Where Your Treasure Is...
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
We live in a house that is slightly cramped for eight people. It has three bedrooms, one of which will soon be holding four boys in a space that is well, tiny. They have one duo bunk bed and they rather enjoy sharing. It's me who sometimes struggles with this thing of treasure.
We have lived other places, in other houses that were bigger but this treasure lesson is rarely learned without the losing of something.
When we were first married we lived in my Grandma's house in the upstairs which had been converted into a one bedroom apartment. When we discovered we were pregnant, we thought that we needed a bigger place, a much bigger place, because this baby couldn't possibly live in this tiny apartment. So, we set out on our journey to find a house that we could afford, or maybe not afford but what we thought we needed.
We found a small ranch house that would have been great, but my wonderful husband wanted so much to give me more, even if we really couldn't afford it. So, instead we built our first house. To our credit, we really did think this was going to be cheaper, but there is a reason Jesus said to count the cost before you begin to build. We were 22 years old, and counting the cost wasn't a course we took in college, so our journey of treasure hunting began.
You never know how much a thing can grab hold of your heart until it's too late.
This house was a lesson in idolatry 101.
We spent the next five years of our lives building parts of this house. Building, always building. My husband can't even remember what our oldest two children were like a babies or toddlers because every moment of life not spent working his job or doing ministry at church was spent building. As for me, my thoughts circled continually on how to decorate and garden and make this house a home. In order to pay for this house I had to work part time in the evenings. With this strain of work, ministry, and constant building, Jon and I grew increasingly apart. We thought this was necessary. We thought this was what our kids needed. We thought, strangely, we had no choice. And our hearts because chained to this thing of a house.
Deadness.
Sometimes when your first love slips away, you don't even notice until it's too late. Not until the love is gone and the peace has dissipated and the joy has long since departed. And your heart is held captive by another. Another that can never satisfy it.
And after five years, the building finally coming to a close, we realized we couldn't stay here in this house. We had spent too much, we were over our heads, and now we had to sell this treasure. But we were ready. Ready to be free. After five years, we were awakening to this idol that had taken over our lives and I wanted nothing more than to tear it down.
God, in His grace and mercy, allowed us to sell it quickly.
Always rescuing us from our idols.
I wish I could say that we made all the right decisions from then on, but no, we didn't.
We next bought a farm.
We thought, again, that this was necessary. We thought this was what our kids needed. This was what all the "good homeschooling families" did. Idolatry.
We made it there one year. One year of sheer misery. We were over our heads again financially and of course, we were busy fixing up this old farmhouse to suit us. Three months into living on the farm, we knew we were going to have to sell it. We were desperate this time. Praying that God would rescue us again, how could we possibly be so pathetic?
We didn't deserve it.
Do we ever deserve it?
But He rescued us anyway. Grace, nothing but grace.
This time when the farm sold, we moved into a small apartment with our, then, four kids.
We were the happiest we had ever been.
We were free. God had torn down those idols and begun to restore our hearts to Him. We knew it was grace, grace that we didn't deserve.
That year Jon lost his job. We rejoiced because we were living in a place we could afford and we knew that God was providing, and we wanted nothing else than to surrender to His will.
When a new job brought us here, we prayed and prayed for wisdom about where to live. We now know what it is to fear ourselves, and how quickly we can be led into idolatry. Maybe someday we will have a slightly bigger house, but today and everyday I want to trust God to provide what He thinks we need.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Any treasure other than Jesus will always bring nothing but deadness to your heart and life eventually.
Because He is love and He is peace and when our love for Him grows tepid, it cuts off the Life giving sap to our branch and our fruit, it withers.
He is the only treasure that will truly satisfy. He is the only thing worth living for, worth pursuing, worth seeking with all your heart.
He alone is the treasure.
We live in a house that is slightly cramped for eight people. It has three bedrooms, one of which will soon be holding four boys in a space that is well, tiny. They have one duo bunk bed and they rather enjoy sharing. It's me who sometimes struggles with this thing of treasure.
We have lived other places, in other houses that were bigger but this treasure lesson is rarely learned without the losing of something.
When we were first married we lived in my Grandma's house in the upstairs which had been converted into a one bedroom apartment. When we discovered we were pregnant, we thought that we needed a bigger place, a much bigger place, because this baby couldn't possibly live in this tiny apartment. So, we set out on our journey to find a house that we could afford, or maybe not afford but what we thought we needed.
We found a small ranch house that would have been great, but my wonderful husband wanted so much to give me more, even if we really couldn't afford it. So, instead we built our first house. To our credit, we really did think this was going to be cheaper, but there is a reason Jesus said to count the cost before you begin to build. We were 22 years old, and counting the cost wasn't a course we took in college, so our journey of treasure hunting began.
You never know how much a thing can grab hold of your heart until it's too late.
This house was a lesson in idolatry 101.
We spent the next five years of our lives building parts of this house. Building, always building. My husband can't even remember what our oldest two children were like a babies or toddlers because every moment of life not spent working his job or doing ministry at church was spent building. As for me, my thoughts circled continually on how to decorate and garden and make this house a home. In order to pay for this house I had to work part time in the evenings. With this strain of work, ministry, and constant building, Jon and I grew increasingly apart. We thought this was necessary. We thought this was what our kids needed. We thought, strangely, we had no choice. And our hearts because chained to this thing of a house.
Deadness.
Sometimes when your first love slips away, you don't even notice until it's too late. Not until the love is gone and the peace has dissipated and the joy has long since departed. And your heart is held captive by another. Another that can never satisfy it.
And after five years, the building finally coming to a close, we realized we couldn't stay here in this house. We had spent too much, we were over our heads, and now we had to sell this treasure. But we were ready. Ready to be free. After five years, we were awakening to this idol that had taken over our lives and I wanted nothing more than to tear it down.
God, in His grace and mercy, allowed us to sell it quickly.
Always rescuing us from our idols.
I wish I could say that we made all the right decisions from then on, but no, we didn't.
We next bought a farm.
We thought, again, that this was necessary. We thought this was what our kids needed. This was what all the "good homeschooling families" did. Idolatry.
We made it there one year. One year of sheer misery. We were over our heads again financially and of course, we were busy fixing up this old farmhouse to suit us. Three months into living on the farm, we knew we were going to have to sell it. We were desperate this time. Praying that God would rescue us again, how could we possibly be so pathetic?
We didn't deserve it.
Do we ever deserve it?
But He rescued us anyway. Grace, nothing but grace.
This time when the farm sold, we moved into a small apartment with our, then, four kids.
We were the happiest we had ever been.
We were free. God had torn down those idols and begun to restore our hearts to Him. We knew it was grace, grace that we didn't deserve.
That year Jon lost his job. We rejoiced because we were living in a place we could afford and we knew that God was providing, and we wanted nothing else than to surrender to His will.
When a new job brought us here, we prayed and prayed for wisdom about where to live. We now know what it is to fear ourselves, and how quickly we can be led into idolatry. Maybe someday we will have a slightly bigger house, but today and everyday I want to trust God to provide what He thinks we need.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Any treasure other than Jesus will always bring nothing but deadness to your heart and life eventually.
Because He is love and He is peace and when our love for Him grows tepid, it cuts off the Life giving sap to our branch and our fruit, it withers.
He is the only treasure that will truly satisfy. He is the only thing worth living for, worth pursuing, worth seeking with all your heart.
He alone is the treasure.
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