Pope Francis: What do you treasure and hold close to your hearts?

In a recent interview between Pope Francis and a group of young people, listen to how it concluded:

“When his guests said they were ready to ask the last question, the pope laughed, “Ah, the last! The last is always terrible.” They asked the pope to pose a question for them.

He said his question came from the Gospel, when Jesus says to not store up treasure on earth, but in heaven, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” The pope asked them: What do you treasure and hold close to your hearts?

Is it “power, money, pride or goodness, beauty, the desire to do good?” “It can be many things,” he said, and he asked them to find the answer for yourselves, alone, at home.”

Pope Francis in “Be Honest, discover what you hold dear to your heart” as reported by Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service, 4 April 2014.

When the pope had the opportunity to ask a group of young people anything, I love two things about his response. First, it came from the heart of the gospel. Second, he urged them to think honestly about what they were treasuring in their hearts.

So whether you are reading this meditation on your iPhone en route to work, in the privacy of your home, or elsewhere, take a moment to be honest and ask yourself: What do you treasure and hold close to your hearts?

Why do this? Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. And Jesus cares about where your heart is.

“I find gratitude to be the best antidote to swelling anger. In the past I’ve tried naming the things I’m supposed to: family, friends, health. I am thankful for all those things, but sometimes the rote list seems ineffective. It is tempting to believe I somehow deserve all those things. (I’m healthy because I eat right and exercise. I have friends because I’m a good friend in return. And so on.)…

I have learned I cannot offer genuine mercy and grace to others if I haven’t gratefully accepted it from God first. So when I feel anger rising or note its ongoing presence, I make a simple plea: Mercy and grace to me. Mercy and grace from me. A burden is always lifted.”

Sarah Kehrberg, author and frequent contributor to Mennonite World Review, from a column titled “Antidote to Anger” posted on 3 March 2014 and brought to my attention by Rebekah Burch Basinger.

This is going to be my new centering prayer when I feel like wringing someone’s neck for wronging me: “Mercy and grace to me. Mercy and grace from me.” How true is this! Only after we realize all God has extended to us, none of which we deserve, can we become generous conduits of mercy and grace. I have a lot to learn in this area. “Mercy and grace to me. Mercy and grace from me.”

“You remember among the Franks, whole armies were sometimes given baptism at one stroke, and many warriors went into the water with their right hands held high so that they did not get wet. Then they could say, “This hand has never been baptized,” and they could swing their battle axes just as freely as ever. The modern counterpart of that partial baptism is seen in many people who have been baptized, all except their pocket-books. They held these high out of the water.”

Halford Luccock as recounted by Randy Frazee in The Connecting Church 2.0: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013) 134.

Has your pocket-book been baptized? Has it been cleansed of old man, pre-Christian thinking? Have you instead embraced the red letters of Jesus?

Jenni and I began really wrestling with this back in 2009 and it continues to emerge in conversations. It took us a good six months to muster the courage to re-align our thinking and practice linked to money with that which is Christian rather than what is accepted in this culture or even in the church today.

Why talk about this now? Someday each of us will give an account to God.

“The spirit of Mammon utters blasphemies such as “The Almighty Dollar” or “financial independence” or “I am self-sufficient” or “I am a self-made person.” In what way do statements like these [from our lips] reflect that our minds have not yet been renewed?

Mammon promises us those things that only God can give: security, significance, identity, independence, power, and freedom. Until we expose these as lies, what level of impact will changing our financial practices really make?”

Gerhard T. deBock in Simple Books: A Study Guide through the Principles and Practices of being a Steward of God’s Money entrusted to our Care (2010) 10.

Gerhard is a pastor. With passion, he exposes the lies that prevail in our culture as a basis for helping people reform their practices. Why go this route? Our actions always flow from our beliefs. If we shine light on the false narratives that prevail in our lives, that is the critical first step to change. Listen to yourself. Are you seeking anything from money that only God can provide?

“The single greatest contributor to our inability to see money and possessions in their true light is our persistent failure to see our present lives through the lens of eternity.”

Randy Alcorn in Money, Possessions and Eternity revised and updated (Tyndale: Wheaton, 2003) 108.

I wear reading glasses. I keep them on a lanyard around my neck so they are always with me. They also catch a lot of dust and get dirty as a result, so I often get to clean them. There is nothing better than looking through clear lenses when it is time to read. Imagine having lenses that could help us see everything, including money and possessions, in light of eternity. How would such glasses change how we live? What would change for you?

Paul’s words to the Christians in Rome recorded in Romans 12:1-2 ring in my mind on this point. When we choose not to be conformed to the world but transformed by renewing our minds with truth, we are able to literally “scrutinize” or in plain terms “see” or “discern” what is the good and acceptable will of God. Want to see things clearly in light of eternity? Look through the lens of Scripture rather than culture!

“As followers of Christ, we are called to live a freely generous life. God uses generosity as a catalyst for healing, an agent of change, and a builder of faith. Even the smallest gifts have the power to affect eternity and radically transform people’s lives. In His Word, God tells us to store up treasure where moth and rust cannot destroy and where thieves cannot break in and steal.

Generosity is a lifestyle of giving your resources, your expertise, and your love to influence eternity. We may recognize this call to give, but in the chaos of the everyday, we are tempted to accumulate stuff and hold on to our lives just as they are. We often lose sight of the generous life, and we can’t imagine giving our money or our time without calculating what it may cost.

