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The Deadly Parasite

Rev. Doug Pratt — November 15, 2009
 

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Introduction
The 20th and early 21st centuries have certainly seen some amazing advances and breakthroughs in health care and the curing of many difficult and deadly diseases. Many once-fatal and hopeless diagnoses can now be successfully treated. But we certainly can’t declare total victory over germ, viruses, bacteria and cancers. Our deadly struggle continues. The recent worldwide swine flu or “H1N1” pandemic has brought nearly daily reminders of this in news broadcasts and headlines.

One of the greatest health problems in the Third [or Developing] World continues to be the nagging plague of human parasites. These small organisms invade and take up residence inside the human body. Parasites suck their life and nourishment from their unwilling host—weakening and sometimes even killing the person who carries them. Parasites usually breed and proliferate in conditions that lack good sanitation, have extensive environmental pollution, or swelter in tropical climates.

Some of the most common parasites are tapeworms, hookworms, pinworms, filarial worms, and guinea worms. These nasty little things can grow inside a person without their knowing it. They not only weaken the host but also have the potential to make them susceptible to malaria, blindness, sleeping sickness, diarrhea and dehydration, or even starvation. In developing countries, parasites contribute significantly to infant mortality. One missionary doctor in Africa performed an autopsy on a teenage boy who had died an agonizing death. The doctor removed a tapeworm from his intestines that was over 6 feet long, wrapped into the folds. No wonder no food or nourishment could get through to sustain the boy’s life!

Perhaps the most frightening thing about intestinal parasites is that they cause a gnawing hunger inside—but the more one eats, the more the parasite is fed, and the bigger and stronger it becomes. The only way to free oneself from such a deadly parasite is to take some very powerful chemicals in an attempt to kill it.

A Parasite of the Soul
There is a deadly parasite that can invade our inner minds and hearts. It’s called envy. It comes into us from our environment, as we look around at other people and compare ourselves to them. It attaches itself to our thoughts and can slowly destroy our faith and joy. The parasite of envy causes the diseases of covetousness, jealousy, bitterness, greed and materialism.

The only cure for this parasite is a powerful form of spiritual chemotherapy that the Bible calls contentment. But unlike many modern forms of chemo (which can kill healthy cells as well as diseased ones, and often have horrible side effects), the chemotherapy of contentment, when taken in regular lifelong doses, brings us no negative side effects—only joy, satisfaction and peace.

I would like to offer to be your doctor this morning and to write you a prescription to cure your parasite of envy. Of course, my doctorate is not in medicine but in ministry; my specialty is in treating diseases of the soul, not the intestines, and in maintaining spiritual, not physical, health. I hope you’ll be willing to listen and receive for the next few moments the biblical diagnosis and prescription for this parasite of the soul.

Diagnosis & Treatment
The mental parasite of envy can be a very deadly attitude to any of us, and we need to constantly be on our guard against it. It was clearly the sin of envy and coveting that Adam and Eve first committed, as recorded in Genesis; all the other sins of the human race followed in their wake. The first humans were told by God, for very good reasons, that there was just one tree in the Garden of Eden they were not allowed to touch. But they wanted it, they coveted it, and they talked themselves into believing they had a right to it. And so they sinned. At the very core of the apple of envy we find the seed of doubting God’s love and God’s goodness. And it is just as easy for us today to doubt and question God’s gracious provision to us—thinking that we deserve more and better.

What are the things we usually envy? The most common are material things: we see someone else’s car or house or clothes or stock portfolio, and we want it for ourselves. We may envy another person’s position and career success, their physical appearance or athletic prowess; we may envy their good health when we are sick or handicapped, or their seemingly trouble-free life in comparison to our own difficulties. All of these feelings come from comparing what someone else has to what we have. Envy only produces negative feelings; nothing good or healthy can ever come from this parasite.

The only way to be truly happy is to kill the envy. And contentment is the only medicine that will do the job. If you try to satisfy your hunger and envy by getting more things, climbing higher on the ladder, or making yourself more beautiful, you’ll always find someone who has more than you. You’ll never be satisfied. The more you eat, the hungrier you become—and the less happy.

Contentment is the decision we make to adopt a different attitude. It says, “I’m not going to keep score any more. I’m not going to waste time and energy comparing myself to someone else. I will accept what God has given me as right for me at this moment in time. If He wants to give me more money, or heal my body, or make me a great success, I will be thankful. But if He doesn’t change my circumstances, I will be content and grateful for where I am and what I have.”

