I came across an article the other day recording an interview with a well known Jazz Musician who proceeded in the interview to personally attack another well known musician who has been commercially successful at bridging the gap between jazz and mainstream music genres.

It’s not totally clear what set this attack off apart from the interviewee taking exception to the other muso using a track from another well known artist to play and record with (bit like Natalie Cole singing with her deceased Dad). One would presume all the legal niceties for copyright had been onserved because the track was on a commercially released cd.

We can all understand that we have different and varied tastes in music and that there are also differences in musicians abilities. Yet the interviewee went out of his way to denigrate the other muso and to criticise his lack of rythmn and for playing sharp and so on. Obviously there is more to this than first meets the eye. It was starting to sound a bit like sour grapes to me!

Enter the dis-ease of envy. When we look at others and what they are doing it can be easy for us to want what they have. In doing that we  deprive ourselves of our own power to create what we want in our own lives. We instead start to resent the other people for having what we don’t have and relinquish our own power to manifest our dreams and desires. This sort of attitude goes hand in hand with the related dis-ease of victimhood where we take no responsibility for directing our own lives and ameliorate our feelings of despair by knocking and blaming others who do.

The Bible contains many directives about living properly. These include not coveting our neighbours wives and the like. There is good reason for this because as long as we continue to focus on what others have and what we don’t then guess what? We will continue to get what we have always gotten and that is not what we want!

There is no place for envy or jealousy in a creative universe. Instead embrace the God within and be the creator in your own life.