Treasure

A few days ago, I was struggling through some things and kept inquiring of God and my close friends: What should I do? How can I make this better? Who can I turn to?


My dear and wise friend, Hyelee, instead inquired of me: What instead is the best way to glorify GOD? In my stress and haste in settling back into Canada and community, I had forgotten one important ingredient. The most important thing: God.


Not just a man-centered God that is my genie in a bottle, doling out advice and blessings at my request, but a Splendorous Entity that exists with or without us. The words I just read a few minutes before (in John Piper's book, God Is The Gospel) pierce my heart: 


But the Bible teaches that the best and final gift of God's love is the enjoyment of God's beauty... Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because, at the cost of His Son, He enables you to enjoy making much of Him forever? ... We are willing to be God-centered, it seems, as long as God is man-centered.


Today, while reading the Bible, I cam upon one of my favorite verses:

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Matthew 13:44 (New International Version)

God delights in me delighting in Him. So I strive to do what I think is right and with actions that I think are noble or that God might be pleased with, forgetting that my greatest delight is simply delighting in Him. Simply Him. To quote a famous line from John Piper (again! I don't know why I have so many JP quotes today): God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. What a relief! God isn't just a solution to my problems. He isn't someone to appease so that I get what I want. But I actually find delight and satisfaction in sitting and resting and looking at Him. Life isn't about seeking out and enjoying the blessings. Life is about enjoying the Blesser. 


This treasure in life that I've been seeking and stressing out about.. I've found it. It isn't in having a 5-year plan. It isn't in relationships and a good community. It isn't even in doing good, going to a Third World country and being like Mother Teresa. All those are good and noble things to have. But the treasure isn't the field. It's the treasure itself. It's God Himself.