What do you see over that fence?  The other side broad, green and wide?  What is it that captures your eye?  Health, wealth, pliable dreams or are your esteems piqued by curiosity?  Do you petition God for their sort of happiness?  Is being like them freedom from being me?  Is there some place I would rather be, than in this moment, this struggle, this episode of a life I find unpleasant?  If not what is the allure of another man’s life?  Why must I look upon his wife, his car, home, position or fame, wanting the same?  Who then can I blame for this longing built into the scope of my wanton eye?  Am I dry, unfilled with joy and thankfulness for what I have been given?  Or is there purpose served in this comparison?  A purpose meant to bring positive change, to my language, my perspective, my heart?

May I truly, fully enjoy the taste so sweet of my own sustenance when wishing more, or other or none?  What have I done to the honor designed into my own existence?  Can I give glory to He who deserves every ounce, watt or ampere without acceptance, wonder and thanks.  Do I commit my own yearning to an expectant, constant pursuit of that which I do not have?  Or may I have it at all without delighting in its value?  What is the measure of a man except that which he constructs from the materials available?  The song he writes with melodies and harmonies in his head.  The world he feeds with part of his treasure.  The communities he invites with the grace within his heart.  The wrong he rights with sense of justice and sword hand.  Does it matter what I think of myself or what others believed me to be or am I a story to be reviewed, contemplated and remembered?

Is not love a delight in my circumstance, my things, gifts, talents treasure and friends?  May I truly love my wife without looking upon her in grace and wonder?  Will my children ever please me if they have not first been viewed as gifts for which I may never make remuneration?  Is this true of my salvation?  May its value never be realized without this manner of gratefulness and love?  May my Saviour never be truly served without an awe of His doing?  Why then my luring eye, scanning the horizon with relentless hunger for something other than what stands before me?  The wealth in my poverty is my poverty, for within it is the delight of my eternal purpose toward God.  Lord let my eye no longer wander.  Give me your Grace and Understanding and let me love them to the extent a man may love with a view of heaven within my heart and feet planted firmly upon the Solid Rock of Ages.  In Jesus’ Name.