Ancient Greek history talks about an athlete who ran well, but only placed second. The crowd applauded the winner, and eventually a statue was erected in the town square in his honor. Meanwhile the athlete who came in second started to think of himself as a loser. Envy started to eat away at him, filling him with stress, and he could think of nothing other than his defeat. His desire to be number one increased to the point that he decided to destroy the statue that served as a daily reminder of his lost glory.

One day he came up with a plan: over time late at night he would chip away at the base of the statue and weaken its foundation. One evening he went too far. Having weakened the base of the heavy marble statue, it teetered and tumbled down on top of the disgruntled athlete. The man died beneath the crushing weight of the statue that he’d grown to hate. In truth, the athlete died long before that night. Day by day, gradually and slowly envy had been destroying his soul–and he became the casualty of it.