Contentment is not the same as complacency. A complacent person is lazy and careless about the things they should be doing something about. God doesn’t reward that kind of passive complacency. We should never be satisfied with sin and disobedience in our lives. But contentment is different. It means accepting the things we can’t change and living positively with them.

Psalm 73: Diary of One Man’s Struggle
In order to assure you that this prescription of contentment to cure the deadly parasite of envy is not just my idea but is thoroughly scriptural, we are going to read together a powerful passage from the Old Testament book of Psalms. Psalm 73 is the first-person diary of a man who discovered within himself the parasite of envy, and swallowed the healing medicine of contentment. We’re going to read this a few verses at a time and notice carefully what is happening.

¹Surely God is good to Israel,
      to those who are pure in heart.
²But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
      I had nearly lost my foothold.
³For I envied the arrogant
      when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. (Psalm 73:1-3)

The writer of this Psalm is a Jewish man named Asaph. He was a believer, a worshiper of the True God, and in his mind he had all the right beliefs and theology. He knew that God is good and merciful and just, and that if he would follow the ways of God he would ultimately be blessed.

But that belief seemed to him to be contradicted by what he saw around him. Taking his eyes off of God and looking at other people, he became sucked in by envious feelings. His faith began to wobble, his feet slipping toward unbelief. Many of us struggle in this same way. We read the Bible or go to church and our minds are straight about what we believe. But then through the week we watch things happening in the news and in society and we get confused.

⁴They have no struggles;
      their bodies are healthy and strong.
⁵They are free from the burdens common to man;
      they are not plagued by human ills.
⁶Therefore pride is their necklace;
      they clothe themselves with violence.
⁷From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
      the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
⁸They scoff, and speak with malice;
      in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
⁹Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
      and their tongues take possession of the earth.
¹⁰Therefore their people turn to them
      and drink up waters in abundance.
¹¹They say, “How can God know?
      Does the Most High have knowledge?”
 
¹²This is what the wicked are like –
      always carefree, they increase in wealth. (Psalm 73:4-12)

The tough old baseball manager Leo Durocher famously snarled, “Nice guys finish last.” Our friend Asaph certainly seems to be thinking like Leo. All the bad guys seem to be winning, while the nice guys finish last. But when we look carefully, we realize that Asaph’s conclusions are obvious exaggerations. He is looking at those rotten people with envy, and he immediately assumes that they have no problems and that everything is going perfectly for them. But we know that, in fact, every person has problems in this life. Nobody has a perfect body … at least not for long. Verse 5 is certainly not true, as it claims that the evil people “are free from the burdens common to man” and “are not plagued by human ills.” Everyone has burdens and ills. There are no Supermen and Superwomen; they’re just comic book fantasies.

It is a natural and normal feeling—but absolutely wrong—to look at other people and assume they don’t have any problems; that, for them, life is blissful and perfect. For we see only the surface. We don’t know what’s inside, what they’re dealing with. And when we look at someone at a particular time we are viewing only a freeze-frame photograph of an immediate moment. If we could see the whole videotape of their entire life, from childhood to death, we would see that everyone has to deal with some problems and pain and suffering in life.

Asaph our author has jumped to some wrong conclusions, out of his feelings of envy and jealousy and comparison. And his faith is shaky. He is starting to wonder if there’s a point to being a good, faithful and obedient person. The next section revealed how much he was infected by the parasite of envy.

¹³Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;
      in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴All day long I have been plagued;
      I have been punished every morning. (Psalm 73:13-14)

You can almost hear the wailing of the violin as he mourns his terrible plight. And we can all relate. How easy it is to indulge ourselves in a heaping helping of self-pity! But just as his assumptions about the people around him are inaccurate and exaggerated (when he concludes they never have any problems), so we can be certain that his assumptions about himself are also more than a bit distorted. None of us, including Asaph or you or me, are ever totally pure of heart and innocent. And none of us are plagued constantly, without a single good thing or blessing in life. It happens to us as it did to him: we lose our perspective. We start to thinking that perhaps no one in the long history of the world has ever had a harder lot than we do.

¹⁵If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
      I would have betrayed your children.
¹⁶When I tried to understand all this,
      it was oppressive to me
¹⁷Till I entered the sanctuary of God;
      then I understood their final destiny.
 
