I like to think of myself as a not jealous or judgmental person. I love to be happy for people and I enjoy their success as much as they do–especially people I’ve never met.
Now that may seem completely backwards, how can you be happy for the success of someone you never met MORE than those you do know. But consider celebrities, millions of people look up to these people, say they deserve their: praise, income, spouses. If the average person meets 3 new people a day, 365 days a year, for around 75 years that means we will interact with around 80,000 people in our lifetime… now for a celebrity if they interact with 15 new people a day they will engage around 416,000 people in their lifetime there are still 7 billion people on the earth thats only .00594% of the population they’re interacting with. So with less than 1% of the population meeting this 1 person yet millions of people are influenced and happy for them… does it seem less crazy? Anyhow…
I personally struggle with being happy for the people who “did me wrong”… but especially when they thank God for their success. I could name so many bullies that just tormented me from elementary school through high school. The shame you feel when a kid (and sometimes adult) snickers at you right after you say something or trip or literally do nothing but convert oxygen into carbon dioxide is something no one should ever endure. I–being a millennial– am of the age group that was obsessed with facebook friend numbers for a few years… and I went to a BIG high school so I have roughly 800 “friends” that I haven’t seen or heard from in at least 5 years. And of those 800 I have actually kept in touch with MAYBE a whopping 4. But anyway… for some very odd reason that no one can explain or understand, I have those tormentors as my “friends” on facebook… yeah I don’t get it either… why are they still my “friend” you ask? Well I friended them, so too late to not, and unfriending them requires the effort of more than scrolling. (basically I left Facebook for “I met you” relationships, Instagram for “I care about keeping up with you/seeing your highlight reel” relationships, and Snapchat for “I actually care about your daily life” relationships)
As a 23 year old mindlessly scrolling through facebook, most of what I see is just random videos and memes that my most recently friended friends shared. But the further you scroll the more you see career advances, graduations, engagements, babies, weddings, vacations, new cars, new phones, new dogs… and I love, love, LOVE seeing everything is going great for those people I just met. But then you’ll see the “God gave me you” “God blessed my career” from the very people who were so horrible to me (and I refuse to believe I was the only one that felt their wrath)… I struggle to be happy for them. I struggle to believe they “deserve it”, and the more I don’t believe Karma will work itself out. But guess. What. It isn’t up to me to determine if they “deserve it”. Because MY GOD, who is so awesome, loves, and blesses me… also loves and blesses them.
“God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day. (Psalm 7:11)” I do not know these peoples’ walk with the Lord, I do not know if they feel horribly about how they treated me (though if I had to guess, they probably haven’t even considered it).
I feel like every christian knows this verse:
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me remove the speck from your eye”; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1–5)
Yet I wonder how many of us struggle with this… and maybe don’t realize that we do(?) I am a nonjudgemental person, I have always said if you can answer to God to it then “you do you”. I am genuinely happy for people and their successes. I don’t think anyone deserves to struggle. I don’t even wish struggle on the people who were mean to me, I just struggle to accept that they were blessed to be where they are.
I pray that I can have peace and be happy for those who did me wrong, maybe thats why I keep them around on my facebook. I keep them as my constant reminder to be humble and of how AWESOME our God is. He is awesome that he was able help these people, He fixed their hearts, He fixed their problems, He helped them and I should be happy for that. And I pray that I will be.
The Wordy Over Thinker 