Holy Envy By iyree jarrett

This poem-prayer was inspired by two thoughts shared this past Sunday as we discussed the question, “What about other religions?” One was the idea of “holy envy” shared by Dave, finding wisdom and beauty in other faith traditions and the other was Ali’s reminder that everyone is a wisdom keeper.

God, give me holy envy.

Not the hunger that diminishes,
not the wanting that corrodes,
but the kind that kneels in wonder 

before a light I can see in others.

Let me envy the agnostic,

who allows the radical honesty of uncertainty 

to live in their bones, 

who holds their palms open in genuine wonder and integrity.

Let me envy the Muslim
who pauses the day five times
to remember what is greater than the day.

Let me envy the Jew

who practices sacred remembrance,
who wrestles with You and calls the struggle sacred.

Let me envy the Buddhist
who loosens the fist of the self,
and listens for what remains.

Let me envy the Hindu who finds a thousand names
for what I often can barely name once.

Let me envy the Janist,

who moves through the world with discipline, nonviolence,

and care for all living things. 


Let me envy the Sikh serving a stranger,

who refuses the false castes of race and gender,

and lives as though every soul were equal. 

Let me envy the Indigenous elder,
who knows the land as kin,

not something given to us to exploit. 

Let me envy the four-year-old,

who asks the question

everyone else has learned to hide. 

Let me envy every doorway
through which human beings
have glimpsed eternity, 

where mystery breaks through the ordinary,

where heaven brushes earth,

where the sacred leaks through,

where the infinite leaves its fingerprints.

For everyone guards some fragment
of wisdom I have not yet received.

Everyone is carrying a key
to a room I have never entered.

Everyone knows a grief
I have never survived,

a joy I have never tasted,
a truth I have not yet learned to speak.

Keep me from the arrogance
of believing I have arrived.

Keep me curious enough

to gather gold from unlikely places.

Let me walk through the world
like a pilgrim among pilgrims,

meeting prophets disguised as children,
teachers disguised as neighbors,
saints disguised as enemies,
and revelations hidden
in ordinary faces.

God, give me holy envy.

Make me eager
for every glimpse of beauty,
every shard of wisdom,

 every language of love.

And when I find them,
 wherever I find them,

let my first response
be gratitude.