The Most Unfashionable Thing EVER! (aka the Big Green Door)

Seems like every cool fashion, style, or lifestyle site has within its name the word covet. The Coveteur, Coveted and other sites and organizations like it want you to want what they have and purchase it. Absolutely understandable. A lot of times, they have amazing things. If you didn't want what they have, a lot of people would go out of business. So I do get that.

But should that want go to the point of coveting? Covet is defined by the Free Dictionary as "To feel blameworthy desire for (that which is another's). Synonyms: Envy" Whoa...blameworthy? Envy? That's really strong language there. But, my pretties, that is in essence what coveting is. It is a big green door, gaping wide, insatiable, beckoning, calling, demanding for more, more, more. It is unstylish, uncool, and definitely always unfashionable.

Exodus 20:17 (English Standard Version) says “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” Sounds like a staunch command from a big scary deity to an old man on a mountain in ancient days, huh? 

Well, not too many of us have any servants, or oxen, or donkeys, or any farm animal for that matter.

But what about your neighbor's purse? Or shoes? Or car? Or life? Why do you want those particular things? What's wrong with what you have? What about if you are so enraptured by your perception (whether correct or not) of someone else' "fill in the blank" that is would drive you to "blameworthy desire"?

I feel like that's the kind of society we have built. I love social media as anyone (seriously, I really do) but I feel like too many of us use it to brag about what we have, shaking the carrot in front of the face of the world, saying "Don't you wish your life was as good as mine?" "Don't you wish you lived like this?". But if someone was to scratch the surface of that glittery life, more often than not they would not find gold, they would find pyrite.

A life that is ruled and driven solely by the desire to possess more and more is no life at all. It is bondage. 

Because of my job, I have been to some places only the wealthy see, and experienced some of what only the wealthy experience. I myself am not wealthy. It's been awesome, not going to lie or hide that fact. But after some observation, I can tell you without the shadow of a doubt, none of it is worth the peace I have in God and the love I have for others and myself. I have discovered that a lot of what happens in those circles, the extravagant luxury, the trips, the houses, etc, is to cover up deeper issues: depression, loneliness, a huge void within life that has cars and trips and items thrown into it, but is never happy, never fulfilled. The gaping green door.

Now I should say that there is nothing wrong with wealth. Nothing at all. And using it correctly (not flaunting it) to benefit your family, and society is admirable. But if your life is based upon material goods and money, you have completely missed it. In comparison, none of it is worth having peace within yourself and others. None of it is worth being able to sleep at night, or a family who loves you, or friends who are authentic. 

When all you have is money, but you live a vapid, shallow, hollow life, then you are a pretty poor soul indeed.

There is something to be said about a person who treats these items as if, well, they were just items. Sure, get excited over the sale. Yes, get hype for the find. There is nothing wrong with wanting something. But when that "something" already belongs to someone and you want that specific "something", therein lies the problem.

At the end of the day, it's all just stuff. It's only clothes or shoes or things that will go out of style, shrink in the wash, tear, break, fade to the back of the closet, or end up in the toss pile next time you purge or as something you will forget. It does not define you or make you better or worse than anyone else.

So I challenge you, my friend, and myself to find that area in our lives where we have a covetous, envious, blameworthy desire of something that belongs to someone else, find why we desire this "thing", and combat that with our own contentment with what we do have. Combat covetousness with gratitude. Let us slam and lock this big green door. 

Then you will see that the commandment above is not just a rule by a big scary deity to govern us, but that it is a freedom, indeed it is permission, given from a loving Father, allowing us to have peace in what we already know, and liberating us to enjoy all that we have.