In Matthew 20 there is a parable about a farmer who employs workers to work in the field for the day. Later in the day he finds more help available. Then again towards the end of the day he brings on even more workers. When everyone finishes that evening, all workers are paid the same daily wage.
Those contracted early that morning, although they were paid what they were promised, were upset that those who only worked a few hours received the same pay.
While this parable is most often associated with God’s grace and how His grace is for everyone equally no matter how long or to what extent they have served God, there is also a component of gratitude. Instead of gratefulness for their ability to work and that payment received, all the original workers could think about was that others didn’t work as long and were paid the same.
So often we do the same. Instead of being grateful for what we have, we look at others and want what they have. We want those shoes, that vacation, the life that seems so much easier than ours.
To illustrate this, I have a cabinet full of coffee cups that I cannot bring myself to get rid of even though I use very few of them. When I look at each cup, I am reminded of the person who gifted me the cup or the place where the cup was purchased. What I wonder is if I placed one of my coffee cups next to yours, what would I think about your cup?
Would I look at your cup and wonder if I could do something to fill it. Do you need more coffee? Maybe you need some sugar or some cream. Would I look at your cup and celebrate how lovely your fine china is compared to my seven dollar Buc-ee’s mug? OR even more disappointing, would I look into your cup just to make sure it didn’t have something in it that I didn’t have?
Can I truly share excitement for my co-worker when she gets a new purse to add to her collection while I currently can’t make that type of purchase? Can I honestly celebrate and enjoy hearing from a friend about how well her children are doing, when I have a child who is struggling?
Where do we fix our thoughts? There will always be someone who possesses more than you or appears to be living a better life than yours. Are you first satisfied and grateful with what God has given you? Does the love in your heart come through allowing you to look at others with enjoyment or empathy instead of envy.
Read through James 4:1-8 carefully. Maybe even write it out. “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. … Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.”
So, how do we learn to gaze at the cups others wield so apparently effortlessly with genuine excitement? We draw close to God and seek to have a heart of humility.
If you have God, you have enough.
View From My Shoes 