what we want already and the abundant peace that wanting what we have imparts.

Julie and I are especially grateful for YOU and wish you blessings of feasting, fun, and family this weekend! 

With gratitude, 

Pau & Julie