It's Not Easy Being Green

Once upon a time, Kermit the Frog sang "It's Not Easy Being Green." It was hard, he said, to be the color of the leaves, and he thought life could be easier if he were a different color. Some of us may relate and believe life would be much easier if we could just change one thing about us. It could be race, intelligence, beauty, a personality quirk, or anything, really. We just feel life would be better if we weren't whatever and could be something else instead.

Not long after that idea enters our minds, we start noticing more and more people who have the something else, people who are smarter, prettier, with a better job, more friends, etc. We latch on to those people since they have what we want, and one of two things occur. First, we may lapse into idolatry, thinking these people are somehow so much better than we are because they have the Thing. Our life becomes oriented around the Thing, and our quest to acquire it, no matter how impossible it may be, begins to drive us. If that doesn't happen, though, we turn green. Green with envy. We become bitter towards those who have the Thing, who don't appreciate just how important the Thing is to us, who didn't even have to try to have the Thing. We begin to covet it, deciding to do whatever it takes to get it -- not because it's even what we desire anymore, but simply because someone else has it.

It's not easy being green. Envy, covetousness, and lust can and will eat away at your soul. For that reason, we need to be like Paul, learning to be content in whatever situation life places us (Philippians 4:11). If we can let go of the Thing, learn to be satisfied with what we have and simply obey the will of God, life will be better and more satisfying -- and holier.

Remember: it's not easy being green.