A WORD FOR TODAY, March 11, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, March 11, 2025
Part of my prayer life during Lent will be an examination of conscience using the seven deadly sins. I will daily pray through a number of questions for each sin: Pride, Envy, Sloth, Lust, Covetousness, Gluttony, Anger. Will you join me? Remember, this is about examining yourself, not seeing others in these questions. If you see others, consider it as a mirror and ponder your own life in light of that judgment.
This week is “Envy.”
I used to be in retail management, but I left that career when I married my husband. He was in the military and I moved three thousand miles when we began our life together. I wanted a job, but I didn’t want seventy-hour work weeks or the responsibilities of management. I just wanted a part-time job that would give me a few extra dollars (and the store discount didn’t hurt) to set up my home and provide a way to spend a few hours outside the house. I found a wonderful job at a mid-level retail chain store that had a home fashions department. The department manager was excited to hire me because of my retail experience and hired me immediately, happy to have someone on her staff with experience.
She wasn’t very good at her job, however, which became obvious pretty quickly after I was hired. She also realized very quickly that I was an excellent employee and very good at my job. We often had the owners of small businesses visit to buy what they needed for their establishment, including people who were decorating bed and breakfasts. They needed everything from towels and linens, but also pots and pans, dishes, silverware, and even decorative pieces for their rooms. It was not as unusual as you might think for me to ring up sales worth thousands of dollars. I loved the work. I loved helping a customer choose which colors would go together, to help them think about everything they would need to make their business comfortable and successful. More than one of my customers sent letters praising my work to the General Manager, who called me into his office more than once to thank me for being such a good employee.
My manager didn’t like it. She thought I was trying to steal her job even though I told her repeatedly I was happy and satisfied with a part-time position. I didn’t plan on working there long term; I became pregnant a few months after I began, and I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I also knew that the military could move us at any time. I didn’t want or need her job.
Instead of embracing my willingness to do a good job for the sake of the store and her department, she became paranoid. She did everything she could to make it difficult for me to my job; she even tried to make me quit. She lorded over me with her power and authority. She changed my work schedule at the last minute and denied the time off that she had promised weeks earlier. She sent me into the warehouse to move heavy boxes and other things that were meant to be done by the stock boys, even to the point of endangering my pregnancy. I eventually left that job, partially because she treated her employees so poorly.
It is possible that my actions appeared to the manager as though I were trying to get her job, although she hurt other employees during the ten months I was there. Employees never lasted very long in her department, either transferring elsewhere in the store or leaving the company altogether. She was fired shortly after I left.
In the Examination of Conscience that I am using as a prayer practice this Lent, envy is defined as “a sadness which we feel, on account of the good that happens to our neighbor.” My boss hated every time one of her employees succeeded, and she eventually came to hate anyone she feared. That might sound too harsh, but her actions proved her envy. She was discontented and held a grudge against every employee who did well. Unfortunately for her, that was most of her employees. Her envy, for whatever reason, led to her own downfall.
The word “envy” made me think about coveting; I wondered if there is a difference. The Bible tells us we aren’t to covet anything of our neighbor. Covetousness is a sign of discontent. Envy is worse because it leads to bitterness and hatred towards those who have what we want but can’t have. In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther not only talks about the prohibition of acts like coveting but also tells us that we are to fear and love God so that we’ll do what we can to help our neighbors. The opposite of envy is kindness. When we see something about someone that makes us envious, we are to be happy for them, to embrace their joy. My boss would have done so much better if she had encouraged her employees to do their best. Her department would have shined, she would have been more successful as a manager. She would not have been fired when the truth of her envy became obvious to her boss.
My story today is about envy from the point of view of the one who was envied, but as we consider our questions for this week, we need to remember that we are meant to consider how we envy others. As we examine our conscience, let’s ask, “Do I feel sad at the prosperity of others? At their success in games? In athletics? Do I rejoice at their failures? Do I envy the riches of others?” Note that it isn’t just about envying the tangible things of life. How do we respond to the successes of our neighbors? Do we treat them with kindness, help them be the best they can be, rejoice when they do well?
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