Hunting For Treasure
Seek and you shall find
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)
Friends,
If someone went on a treasure hunt in your house/apartment what would they be able to tell about you? What would they discover that you treasure? Could they tell by what they could see in your surroundings? Would it reflect who you are now in the present or would it be reflective of the person you used to be? We all change as we get older and yes, we most likely all hang onto too many “things”. It’s so easy to accumulate and treasure things that bring memories from the past! No judgement here as I include myself in this also!
Recently three people I have cared about passed away, all within a couple months of each other. Then this week, I heard a sermon based on the verse above which has sparked me to take stock in the things around me. I found myself thinking about how I came into the world and how I will leave it. I began to ask myself some questions and I share them with you here. What are the things we really need? And, what do the things we treasure say about how we want to live, right here in the present time? What do we want our legacy to say about how we have lived? These are deep and difficult questions to reflect on. And you probably have heard this before, there is no time like the present to begin the work!
Thinking about treasure isn’t just about the “things” we have accumulated. It truly is about where our heart is living. I know that is a strange way to put it. However, we can live in the past with things stored up in our hearts that really are not useful to us in the present moment. And just like reflecting on physical things and accumulations, we can reflect on what may have accumulated in our hearts as we have lived. Are we carrying grudges that need resolved? Are there past hurts or anger or disappointments that need tending to? Are there still things we want to do but are held back by something? What is it that we are willing to be curious and vulnerable enough to open our hearts?
Sometimes carrying things from the past spills out into the present in ways to hurt others - or at the very least - keep us from experiencing the fullness of our everyday life. How can we open to what our “heart legacy” will be? How do we prepare and let go of those things that do not serve us anymore? Maybe this verse gives us a clue, if we are willing to hunt for the treasure.
peace,
Jace
Let Truth Be Told
Let truth be told. Let love be lived.
Let hope be real. Let peace be lasting.
It might be called a mantra,
A sacred saying to roll around in your mind
But I share these words for more than personal use.
These four phrases danced across my prayers
And kept repeating themselves:
A quiet chant for all of us who live in anxious times.
Please accept my invitation to pray them today
Before the sun sets where you are.
It is our common call to heal the world around us.
Let truth be told. Let love be lived.
Let hope be real. Let peace be lasting.
Steven Charleston, Spirit WheelBlood, Like Salt Water
There is in each of us an ocean
full of secrets strange and luminous,
an ocean with depths we do not understand,
with dark we often fear,
a place almost impossible to visit
and yet it moves with us
everywhere we go,
informs every conversation,
underlies every thought.
There is treasure there,
but it belongs to the depths
the way the heart
belongs to the body.
Everything depends on this.
Lately, I’m learning to think of treasure
only as a verb,
not as a thing to be taken.
I’m learning that to live
is to be an ocean.
Rosemerry Wahtola TrommerStorage
When I moved from one house to another
there were many things I had no room for.
What does one do? I rented a storage
space. And filled it. Years passed.
Occasionally I went there and looked in,
but nothing happened, not a single
twinge of the heart.
As I grew older the things I cared
about grew fewer, but were more
important. So one day I undid the lock
and called the trash man. He took
everything.
I felt like the little donkey when
his burden is finally lifted. Things!
Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful
fire! More room in your heart for love,
for the trees! For the birds who own
nothing– the reason they can fly.
Mary Oliver, Books in Devotions, p.7.Jace Belz is a spiritual director with a certificate in spiritual formation and the art of spiritual formation through the Wellstreams Program.
This one was written just for me............thank you! Blessings, Carol B