While rereading some old books this weekend, I came across a phrase that struck a tender note with me. The author, Neal Maxwell, warns people against the tendency to "envy the sinner". I realized that I do that quite frequently, not because I envy them their lives per se, but because I envy what they get. It's a double edged sword that encourages us to violate one commandment because we ignore the principle that undergirds the Law of the Harvest.
I cannot count how many times I have seen evil men appear to prosper. In fact, most people I know look at my life and use that as evidence that proves that attempting to be virtuous is no better a way than to do whatever they please. You see it too. People speed and make the stoplights, and you get stuck at each one. People cheat and win awards, and you get a participation certificate for an honest effort. Coworkers brown nose and get special privileges and promotions, whereas you are passed over for the same and assigned more work. All around you, people enjoy pleasures you seek, at least in semblance, while you go home to an empty house and eat chicken alone while hovering over the sink.
However, it's a ruse. Sure, they have their cake now, but that cannot be sustained. You see, what they are doing is seeking happiness in doing iniquity, which is not a sustainable or substantive method. Most people are very good to put on a good face and appear to be happy, and because we see only the parts they play, we are easily swayed that their lives are better. Meanwhile, they struggle to pay bills, to fight disease, to have meaningful interpersonal relationships, to keep jobs, to feed their families, and ultimately reap misery. The sinner is not enviable.
Most of envy comes from either a momentary glimpse or half truths. We see a moment of time and wish that we could experience it too. We see what they want us to see and desire the same result. In truth, the price that is paid or the risk is usually not worth the effort. I remember as a teenager a youth leader telling us about how, on a vacation to Vegas, he decided to teach his kids a lesson. He found some money on the floor or something in a casino and put it into a slot machine, intending to show them that most people lost. Unfortunately for him, he won some significant sum, which defeated the object lesson, and he was forced to continue to put the money he just won back in until he lost it all. I don't think it taught what he wanted it to teach. It is the exception rather than the rule that people win the lottery or a jackpot or succeed despite being foolish. Mr. Deeds is the tale of a buffoon who by happenstance of birth becomes a millionaire. So is Jane Eyre come to think of it. They don't all earn it, and they certainly don't enjoy it as it was intended.
The overarching rule is that you cannot reap what you do not sow and that if you harvest, it will be what you sowed. Sometimes, other men come along and sow weeds and competing seeds in an effort to disrupt the harvest, but in truth, if you plant pumpkins you are not going to harvest apples or olives or garlic. Pumpkin seeds produce pumpkins if they produce anything at all, and so you will get what you sow. Sometimes men appear to reap things they didn't sow, but it isn't because they planted it. Coincidence is not causality. Their momentary bounty may have everything to do with timing and luck and nothing to do at all with their choices or their work. More often than not, even people who are not religious, believe that people get their commupence. It's a basic law of the universe that for every action there is an equal and compensatory reaction.
We envy the sinner because he gets what we seek without having to pay the price. We forget that he does not receive those things BECAUSE of what he does but rather DESPITE his actions. They seek happiness in doing iniquity, which does not work. You cannot make a tasty pie from rotten ingredients or a magnificently beautiful building from rubble alone. Quality life comes from quality materials. Just because they appear to prosper or be happy or have what you seek doesn't mean they're actually getting what you think they are or that it's at its highest level. Not all bananas are tasty, even if they are ripe, because as you probably know not every banana that looks good outside looks as good inside.
At times like this I try to remind myself of something I learned from reading Shakespeare. Ultimately, I realized that most of what I see is a play. Everyone wants to be someone else, someone happier, someone more prosperous, even if that someone is just a different form of themself. People constantly tell me to act happy and I will be, which is sort of a logical fallacy as if playing a doctor on TV will qualify me to be one. Just because I can doesn't follow that I will or that I must. Eventually, I was reminded as I read this morning, we get what we actually desire. God does not give a man a serpent who asks for bread, and if by our actions we tell Him we want serpents, He will not give us bread. Time and patience only work for us when our desires are honest. You may say you want to be happy, but if you pursue things that don't lead to it, you will never be happy. People tend to arrive where they actually set their sight. So, that's why it's dangerous to envy the sinner. We might end up becoming like them!
Rather than emulate the sinner, we should emulate the hero. Ultimately, that's the reason why Christ spent time on earth so that we could emulate Him, set our sights on Him, and ultimately, although not necessarily during this life, end up like Him. He gave us something to which we could aspire that was worthy of veneration. He left us scripture to teach us that good men do reap good things and that, through His merciful and magnificent atonement, even the prodigal could have better than he earned, provided he embraced Christ and strove His works to do.
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