Matthew 6:21 – For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Treasure. It can be anything that you hold dear. Anything that you desire. Anything that you would die to protect. Anything that you might kill to keep. Something that you need to live.
Today, as I see it, most people probably equate the word treasure with material possessions: money, gold, real estate, cars, electronics. And if you follow the logic of the verse, it would mean that most people’s hearts are intimately connected to that treasure. It’s where they put their hope, their quest for happiness, their future, and their life.
It’s what they spend their lives for. Acquiring as much as possible . . . for what? What in the end do they gain from it? Does it bring them this emotional state called happiness? Does it bring them peace? What about true love? Health?
Lotteries and casinos spring eternal beckoning them to gamble their lives away in the hope that their number might come up and they will win it all.
They anxiously shackle themselves to that cart called a job with the carrot of “more” dangled in front of them.
They readily enslave themselves to banks which coax them in with the temptation of spend now and pay later so they can have right now.
They bet heavily on the appreciation of one treasure using other treasure in the attempt to win additional treasure.
They proudly proclaim that they have spent some of their treasure on lethal treasure to protect their remaining treasure.
All this because it’s where their heart is.
My heart is dedicated to having a simple life and following the principles and life of Jesus. One of the reasons for moving onto a boat was to simplify our lives and not have to be rats in a maze looking for someone else’s cheese. It’s not such an easy thing to do in America these days. Well, maybe it is an easy thing to do. I suppose the hard thing is to make the decision to do it.