Thou shalt not Covet …

Thou shalt not covet…

Now what do you think he really meant by that? 

You see, I’ve been wanting to upgrade the family room TV.  Well, yes. I do already have one.  Yes.  It is working fine.  Yes.  It is a good size.  Why do I want a new one then?  Because the new ones are better!  Look at that picture!  Listen to the sound!  It’s ULTRA High Def!  My wife sees a man just mesmerized by the beautiful pictures he is seeing on the screen in front of him.  She doesn’t understand…she just shakes her head.

Not really wanting to admit the truth I did a Google search and found the following definition.

Covet

verb

1. yearn to possess or have (something)

Well that doesn’t sound too bad.  Does it? 

I mean, suppose you need a new car.  But, you don’t have all the cash you need so you start saving up for the day you can go buy the little jewel.  You even think about it whenever you put a little more cash into your savings account.  You picture yourself driving down the road.  The top’s down, the wind is in your hair.  (Yes, I know that would be a stretch for me.)  But that’s OK isn’t it?  That’s not really ‘coveting’ is it?  Do you think it’s OK to covet just a little bit? 

You probably shouldn’t ‘covet’ at all.  (There is an exception though.)

To not ‘covet’ is a hard thing to do.  Especially in today’s world.  There are probably a lot of things that we all covet every day and don’t even realize it. 

We have so many things out there to ‘covet’ nowadays.  We are constantly bombarded with ads for ALL the things we like.  If you’re on the internet, they’re tracking your keystrokes.  They’re seeing what you look at, and how long you looked.  Then they take all that data and begin to blast you with ads showing the products you were just looking at!  Before you know it, they’ve got you wanting something you just took a cursory glance at.  You keep seeing the article and the ads and boom!  Before you know it, you ‘covet’ it.

Is this bad?  Maybe.  But still, I don’t believe we’re at the level where God drew the line.

I should know.  Because I think what I’ve been doing lately is exactly what he was talking about when he wrote that commandment.

Coveting something becomes bad when you ‘obsess’ over it.  Like that TV I mentioned to you earlier.  It would be one thing to take a look, agree that yes, it would be nice to have but no, you just can’t swing it right now.  And then you go on.  But when you find yourself looking twelve different ways from Sunday for ways to make it happen.  Now you’ve reached the point where it’s a sin.  You’ve let it consume you.

I think that’s coveting.  Big time.  And I just need to stop.

No.  I don’t know exactly how to fix this other than to just stop and ask the Lord for his forgiveness.  I know I need to do that, and then just accept things for the way they are. I should pay more attention to what I already have.  The ‘picture’ I have in my home is already a beautiful one.  And the TV isn’t even turned on. We should all just close our eyes and open our hearts more.

By the way, did you figure out what the one exception was?  It’s an easy one; It’s always okay to covet a closer relationship with the Lord.

Thank you Lord for your patience and your wisdom.  I know I can be a real piece of work sometimes.

Sincerely,

Roscoe – A Christian in Training

PS:  Hey!  Did you happen to see those TV’s over there? They’re SUPER ULTRA High Def… And I’ll bet you think I’m kidding.