By Katy Mariotti

What Do You Envy?

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
Ecclesiastes 4:4 New International Version

For the third time now, I have had the opportunity to sing Handel’s Messiah the weekend after Thanksgiving, and not just sing it, but sing it with a group playing on Baroque instruments, inside a castle! It’s such a cool experience, and even though I’ve done it a couple times, I still enjoy doing it, and I take a picture of the castle every year. I’ve always had a thing for castles. To me they represent magic and fairy tales. This particular castle is called Glen Eyrie, and it’s in Colorado Springs. It was built by William Jackson Palmer, the founder of Colorado Springs. His wife Mary Lincoln Palmer loved castles. I’ve maintained for a long time that someday I will live in a castle.

Let’s be honest though: I’m 40. I haven’t chosen a career path that puts me in a position to purchase a castle.  It’s easy, especially at this time of year, to give in to envy. With people buying presents for Christmas and going on family vacations, we can start to compare what others have to what we have. And it’s not always in the way we think… a castle is more like a dream, but the thing I really envy around now is people with time. I am a musician and Christmas time for musicians is crazy. I am no exception: I have obligations every week for the next three weeks and I scheduled most of them back in August. So when people add Christmas events or parties my answer is mostly, “I’m sorry, I already have plans.”

As stated in Ecclesiastes, envy of others is like chasing the wind. We’ll never catch it. And if we did? The things we envy are not always what we think they will be. Castles are beautiful, but they can also be cold and dark. Mary Lincoln Palmer loved castles, but she didn’t actually live in this particular one… she had to move from Colorado Springs because of her health.

We can fight envy with gratitude. I might be a busy musician, but I LOVE to sing, and I chose to fill my holiday season with music making. And I am thankful for my own house, my own little castle. It also helps to remember that the real prize is not nice things or vacations, but the promises of our Lord that we have to look forward to.

“‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.””
Revelation 21:4 NIV

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado.