Hidden Treasures

If you have ever found hidden treasure, you know exactly how it feels!  At one of my Grandson's birthdays, the theme was pirates.  They have a large area of sand in the backyard, so it made sense for them to "hunt for gold" in that area.  My daughter painted everyday pebbles a brilliant gold color and cleverly scattered them just barely beneath the surface.  As the activity was introduced, the kiddos did not know what they were digging for, but they were so jazzed when they found their first "chunk" of gold!  Before long, everyone of them was digging furiously to find their own "claim" of gold.  Why?  What was once hidden was no longer - that which was exposed became a thing of interest to many!  Now, this was make believe, but in real life, I wonder how many times God cleverly places something of great worth just beneath the surface in our lives, begging for exposure and promising great delight when it is finally out in the open?  Maybe more than we think!

There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us     to hidden treasure. Otherwise how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool? Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work; Then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin. These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray. Accept them when I place them on the morning altar, O God, my Altar-Rock, God, Priest-of-My-Altar. (Psalm 19:11-14 MSG)

Exposure brings into view what once was hidden.  Anything which remains in hiding is something which will not be affected by the advances of love.  For love to affect us, there is much which must come out of hiding in our lives - so we can experience his tender touch and his healing embrace.  A surgeon carefully dissects "surface" tissue, not because he wants to cause pain, but because what will get exposed in the process is then at the disposal of his healing touch.  The same is true with Christ - he never asks for anything hidden to come to the surface if he doesn't also stand ready to take what is exposed and touch it in his healing love.

When we uncover who we really are under the surface, the removal of all we erect to act as "blinds" in our lives actually may begin to expose some "rough" areas which will require the skilled hand of a craftsman to smooth out.  As I have said on many occasions - our part is to be who we are "in reality" - God's part is to do the work of smoothing out those rough areas.  When you really stop to think about it, God died for the "real us", not the made up or cleverly masked us.  He died for us as we really are - so we could become what he really is!

Exposure includes a certain element of abandonment.  Maybe this is why it so hard.  In warfare, a soldier digs in, wears camouflage, and erects "blinds" to hide within so the other army will not be able to see his location.  In abandoning this "cover", he is really putting everything on the line.  God never asks for us to put something on the line unless what he has planned for us is much greater than what we could ever experience without that abandoning of our place of safety.

A couple of things abandoning our position of "safety" might involve:

- It opens us to his inspection.  This may be the most uncomfortable part of the whole abandonment process.  Nothing makes us feel more vulnerable than being seen as we really are.  To be seen in this manner is to be "under scrutiny" by some - but when the exposure is to his grace-filled eyes, there is no "scrutiny", only grace.

- It opens us to his acceptance.  Not acceptance of what is on the surface, but acceptance of what needs his divine touch on the inside.  Like the skilled hand of the surgeon, he is thrilled to not only help us identify what needs his touch, but to put to use his skill to transform that area.  He accepted us just as we are, but he also promises us so much more than we ever could be alone.  It is a double-blessing indeed.

- It opens us to his touch.  No touch is so gentle, and also so thorough.  I melt away when my grandsons come to me and nuzzle right into me.  Why? There is something so tender about their touch - they hold on, hug tight, and just make me feel awesome.  Now, imagine that on a scale of about 1,000 times that much awesomeness and you get the idea of what it is like to be touched by Jesus - gentle, yet thorough; skilled, yet care-filled; cutting, yet totally healing.

- It opens us to his voice.  If you have ever not been paying close attention to someone else around you, you know the power of a gentle nudge to get your attention once again.  That little nudge refocuses you, but guess what it speaks to the one who had to nudge you?  You weren't listening!  When we are open to exposure, we are open to his nudges - to get us to listen where we need to hear his words most.

- It opens us to his revelation.  Part of hearing his voice is heeding its direction.  Abandoning our position of self-made security often brings us into a greater place of seeing our enemy for what he really is - it exposes the truth about what has been hidden.  Maybe this seems a little frightening to some, but when we can truthfully see what we are dealing with, that is half the battle!

God teaches us to be open, to be passionate, and to be available to him.  To be desirous of the intimacy of his presence and the liberty of his touch is the starting point for freedom in our lives.  Just sayin!

Not another question!

