Covet.  I love and hate the word.  It’s so full and moist and sexy.  It fills your mouth with a rush of sound at the beginning, but then rounds out with a ripe, round “v” and finishes off with the harsh and quick “t”, almost to scold you for lingering- cuh uh uh uhvvv eehhh t.  It fills your brain with the opulence of all the possibilities- what can you covet- bodies, bodies together, money, power, success, even the mundane; possessions, food, talent- anything that humans desire can be deliciously and longingly coveted.   Merriam- Webster puts it simply: to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another.  Inordinate. Desire that exceeds reasonable limits.  It is such a cruel and beautiful idea that you could desire something to the point that it exceeds reasonable limits.
The bible has many tomes against the condition of covetousness- so much so that it is mentioned twice in the most basic and simple rules for salvation, the Ten Commandments.  It is also mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:6-10, Hebrews 13:5, Exodus 20:17, Ecclesiastes 5:10, Matthew 16:26, Proverbs 14:30, Colossians 3:5-6, Luke 12:15, and Hebrews 13:5-6.  It seems, that from the very dawn of human existence, covetous feelings have plagued us along with advice on how to avoid and overcome its steel grip.
There is no human emotion, no feeling, no state of intellectual discourse that I struggle more with than being covetous.  I openly and willingly admit that my desire for things exceed reasonable limits.  I want things so much sometimes, want something specific that someone else has, that I can actually feel the covet take over my body, possess me and make me into something that I am not.  I can see myself, as if from a distance, through a fog, doing and saying things that I know are foolish, pointless, and a waste of my time, and yet I cannot get a firm enough grip on my actions.  The want is so strong that it pre-rationalizes absolutely crazy behavior and even worse negative feelings about my quality as a person.  In trying to alleviate the feelings, even worse things tend to make their ugly presence known- sarcasm loves to step in and eradicate true communication by undermining its foundations.  Apathy tries to cover me so quickly and so deeply that I don’t know what hits me until I realize I have been shoveling myself out of a whole made only by myself with no good intentions for me in mind.  Nothing but instant gratification and momentary little pleasured are ever found when I get into that place.  I don’t want those feelings any more.  I want to get some feelings and emotions and stop censoring my own just so I can borrow someone else’s’ cleaner and more neatly packaged ones.  I want to be content with the flesh and the voice, the brain and the talents that were given to me by a loving and thoughtful God.  It is so hard though.  It is so much harder than I could ever imagine that it would be.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife...

Ever Virgin.