Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be (Matthew 6: 21)
Ahh, the word treasure. Looking for treasure is the past-time of many a 3-year-old who hasn’t yet lost sight of the wonder of life’s adventure, a child who can still clearly see the beauty even in simple rock.
In a world filled with 500+ Facebook friends, even more Twitter-ati, and reality shows that voyeuristically debase essential human relationships, the innocent simplicity of a 3-year-old treasure hunter offers a spiritual lesson.
Three-year-olds live in the present moment and do one thing at a time. No multi-tasking for them. Whether it is time to eat, have a story, take a bath, play, or snuggle with momma, they throw themselves completely into the task. Their little hearts are in everything they do.
It is a simple equation for us too: our hearts reveal what we treasure, and how we spend our time reveals what we love.
Expectations burden us
An adult reality: we each get only twenty four hours a day to do all the things that must be done. Subtracting at least seven hours for sleep (eight for optimum health), we have a mere seventeen hours to attend to dozens of conflicting obligations and competing expectations of family, work, and self.
We can get caught up so completely in the endless expectations that we lose sight of the power—and sacred obligation—we have to choose wisely what we are doing with our time. We lose sight of the gift of the present moment, the kingdom of God, and its treasure, in the now.
The solution to this conundrum is not attempting to do more by multitasking (otherwise known as relinquishing miserly bits of the self to many gods). The solution is to be truly present to choices we have thoughtfully made so that we might honor both ourselves and others with our actions.
The hard part: articulating what we treasure and then prioritizing the values and associated actions revealed therein. After we do that, though, the decision-making is easy. Something is either in line with the values or not; do the things that are, don’t do the things that are not.
Do what you are doing
The Jesuits take this thoughtful action one step further. Adapting The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola as a way to find God in all things, they suggest do what you are doing; in other words, be fully present to the person or task at hand.
When we focus on our treasures (whether our treasures are people, work, or things) we can be totally present to them and in them catch glimpses of God. Then as we do what we are doing, even the simplest act of eating an orange or reading to a child becomes an occasion to meet God.
When we do what we are doing, we see with more clarity, hear with greater understanding, and feel with more depth and passion.
We become more fully human and the everyday things become precious treasures where our hearts meet God.