By Rev. LeRoy E. Zemke
Pastor, Temple of the Living God

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matt. 6:19 - 21

The Third Commandment is another directive from infi nite wisdom telling us to occupy the mind with the great truth of a single power in order that the mind will not wander among material things and measure itself by appearances only. Whenever our mind does this we have to bring it back to the central truth.
Ten Words that will Change Your Life by Ervin Seale

Across the years we call a "given" lifetime, we gather an incredible array of treasures. These can be the many gifts of soul, expressed as creativity, or love of beauty, of art, culture, theatre, music, love of others, such as family, friends, including the entire array of all our social relationships which occur in our lifetime.

Treasures can be real or imagined memories of the important men, women, children of our lives, or the truly significant events. They can be memorialized objects such as pictures or commemorative keepsakes as in the amazing realm of collectibles. Among some of these treasures can be the "stuff" of the world, from bank and brokerage accounts, to boats, from cars, to our homes, to land, acreage, an ancestral property in another land or country. In short treasures can be anything we place value upon, whether given to us, acquired through our own efforts, in the workplace or through any specific gifting that arises out of an incarnational pattern through family, or inheritance including the dynamics of all the complex interweaving of the incredible complex threads of our lives.

And what do we make of treasures? Or another question, What is the deeper purpose of what we value?

For each of us, the question has layer upon layer of the famous “peeling of the onion” interpretations. One layer always references another layer and yet each is subtly connected one to the other.

All major spiritual teachings across the centuries have admonished us not to hold on or attach to our worldly goods. Essentially I interpret that to mean, not to be stuck to our personal material acquisitions, money, life long accumulations or “earthly treasures.” We buy and use our furniture, wear our clothes and our jewelry, drive our autos, fly our planes, sail our boats, build houses, create large or small businesses, churches, schools, establish organizations that accomplish very specific goals, social, philosophical, humanitarian, spiritual. At the end of our life, we surrender the body back to the earth (dust to dust, ashes to ashes) and everything we have acquired (in all of the above mentioned areas) is ultimately left behind. All the “stuff” we have fretted over, agonized about or yearned to possess or did possess, is totally surrendered to the form world. And the soul moves on.

This awareness is certainly not new! Yet in our current economic climate, many appear to struggle with loss, hurt and pain as it relates to the possession of things, and not having enough in the human world of whatever it takes to survive.

How can we then focus on letting go of materiality as the spiritual teachings suggest when the shear effort to have enough to live in our world is fraught with daily conflict and confusion? Many will certainly say, “I do not have much of anything (of material value). What do I need to let go of?

Perhaps the larger learning that is involved for us as a culture, or as a people, involves our created or manipulated needs for the stuff of the world. From birth onward we are educated to want more, to have more, to have a bigger, faster car, nicer apartment or home, make more money, buy fancier clothes and all the “tech toys” now touted as the latest, as well as a host of opportunities to acquire such. When we finally get as much of the worldly goods we seek, we say, “we’re fulfilled.” Yet many have come to discover as languaged by the popular song made famous by the late Frank Sinatra, “Is that all there is?”

In no way am I suggesting that the worldly, material acquisition of our lives is wrong. What I am hoping to indicate involves a re-thinking or a re-evaluating of the motives that drive us to acquire large or small possessions for the sake of ownership, the need to possess, the desire to have material wealth for its own sake and actually make our lives about the management of, the control of the multiple possessions while we often deeply ignore the spiritual reasons we’re here, within the incarnation.

For almost all of my professional lifetime, I have encouraged people to find the spiritual essence, the core of the inner self . To discover the real, lasting values and to embrace them, to make them the reasons for living our lives.

So what do we treasure?

The following revealing exercise may help focus some answers to this question and thus enable us to access some insights to the above questions.

a. Take a notebook (I suggest a spiral notebook so the pages do not get separated or it may be done on the computer). Write out the answer to the following question:

b. List them in the order of importance (to you and only you. Not to your spouse, parent, family, or any other person.). 

c. What are the six most valuable lessons you have learned thus far in your lifetime?

* Do they involve things? (Possessions)
* Do they involve a profession, business, or job?
* Do they evolve around specific persons or groups of persons?
* Do these lessons involve whatever notion of success/failure you may have regarding where you have lived, city, town, house or land? Are these lessons about human relationships? Animal?
* The issues surrounding health, do they come from our own or that of another person?
* If an accident has occurred to us, what learning came from it?

As you write out, thoughtfully and with care, a penetrating clarity will surface. Often what we think we have mastered remains a challenge. And what we value lies hidden beneath a strange covering, awaiting our discovery much like a diamond in the rough.

This exercise is not an internet type pop quiz which will take 2 minutes of your day to figure out. It will take some conscious reflection and some contemplative effort. One is looking at one’s life experiences and not making a restaurant menu selection for the day.

As the exercise unfolds over the course of weeks that follow, qualities that are essential to how we define ourselves will emerge. Be gentle and slow to respond. The quick answer often emerges from the intellect or the ego and has almost no relationship to the lesson(s) involved, or what specific learning may be uncovered.

The conscious act of writing out will focus the mind in such a way as to really enable the hidden insights or lessons that reveal our innermost treasures awaiting their moment to be seen.

One caution. Do not decide that any lesson that has surfaced or may still be surfacing is to be discounted. For example, if we still are struggling with learning to forgive other people, that’s what is important. Be willing to be honest. There is no value to say I’ve learned this lesson only to discover that one still holds a long standing grievance against a parent, spouse, friend, business partner, etc. Note where restrictive energy is being held regarding one’s past especially if there’s still hurt or sadness about such.

The deeper, more real treasures of our lifetime are not the things to which we attach earthly value such as a memento, or an antique or china service given to us by our mother, father, spouse, grandmother or other special person. It may be the capacity to be steady, honorable, dependable and reliable in our actions, loving, caring or kind in our daily deeds that’s important. It may be our capacity to inspire others, or be a leader, or teach what we have learned to others.

The list is “endless.” Because our mother or father, parent or spouse held, certain qualities, we project them (the qualities) to their material things, such as a watch, or ring, a house or piece of land. Our personal work is to own the quality, in ourselves, that they offered and make it our own. Are we reliable? Honest? Loving? Caring? Honorable? Are we responsible? Do we keep our word? Or our agreements?

I suspect that as we answer the questions, earlier posed, in as forthright a manner as possible, we shall have a more clear, a deeper sense of, the real treasures of our heart!