I love that movie! In National Treasure, Benjamin Gates has spent his lifetime educating himself and traveling the world on a quest for one specific treasure—the priceless antiquities that had supposedly been saved and preserved through a secret society of men over the course of hundreds of years. His peers, especially the intellectual leaders in his field viewed him as a crackpot—he had zero credibility. Yet he believed strongly in the reality of the treasure he had spent his life pursuing. But his quest eventually led him to that treasure—and it was much greater than he could have imagined.
Sound familiar? I have God’s “treasure map” in the form of 66 unique biblical books written by a variety of men over a 1,500 year period. I strongly believe in the reality of an “unseen” treasure. I have the potential of being viewed as a “crackpot” as I take a counter-cultural approach to the use of the treasure that God has entrusted to me. But I also have a confidence that the treasure I seek has a value far beyond what I can even understand.
In I Timothy 6:17-19, Paul encouraged Timothy to tell his “rich” friends (the standard at the time would include most of us living in the U.S.) “not to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God.” He goes on to call them to be “generous and willing to share” and to “lay up treasure for themselves… so that they may lay hold of the life that is truly life.”
Every day there is a battle for my mind and heart as it relates to my money and possessions. I’m grateful for passages like the one above which refocus me on my quest for the “life that is truly life.”
Question: How do you fight that battle for a biblical approach to stewardship? Are there any particular verses, concepts or tools that help you take a counter-cultural approach to your own finances and resources?
Let me know what you’re learning!
Rich Dundore
Keynote
Director of Development
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