"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

What a dangerous statement. If we are to truly ask ourselves the question this statement implies....very dangerous. What does it mean to have Jesus as the tresure of our heart? And, can we truly be honest eough with ourselves to say "yes" or "no?" Today, I find myself asking the question.

I wonder how an awreness of the answer to that quesiton migh change the way we live? Are we willing to fully and truly trust God to the point we move from anxiety to peace? Maybe that is part fo the journey of Lent. Moving from anxiety to peace by claiming Jesus as the treasure of our hearts.

Like this?

Give us each day.....
as we forgive others....

Is this really how we are to pray? Are we really to understand that our walk with Christ is a daily witness to the power of grace and the faithfulness of God? That we are to trust that each day we will be given enough for that day, and to ask for more than a single day of sustenance is a measure of a lack of trust? Really? What would it mean to live each day trusting that God will give enough....that day for that day....not to store up and worry about next week, year? What kind of anxiety would that produce? What kind of freedom would that give? What type of transformation would be possible through this?

Is this really how we are to pray? Is forgiving my neighbor so important that Jesus insist it be linked to our own forgiveness? So important that we be reminded of it each time we pray the model prayer Jesus gave us? So central to our connection with Christ that he was this specific?
How does praying this prayer change our hearts? Our lives? Our families? our community? our world? What happens to bitterness? What happens to grudges? What happens to reconciliation? What happens to hope?

Is this really how we are to pray?

How many times? The parable of the sower is such a great example of Jesus' teaching. He takes a familiar medium and shares an important message. He talks about farming in a place where everyone would have been familiar with soil, seed, rocks, and sun. I have read and heard this story many, many times. So, how do we continue to have ears to hear? Is this a story that only has meaning for us the first time? Is it only about the one time casting of seed and then whatever happens, happens? I know a few farmers and not one of the them only plant one time. They all plant year after year. They do all they can to improve the yield, but they keep planting.

Maybe the new "ears" part of this passage is to remember that we continue to sow the seed. We do all we can between plantings to prepare the soil...and then we plant. Year after year. Time after time. Invitation after invitation. Prayer after prayer.