By Fr. Adolf Washington
You don’t need to close a bin of live crabs. The crabs won’t let each other out. When one attempts to climb up, the others will pull them down.
God did not call us to be crabs. Yet at times some of us could become or behave like crabs or probably we have seen people behave that way. There could be crabs in the office, in the community or even in the family.
In the Bible we find Joseph’s own brothers were so jealous of him that they banished him and sold him into slavery (Genesis 37), yet God raised Joseph to great power that his own brothers had to come to him for help later. Daniel was raised to the post of chief administrator in the reign of King Darius. His jealous colleagues got the king to throw him in a den of hungry lions for praying to Yahweh instead of worshiping the King. But God protected Daniel in the den of lions and King Darius through the jealous men in the den of lions (Daniel 6).
Many religious leaders of Jesus’ time were so jealous of his popularity that they even schemed ways to put him to death by bringing false accusations against him, yet Jesus always had the goodwill of his people and the Heavenly Father.
When you become jealous, you cultivate hatred, from your hatred flows revengeful thinking, from revengeful thinking comes devious actions. Jealous people spend more time trying to destroy others than build themselves and are generally unhappy people, never content in any situation.
Being jealous of others is a spate upon God because, by being jealous, we are turning a blind eye to the immense potential for goodness God has placed in each of us. In plain logic, being jealous indicates we are not satisfied with what God has given us.
Saint James says “For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, not spiritual, and motivated by the Devil.” (James 3:15) St. Paul urges “Let us not become conceited, or irritate one another, or be jealous of one another.” (Galatians 6:26).
A potter who was jealous of a prosperous washer man convinced the king to ask the washer man to wash the royal black elephant and make it white or get punished. The washer man accepts the challenge but says that it was customary for a washer man use a huge earthen vessel for this purpose. The king asks the potter to make the vessel. Every time the elephant stepped into the vessel, it shattered to pieces. The potter ended up making a new vessel almost every day till he ran out of business and was finally punished by the King for his jealousy.
Look inward at your potential for goodness and build upon it; you will never waste time envying others.