By Anna Fikkert
If you are a part of either the Millennial or Gen-Z generations (aka a “Zillenial”), you may be familiar with the concept of “adulting.” When accomplishing small but essential tasks such as arriving at work on time, making (as opposed to buying) your own coffee, washing and folding and putting away laundry, a Zillenial may say something along the lines of “Gosh, this adulting thing is hard,” or “I just can’t adult anymore today.” The Fellows recently returned from our Winter Retreat that could be classified as a retreat all about how to adult post-fellows. Martha, our assistant director, led a session entitled, “Thriving in Adult Life: Conquering Covetousness.”
Let’s just say that her session was a little too close for comfort. She pointed out that as Fellows we are about to enter a new stage of life where we and our peers will all start going in different directions. Some will get married and start having kids, others will pay money to go back to school, while still others will score a job with a six-figure starting salary. As friends all enter these different life stages, we can see the insidious sin of covetousness creep into our hearts. For, as Martha pointed out, covetousness is the mother of all sins because it threatens our ability to obey the two greatest commandments – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind…and…love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). We start to doubt the goodness of God and begin to let our hearts stew in a pot of bitterness.
I don’t know about you, but this reality feels fairly dismal to me–I come by covetousness all too easily, and there is always someone or something to covet. And little by little my heart grows harder and harder. Yet, through both confession and gratitude we can combat this subtle but deadly sin.
As we become more aware of our hearts’ propensity towards bitterness and jealousy, I invite you to pray Ezekiel 11:19-20 with me: “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.” We can be confident that when we ask God to soften our hearts, He will surely do it. Secondly, when we practice gratitude towards the Lord for what He has done, we push back against the temptation to doubt the goodness of God. When the spirit of covetousness begins to rear its head, the act of calling to mind the goodness and faithfulness of God helps to guard us from this insidious sin so that we can truly thrive in this adult life.
Pictures from the Week
Wednesday nights are for trivia at Hawk and Griffin
Puppy snuggles and job searching on MLK Jr. Day
Guys' trip to New Haven, CT (aka the "Pizza Capital of the World")
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About Capital Fellows. Capital Fellows is an advanced leadership and discipleship program for recent college graduates. Through graduate courses, a paid internship, one-on-one mentoring and many leadership and community service opportunities, fellows develop and apply their gifts in real-world situations while learning to integrate a Christian worldview into all areas of life. Capital Fellows is a unique opportunity to live and work in the Washington DC area and to be an active member of a supportive community that seeks to serve the city with the love of Christ. It is also a unique opportunity to get hands-on experience in the workplace while deeply exploring God’s design for us as workers and contributors to human flourishing.
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