"The grass is always greener..."
I have an idea what likely went through your mind. You finished out the saying, didn't you? Something like "...on the other side of the fence", huh? If you did, you were right. According to DeProverbio.com:
"This proverb...expresses the only too human idea of discontent, envy, and jealousy in a metaphor which is easily understood. Interestingly enough, the proverb is also literally true as has been demonstrated by James Pomerantz in a scientific article on "'The Grass is always Greener': An Ecological Analysis of an Old Aphorism" (1983). This scholar proves that optical and perceptual laws alone will make the grass at a distance look greener to the human eye than the blades of grass perpendicular to the ground."
Did you catch that? It's an illusion. A trick of the eye.
So it's true. Blades of grass truly DO look greener... at a distance. May I repeat? Grass looks greener at a distance.
Opposite of Distance? Nearness
Who, or what, do you find in your "Nearness" (God. Your spouse. Your kids. Your current assignment in ministry, ...)?
So, what is missing about your Nearness that you are entertaining the "Distance"? What has you so captivated from the illusive Distance that you are willing to give up your precious Nearness? Or flip the question upside down: When was the last time you were so present in your Nearness that you saw, for the first time, something new and wonderful about God, about your spouse, about your kids, about your assignment that the Distance didn't even matter to you?
Forfeit your Nearness and you run the risk of finding yourself in the Distance, nose to nose with illusion (and disappointment).
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