Lent Devotional Day 17
When I was young we would go to the beach and while we were swimming we would reach down and try to find seashells, hermit crabs, and very once in a long while, sea dollars. We often found pieces but rarely did we find a whole sea dollar.
One time we were at South Padre with my cousins, and I found a full sand dollar. I was so excited and was showing it to them. I told them be super careful because it will break. They handed it to our younger cousin and she broke it. I was mad because I knew that it was so rare to find one and I didn’t know if I would ever find one again.
In the middle of Jesus’ sermon on the mount, he reminds us about treasures. He says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.”
Now some call this the treasure principle, but for me, it’s just logic. Jesus tells us that we should not invest in things that are temporary but in eternal things. But then he says that where your treasure is, your heart will also be. To many people that doesn’t make sense. You could assume that your treasure will be where your heart is, but in all reality, your heart follows your treasure.
That’s because the human condition tells us that we will sacrifice for something that we consider worth it, whether it’s with our money or a discipline. But have you ever paused to take a look at where your heart is by where your treasures are? If you look around your house at your most prized possessions, do they tell the story of your family, your accomplishments, and your failures? Does your checkbook tell the story that your treasure is more and more stuff or does it show investments in eternal things?
During lent, nothing is off limits to search. And sometimes our checkbook or our assets reveal the trajectory of our lives. Maybe today you could spend some time thinking about how to invest in eternal things.