Have you ever used the "skill" of answering a question with another question?  In some circles, such as counseling, this is a common occurrence - the questions asked are designed to get the person to consider the answer themselves and to begin to problem solve through the situation.  There are times when the most appropriate answer is another question.  For example, when a child asks you why they have to eat their vegetables, do you think answering, "Because I told you to", is the best answer?  Answer in this way, and the child will allow those veggies to just grow cold on the plate.  Yet, if the parent tried a different tact, such as saying, "Johnnie, what do you think is the reason you should eat your vegetables?", I wonder what they might receive.  Perhaps you'd hear the response, "Because if I don't, I will never get to watch TV this evening."  If the parent hears this, what is it Johnnie is saying?  He is equating doing something very unpleasant for him to some form of pleasant pursuit in return.  In asking the right question, you see the underlying focus.  Johnnie is not concerned with the great nutritional intake, but that he misses out on the next episode of his favorite TV series!

Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”  He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”  He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”  “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”  (Luke 10:25-28 MSG)

Jesus often took the tact of answering a question with another question, not because he was avoiding an answer, but because he was interested in having the one asking the question finally see the true motivation of their heart in asking in the first place.  The passage we consider today begins with the "motivation" of heart laid out for us - the scholar stood up with a question to TEST Jesus.  His intent was not in really discovering the way to get eternal life - it was to attempt to expose something in Jesus which was contrary to the Law of Moses.  What a disappointment he must have experienced when Jesus turned back to him with another question and he basically hung himself out to dry with the answer he was forced to give.  Jesus was not going to say to the scholar, "Let me interpret the scripture for you, since you are only mortal."  He "honored" this man's studies in the scripture and asks how "HE" interprets what the Law requires.  I think the scholar must have been a little taken aback by Jesus "honoring" him with the opportunity to answer the question.

Jesus' reply, "You have answered this very well, Mr. Scholar - now, get busy doing it and you will have this eternal life," really did not sit well with the scholar.  You see, the scholar felt "boxed in" a little by his own answer - so he looks for a "loophole" to give himself an "out".  His next question to Jesus is really designed to find the loophole - "Hey, Jesus, who is my neighbor?"  Isn't it just like us to want a loophole?  We clearly show we understand the requirements, but then we want a way out!  We just don't want to eat our vegetables because we don't like lima beans!  We know they are good for us, containing the "right stuff" to help us stay strong, but those pesky lima beans just give us cause to pause.  Maybe it is a texture thing, or just maybe we cannot stand the smell.  Regardless, we want a "loophole" that will not "bind" us to our "understanding" of the value of their intake.  

By definition, a loophole is a means of escape or evasion.  Sometimes we use a question to attempt to evade the true disclosure of our heart.  At others, we use it to cover up our lack of understanding.  Regardless, we are attempting to find the way of escape.  We want to evade the "rule" or create enough "ambiguity" with the rule so as to "water it down" enough to avoid the consequences of the rule.  It is like when the child asks, "If I eat five lima beans, may I watch TV?"  The intent is to "bargain" his way out of eating the entire serving - so he can move on with what he finds more enjoyable.  We often use questions to "bargain" our way out of some understanding we have, don't we?  

The man's answer reveals much to Jesus.  The first thing is this man's understanding of the Law goes beyond the surface of just being a good person.  The scholar answers he would love God with all his passion and prayer.  When passion gets behind our action, we find ourselves just a little more "vested" in the action, don't we?  In answering this way, the scholar was pointing out he "knew" the principles of serving God - with depth of heart and honesty.  When we love God with all our passion this is depth of heart - when we love him with all our prayer, we are opening up to him in honesty.  When the scholar says you put a little "muscle" into your love, he is probably saying that man needs to put feet to their words.  In other words, you don't just say you love God and want to serve him - you show it in your choices.  As if this were not enough, the scholar points out that the mind plays an important part in serving God - bringing what we "know" about God into practice in our own lives.

The scholar really boxed himself in when he added the last statement about loving his neighbor as himself.  Now he had no real way of escape because Jesus was prepared for the next question - "So, how would you define neighbor, Jesus?"  His reply, "Let me tell you a story and then you decide who PERFORMED the acts of heart, mind, and service which exemplify a neighbor." Jesus used the man's own answer to present the answer the scholar thought would trip Jesus up somehow.  In telling the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus then turns to the scholar and asks the scholar to point out who was the "neighbor" in the story.  The scholar's answer?  "The one who treated him kindly."  Uh oh!  Exposed by your own question!

He came to Jesus, not in kindness, but in an attempt to TEST Jesus.  In turn, Jesus uses the "testing" questions of the scholar to "test" the scholar's own heart!  This is so like Jesus!  He uses the "testing" questions of our own heart and mind to "test" the real intention of our hearts and the wisdom of our minds.  Amazing!  The next time you ask Jesus a question and hear a question in reply, just know he is asking because he knows we already know the answer - we just need to recognize that we do!  Just sayin!