September 4, 2000
CYBERCOLUMN:
Treasure hunt
___By Berry D. Simpson
___I stood in our opened garage door, deciding whether to head out into the rain, when thunder cracked directly over my head. The sky brightened, reminding me the lightning was too close to actually see the bolt. I decided to stay home for awhile longer. I knew I wouldn't get much sympathy from Cyndi if I got struck by lightning while out running.
___ Once the thunder and lightning passed on by, I put on my Tilley hat to deflect any latent raindrops and took off for a quick five miles.
___I carried a small stack of Bible verse cards to work on as I ran. The first one up was Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." It's a verse that always makes me take personal inventory; checking: Where is my heart, and where is my treasure?
BERRY SIMPSON
___I know where I want my heart to be. I want it guarded safely by God and his servant, Cyndi. I also know that I want my treasure to be the riches of God--his grace, mercy and word.
___ However, what are the odds that my heart and treasure are really where I want them to be? I have many long years of practice hiding them from myself.
___ I think God's intent with this verse in the Gospel of Matthew was to tell us that we need to follow the treasure trail of our lives to find our hearts. Follow the trail of our money, our time and our thoughts, our checkbooks, or calendars, and our conversations.
___ Why can't we just look into our hearts and find out what is important to us? Because we lie to ourselves. We tell ourselves we have one set of priorities when our treasure-trail reveals another set. It is too easy to lie to ourselves.
___ If we are spiritually minded people (and who else but spiritually minded people would even care about this verse?), it is even more tempting to lie to ourselves. Why? Because we know what the desires of our heart should be. When someone asks us to list the things most important to us, we know the correct answers. "God, spouse, family, vocation, health, etc." Any answer to the question, "What is important to you?" that doesn't have "God" as the first and most important thing is a wrong answer. Period. Spiritual people know that.
___ We tell the correct answers to ourselves. We trick ourselves into thinking we have our priorities in godly order. At least, I do.
___ The next memory card was Matthew 6:33, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
___I don't know exactly what is included in "all these things" that shall be added, but I do believe he means to fill many of my wishes and dreams and desires. At least, the ones that won't interrupt my active seeking of his kingdom. The thing is, I can't always tell which earthly treasure will detour me from seeking him. In my eyes, I am so strong I can continue on my seeking path no matter how many of "all these things" are added to me. I can handle the success and prosperity and keep on seeking God, That's what I tell myself.
___ God knows better, though.
___ I don't believe this verse is a carte blanche promise that I'll receive all the pleasures of life; however, the verse plainly says if I will seek him first, he will add all these things to my life.
___ My next verse card was Matthew 7:7, "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." Wow, not only was I running in the rain, I had a theme going.
___ God was telling me to ask and seek and knock, and the verse implied he was waiting around to give and show and open. The problem is that I forget to ask.
___ Pretty exciting stuff. I was learning a lot while running in the rain. Maybe I should pray for more?
___ But more than rain, what I really need is to ask more often, seek more often and know more often. But only if I am seeking his kingdom first. And only if I guard the location of my heart and my treasure.
___ Berry Simpson is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland.
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