Digging for treasure

He had to be one of the most annoying preachers I've ever listened to. It was 7am Saturday morning, and driving down the road I was captivated by what he was saying. Unfortunately he had a laugh that sounded just like Goofy. Every time, every single time he laughed, I cringed. But I couldn't change the station. He was just that interesting.

One of the things that had me riveted was when he started talking about treasure. He talked about some recent discoveries of Spanish galleons and he boldly declared to his congregation that he knew the secret to finding such treasure. He knew exactly how the searchers found all that treasure.
He then lowered his voice and whispered conspiratorially, "They dug where the treasure was."

He then went on.

Say you walk up and you see a guy digging and digging at a hole. And you ask him, "Say man, what are you digging for." And the guy earnestly tells you that he's digging for treasure. You might laugh him off, and stand around watching him and mocking him. If someone else comes along, and they found out this guy is digging for treasure, they might think to themselves... surely this guy has not put all this work in digging this hole unless he really knows there is treasure. And the next thing you know you've got one guy standing around watching two guys dig a hole.
By the end of the day, you could have a hundred people out digging a hole, searching for treasure, the 100th person convinced that the 99 other people must know something about the treasure being at this exact spot. When all along, only one person began the whole thing.

And then he talked about digging in your bible for treasure. We all search for the treasures of wisdom, for understanding, knowledge, love, faith, peace, and GOD, etc. and we know exactly where that treasure is located. We just have to dig there where the treasure is.

I confess, I don't spend a good deal of time digging. Not real digging. I read the Bible, praying for understanding and that I might stumble across some treasure while I'm there, but digging... digging is premeditated. You set aside time knowing that you're going to get a little dirty, this is not a 2 minute chore like taking out the trash, this is serious business.

And while I don't want to follow the example of the Pharisees, in doing things only to be seen, I do believe it's good to talk about our digging. Talking about the questions you're asking, talking about setting aside time to dig, maybe talking about the fact that you can't think of any questions to ask.

Maybe more people spend time digging in Gods word than I think. But digging, it's just not something I've heard people talk about very often. Maybe that's because we see our spiritual lives connected into our private lives and not so much our public lives.
In some of the foolishness that I've done, I've literally tried to hide my prayers from others. Not just the world but from Christian brothers and sisters that I'm simply afraid will see the prayer time and consider my faith to be superficial, surface faith. Not the deep faith that's practiced when others aren't watching.
But the truth of the matter is, that I only now consider, I want my faith to completely permeate my life, from the depths to the surface. That the faith you see on the surface will be the same faith God sees in my depths. And the same love you see on the surface, will be the same love God sees in my depths.

It's going to take a bit of getting use to, not just digging, but becoming a public digger. Letting that one person stand around skeptically watch me dig. But, I know where the treasure is, and I don't want to miss out.