Where your treasure is...

"Love what you do," "Love who you are," even "Love the skin you're in," all are messages about self in the flow of life. I have struggled with this as long as I can remember. God keeps taking me through the cycles of being and doing and maybe, just maybe, it is seeping in.

I'm trying to get more grounded in love--in my walking with God, in my marriage and relationships with my children, and in the business I'm creating with and for my partners and clients. I've been noticing how easily love gets blurred with presuppositions that frame the ideas, feelings and actions of being loving.

Jesus taught about love and priorities like this in Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also..." I've read that hundreds of times but I could swear that the text said the opposite order, "where your heart is, that is where your treasure is--or where your treasure will be found." The latter understanding is where I have lived most of my adult life and how I have made decisions. It is the journey of self-fulfillment.
Questions like, what does my heart tell me, how do I feel, what inspires me, what are my aspirations leading me to. Then I will have a meaningful life, to contribute and feel the joy of others blossoming.

Jesus was a failure. All of his early followers were losers. They followed their beliefs and were mocked and then killed for challenging the system. Yet, not. Without coercion, He appealed to hope in others and his disciples learned it as well and were willing to challenge the social, religious and political system on the basis of example instead of revolt. The Jesus movement grew exponentially over the next few centuries by a willingness to surrender and serve for peace (And then the whole thing ws co-opted by the state and Christendom was created, but that is another story). It all depends on where the Treasure is, in power and self actualization by process or release and peaceful service.

I know in my heart that I am a disciple of Jesus and that frames my ethics, beliefs and my misunderstanding of it drives the guilt of inconsistency. The problem is that guilt and low self-esteem become the heart-of-hearts when left to themselves and sabotage the great aspirations. That is the problem with "Heart-to-Treasure" instead of "Treasure-to-Heart. What I treasure is being free to understand, to be transformed, to then feel love, and to serve.