“Do not desire and try to take your neighbor’s house.” – Exodus 20:17 (CEB)
There is a quiet ache most of us carry and rarely name: the sense that we would be content if we just had a little more. A little more money, a little more space, a little more recognition. We get the thing we wanted, enjoy it for a week, and then the horizon moves again. Somehow we are still reaching.
The last commandment names that ache. Do not covet. It is the only commandment that goes after our wanting rather than our doing, because God knows the wanting is where everything starts. This isn’t God scolding us for enjoying good things. It is God noticing the treadmill we are on, the one with no finish line, and gently offering to help us off. The first step is simply to admit we are on it.
God, you see the restless wanting I rarely admit out loud. Quiet it. Teach me to want you, and to receive the rest as gift. In Jesus’ name. Amen.