A few broken commandments
(Leviticus 19:11)"‘YOU people must not steal, and YOU must not deceive, and YOU must not deal falsely anyone with his associate
(Deuteronomy 5:21) "‘Neither must you desire your fellowman’s wife. Neither must you selfishly crave your fellowman’s house, his field or his slave man or his slave girl, his bull or his ass or anything that belongs to your fellowman.’
Ok, so today not only did I lie, but I coveted my neighbor's lunch.
Picture it. Columbia 2005. A young peasant girl arrived at work with desire to work and a dream. A dream to eat lunch with a dear friend. She text paged her friend, hoping that lunch would give them the opportunity to catch after her friend's long journey to the southern most tip of our country. She envisioned that they would laugh, cry, drink a little soda... all merriments allowed under current work policies.
But alas, it was not to be. You see the friend had already promised her mother that she would share with her today's noontime meal. So our young peasant girl, though filled with sadness on being able to spend the day with her friend, submitted without opposition to her friend's plans and resolved in her heart that they would eat yet another day.
Well, upon seeing her friend leaving work, she began to feel jealousy, covetousness, and envy over the meal that her friend had planned to partake of with her mother; that is the sumptuous culinary delight known as the grilled cheese sandwich. Oh how bountiful and plentiful the memories and bittersweet emotions that fill one's heart at the mere mention of this delicacy of the poor. No one in his right mind can resist the feeling one derives from eating one of these delicious sandwiches. It is a delicacy that should be reserved for knights-errant and their squires.
Upon hearing of the sumptous meal that lay ahead, our peasant girl, putting on the bravest face that she could muster, declared that she would not hold it against her friend for having such a meal for our peasant girl had made alternate plans for the noontime meal. She tried to be brave, fighting back the tears of pain and the anger of being without a grilled cheese sandwich. Our brave peasant girl left her friend to meet another at the local mall for lunch. She had a white pizza, but alas it was not the same. Nothing could fill the hole left by the absense of the grilled cheese sandwich that never was.
So our peasant girl, despite being a Christian, in her hurt and anger, broke two important commandmants today. Not only did she lie about feeling being fine about not having lunch with her friend, but after she coveted the lunch that her friend had. We hope and pray that these minor infractions, can be forgiven by not only her friend, but by her God as well. Let that be a lesson for you. Covetousness and deceit do more harm to the one succumbing to those emotions.
