Envy Hiding

A particular kind of envy is more difficult to see and diagnose. You have a talent. Someone you greatly respect has a similar talent, only more so. Their natural ability in this area is significantly greater than yours. In addition, they have worked more diligently to develop their talent than have you. By their natural, God-given gift, and exhaustive effort to develop it, they have achieved far more productivity and attention.

You conclude that by some fault other than your own, you have been cheated. This is perhaps the most destructive form of envy. It is everywhere,  common. This is the form of envy from which Lucifer suffers.

Envy is insidious. It can sit just under the radar of awareness, where it drives emotion to a place of nagging misery. Envy may deceive you into considering the object of your envy as a mentor when your true objective is not learning and growth but the honors of men by association.

Blindness to envy enables and hides its insidious nature. Outwardly, you feel justified, while cunning envy cankers the soul and bleeds honor. Envy slides effortlessly into self-loathing. The resulting lack of self-esteem inhibits productive behavior and camouflages effective solutions. In anxious despair, it becomes easy to be convinced by the "friendly" scorpion to jump on his back to cross the stream to safety. Oh, yeah, that’ll work.

Envy eradication requires courage and an increase of faith in our Savior’s ability and willingness to help. Agonizing reappraisal* may require gut-wrenching realizations, sudden paradigm shifts, and other unpleasant but purifying spiritual emetics. *(The phrase, "agonizing reappraisal," is a lyric from Sea Level, That's Your Secret, 1977)***

Evil does not relinquish control without a battle. Only a courageous fight will gain eternal salvation and joy in this life. Turn away from envy and iniquity and face the Lord in repentance. Then face the conflict with honor. Do not let evil shoot you in the back because you ran from the fight.