However, if you desire to leave a legacy for the next generation and to see see people’s lives transformed during your lifetime, if you want your business and your ministry to count for all eternity, take a risk and plunge into the generous life. Just be prepared, this journey will change you as you discover true life is found when you give yours away.”

William F. High in Stories of the Generous Life: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Generosity (WinePress Publishing, 2013) xv-xvi.

If stories inspire you, this collection is for you. Read it and you will be blessed. As you explore the stories of others, may you discover true life as you learn to give yourself away.

“We become more truly like Jesus if we are not preoccupied or identified with material possessions…Fasting and abstinence, Lenten alms, giving to charity. These are not optional extras for the follower of Jesus. They are the very condition of being his disciple.”

George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff, at CBC on 2 March 2014.

I cannot get the words of Jesus from Matthew 6 out of my mind this Lent. “When you give alms…” (6:2), “when you pray…” (6:5), and “when you fast…” (6:15). Jesus explains what it looks like to follow Him.

Recently, I appreciated how candid the Archbishop of Cardiff depicts these activities as “the very condition of being” a disciple of Jesus. If you think they are optional extras, perhaps revisit Matthew 6.

“Humble my heart before thee, and replenish it with thy choicest gifts. As water rests not on barren hill summits, but flows down to fertilize lowest vales, so make me the lowest of the lowly, that my spiritual riches may exceedingly abound. When I leave duties undone, may condemning thought strip me of pride, deepen in me devotion to thy service, and quicken me to more watchful care. When I am tempted to think highly of myself, grant me to see the wily power of my spiritual enemy; Help me to stand with wary eye on the watchtower of faith, and to cling with determined grasp to my humble Lord; If I fall let me hide myself in my Redeemer’s righteousness, and when I escape, may I ascribe all deliverance to thy grace.”

Lenten Prayer for Humility from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2003) as recounted in Journey to the Cross: Readings and Devotions for Lent by Kendal Haug & Will Walker (Austin: Providence, 2013) 49.

Lest pride strip us of any progress this Lent, let’s start this week together asking God to humble our hearts so that our service and care flow from the proper posture, devotion rooted and empowered by God’s grace.

“In Lent we focus on getting away from the life of flesh and into the life of the Spirit, denying our ways and embracing God’s. The point of giving things up is not to be reminded of how much we miss them, but rather to be awakened to how much we miss God and long for his life-giving Spirit. This means, of course, that Lent is not only about giving up things. It is also about adding things, God-things.”

Kendal Haug & Will Walker in Journey to the Cross: Readings and Devotions for Lent (Austin: Providence, 2013) 14.

Candidly, I love coffee and often joke about the strength it gives me. In cutting back to one cup a day this Lent I have frequently found myself calling out to God for strength.

One thing I am learning this Lent, experientially-speaking, is an appreciation of the reality that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. What God-things are you adding this Lent?

Today I am officiating my niece’s wedding, where Scott Stanick and Joni Hoag will be united as one in Jesus Christ. And though it’s long, read this thoughtful exposition that plays on this phrase from their vows.

“We most often hear this phrase, “for richer or for poorer” in wedding vows, but I believe this phrase may also be used to describe a core issue for us in regards to our giving. Let me explain.

I have observed over the years that one of the most compelling disincentives to people’s giving is a nagging sense of loss from what they give away. Many feel that if they give, they will become “poorer” in the same proportion as the recipient of their gift becomes “richer.”

In other words, “someone else’s gain is at my expense.” So, they think, “I need to evaluate how much I can afford to lose in my giving – how much poorer I am willing to become – in order to determine how much I am willing to give.”

May I suggest that this kind of thinking, common as it is, is the absolute opposite of what the Word of God teaches us about giving…

There is a repeated phrase in the New Testament that I believe most of us have not carefully considered. The phrase ”lay up treasure(s)” is used in Matthew 6:20, Luke 12:21, and 1 Timothy 6:19.

It is interesting that the Greek word for “lay up” is related to the root word for “treasure.” So, you could literally translate the phrase, “treasure up treasures.” We read, for example, in Matthew 6:20 that we are to be “lay(ing) up treasures in heaven.”

What seems to have escaped our notice is the two other words that are in the middle of this phrase – “for yourselves.” Jesus says, “lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven.” These treasures are not being laid up in heaven for God, or for the poor or for the lost. We are laying them up for ourselves.

We are not losing them, we are simply transferring readily liquid and immediately available assets into an account that is not immediately liquid nor readily available, but will be of great value to us in the future. And every gift (transfer) we make in this life is being credited to our account in heaven – every one of them, no matter how great or how small.

In 1 Timothy 6:17-19, Paul reiterates this same idea when he is writing to Timothy about the affluent Christians under his spiritual care… These affluent Christians are not being commanded to divest themselves of their material treasures, they are being commanded to lay up their treasures for themselves – for later enjoyment – “for the coming age” – an eternal retirement plan or equity position…

Do you see yourself as being poorer after you write the check or make the gift? Do you feel like you have lost and someone else has gained? Do you sense that you are worse off than you were before you gave? Perish the thought! You are richer! You have just laid up for yourself more treasures in heaven.

You are now more blessed and your future more secure than before. You have willingly transferred some readily available, immediately liquid assets to another account that will be waiting for you when you finally “retire” from this life and move on to the next one – the best one. And in that day you will be glad you invested so generously with a long view of life and eternity.”

Jay Link in “For Richer or For Poorer” blog post dated 2 December 2010.

So next time you attend a wedding and hear this phrase “for richer or for poorer” remember the profound truth that in the economy of God, we don’t become poorer but richer when we give.