Giving Up Looking at Other People’s Grass

Okay, so I agree today’s blog title is a little weird, but stick with me.  How often have you found yourself in a situation where you were looking at what other people’s lives looked like and either:

 1. Wished your life looked more like their’s or

2. Were secretly thanking God your life doesn’t look like theirs.

We often hear the phrase “the grass is always greener on the other side” and find ourselves jealous over our neighbor’s “green grass”.  Or maybe, we’re the ones with green grass casting judgment on our brown grass neighbors.

While we may actually do this with lawncare habits, the list goes on and on. We compare jobs.  We compare homes.  We compare lifestyles and budgets. We compare hair and clothing. We compare marriages and parenting techniques.  We compare relationships. We compare the cleanliness of our homes. We compare and compare and compare.  And then we either end up hating our lives or hating God or hating our neighbor. 

Let’s give it up! 

While listening to a webstream of a conference a couple weeks ago, one of the speakers, Eugene Cho made this statement that I can’t stop thinking about:

“Maybe if I keep finding noticing someone else’s green grass, maybe that’s the Holy Spirit reminding me to water the grass I’m standing on!”

Maybe we’ve been so busy looking at everyone else’s grass that we haven’t even thought to water our own… To water our homes, our singleness, our marriage, our kids … To pour life into our workplaces… To give sustenance to our neighbors … To refresh our spirit. 

Today I give up looking at other people’s grass and choose to water the ground I’m standing on. 

From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.  For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:26-28a)

God, help us stop comparing and judging our lives with the people around us. Let us find joy in watering the places you have us standing in this moment, trusting that You have us here so that people, including us, can know You more. Show us practically what it looks like to invest more in watering the ground we’re standing on, to water our homes, workplaces, and communities. May contentment come as we see our own green grass! In Jesus’ Name, Amen!