day 1347: Greener Grass?

“You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor."

A former colleague of mine is up for a big promotion. It's the job he has waited for his entire career and if he gets it then he is at the top of his functional area and the years of working hard within the company will have been worth it all!  I checked in him the other day to see where things stood.  He told me that the decision was down to him and one other person.  I was puzzled because who else inside the company could be in competition for the job?  He responded, that it was him against an external candidate!  I cringed for him.  I was quickly reminded of how easily we look to the outside and think the grass is so much greener.  Sometimes, when it is time to upgrade or change direction we have to go to the outside but I have always been of the mind that internal choices need to be decided and dismissed before that decision so that those who have worked hard and held their loyalty are not put in this awkward position of, "Am I not good enough?"  While the grass looks greener, let's not forget that it takes more fertilizer, water, nurturing and caring to keep that grass green, than it does to maintain the turf that we know that is not as fragile or will fail under who we already are.

Somewhere in our human nature we are built to want what we don't and can't have.  It's a problem in us, otherwise we wouldn't have been given the Commandment about coveting.  When this desire of ours translates into people, positions, promotions, raises, etc. we are treading on think ice.  We need to check our motivations as it hard to be wrestling with these issues and still be bringing glory to God in our work.  Let's consider today if we are working with a gratitude for what we he, or are we working with obsessions over what others have that we want? That grass, while it looks greener, can't be come our obsession.

Reference: Exodus 20:17 (New Living Translation)