¹⁸Surely you place them on slippery ground;
      you cast them down to ruin.
¹⁹How suddenly are they destroyed,
      completely swept away by terrors!
²⁰As a dream when one awakes,
      so when you arise, O Lord,
      you will despise them as fantasies. (Psalm 73:15-20)

And now comes the turning point, the attitude adjustment. One Sabbath morning Asaph goes to church. His mind has been in a state of confusion about all the unfairness and injustice he sees around him. He can’t seem to figure it out, can’t seem to get rid of his problem of envy.

But there in God’s house, during the singing of hymns of praise and the readings of scripture, it all comes together for him. His perspective suddenly changes. It’s as if the light bulb inside his head is suddenly turned on. Now he understands. What changes inside of Asaph? He looks at things through God’s eyes for a change. He sees things from an eternal perspective. And he realizes that what seems like injustice and the inaction of God in the face of evil is really just temporary. He discovers that the conclusions he has drawn are wrong.

Defying the Lord and Creator of all life, and trampling on His laws and commandments, will eventually bring destruction to anyone who persists on that path. There really are ultimate and eventual consequences, for evil and for good. Sometimes we see the results during this lifetime, and sometimes only at the end. But the perfect Judge will administer His perfect Justice. Those who live for themselves will in the end have only themselves to rely upon at Judgment Day, while those who trust in the Lord and have claimed His grace and followed His way will have Him as their Advocate and Redeemer.

²¹When my heart was grieved
      and my spirit embittered,
²²I was senseless and ignorant;
      I was a brute beast before you.
 
²³Yet I am always with you;
      you hold me by my right hand.
²⁴You guide me with your counsel,
      and afterward you will take me into glory.
²⁵Whom have I in heaven but you?
      And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail,
      but God is the strength of my heart
      and my portion forever.
 
²⁷Those who are far from you will perish;
      you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
²⁸But as for me, it is good to be near God.
      I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
      I will tell of all your deeds. (Psalm 73:21-28)

What Asaph now realizes is not only that God’s justice will eventually prevail, but also that His love and care for those who turn to Him now is a present and constant reality. He admits that, when the parasite of envy had control of his mind, he was not thinking clearly (it was as if he was as ignorant as a cow or sheep, in a spiritual sense). It can happen to any of us, no matter what our IQ and education. We can be invaded by wrong thinking.

But now our writer has gotten things straight. He understands that God’s faithfulness, love and protection have actually been with him all along, even when he didn’t realize it. At the very moment he was doubting and questioning the Lord’s love, that eternal love was surrounding him like a strong Father’s arms, enfolding him. This is a very comforting and reassuring truth for us, my Christian friends. Ultimately our relationship with God and our security in Him do not depend on our fickle minds and emotions, but on His unchanging faithfulness. If you have placed your faith in the Lord, nothing can remove you from His arms of love—not even your doubts and fears and struggles and questions.

Asaph is now finally able to experience the contentment we all need. He has drunk deeply of that divine medicine, and now he is cured of the disease of envy. It’s my prayer that every person here today will be able to exchange envy and covetousness for the contentment and inner peace that this writer discovered. You will be amazed at what a difference it will make in your life, your attitude and your relationships if you will replace envy with contentment.

Conclusion: The Underside
A Dutch Christian writer by the name of Corrie ten Boom had a remarkable life, with incredible joys and sufferings. As a young woman she was a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, her family imprisoned for the crime of sheltering innocent Jews from capture and extermination. Her testimony of trust in God in the midst of unbelievable circumstances has encouraged millions.

One day a few years before her death an American author paid a visit to her in the retirement home where she was living. As Corrie recounted the experiences of her life and the lessons she learned through adversity, she continued to work patiently with her hands, stitching a tapestry. The cloth on her lap looked to the visitor like a wild jumble of different colored threads, with no apparent order or meaning to them. Then Corrie turned the tapestry over, revealing a beautiful image of a gold crown with jewels on a rich background of deep blue. And she explained the message of the tapestry by quoting a little poem:

My life is but a weaving between my God and me;
I do not choose the colors; He works so steadily.
Sometimes He weaves in sorrow, and I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.

The Lord is weaving a tapestry out of the threads of your life and mine. We can’t yet see what the final plan and pattern is; and sometimes it may seem to make no more sense than the underside of a weaving—just a jumbled bunch of random threads. But He knows how it all can come together for good. That’s why we need to stop questioning and envying others, and instead be content with God’s plan for each of us.