After the extremely long last Friday’s post, on which I labored for weeks, this will be just a short quick review.

I love the Archie-style eyes on the cover of this book. It’s addressing a very ugly sin, but the fact that the eyes on the cover are pretty makes it easier for the reader to accept the rebuke.

Tilly Dillehay is an awesome writer. Nevertheless, she spent much of her young adult years consumed with poisonous, immiserating envy for her younger sisters, who were thinner and had developed their musical talents more than she had. Dillehay writes with blistering honesty about this sin, the ins and out of it, the effect it had on her relationships, and above all, the cure.

When Dilley writes of the natural gifts that God gives unequally to people, and that we are tempted to envy, she calls them “glories.” There is the glory of being good-looking, of talent, of being a warm and charming person, and so on. She brings out how, when God gives someone a gift like this, it is there for the rest of us to enjoy. It makes the world a more beautiful place, and ultimately, shows forth His glory. It is wise of her not to denigrate the things that we envy (which is one thing envious people tend to do), but to fully admit that they are praiseworthy. She points out that, in the new heavens and the new earth, there will still be inequality among us when it comes to beauty, talent, and other such features. But though there will still be inequality, there will no longer be any envy.