The Treasure Hunt

4 So you must remain in life-union with me,[d] for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine.

5 “I am the sprouting vine and you’re my branches.[e] As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from me you are powerless.

6 If a person is separated from me, he is discarded; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire to be burned.

7 But if you live in life-union with me and if my words[f] live powerfully[g] within you—then you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done.

8 When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are my mature disciples who glorify my Father!

John 15:4-9

X marks the spot! If you’re at all like me, there is something thrilling about the prospect of a treasure hunt. It’s a popular theme in movies, books, and even children’s cartoons because I think we all love the suspense of clues and find the treasure. It’s something left decades maybe centuries before with a road map to reclaim that treasure. Yet, sometimes it can be frustrating when it feels like there is treasure out there, and we can’t find it. Often times we don’t even know where to start.

This treasure for many of us is the answer to the question of our purpose, our calling, our mission in life, or even “what God wants me to do with my life.” When those things seem hidden or out of sight, or just confusing, it can feel less like an adventure and more like an insurmountable chore. Yet, it doesn’t have to be. God is not far from you nor are his thoughts. We just have to turn ourselves to Him - walking with Him, abiding with Him, spending time with Him.

Last week, I shared how in this season God is issuing each of us an invitation to partner with Him and what He’s doing across our nations, this world, and even in our own lives and families. And so, there is joy in finding that out; it need not be a frustrating or overwhelming experience. Let me posit, God does not provide us an old map, burnt around the edges and send us off by ourselves to find “the meaning of life.” Scripture makes clear that it is through our “life-union” as the Passion translation so eloquently makes clear, that we find all life in God. This includes this invitation, purpose, or meaning – however you think of it in your own life.

Thankfully, our questions do not send us out on a quest alone. What do I do next with my life? Do I take this job? What should I do with my gifts and talents? What’s my purpose? Rather than embarking on all visible “clues”, just turn first to God. I love this illustration in Scripture that we cannot even hope “to grow fruit” or thrive without being connected to Him. So while God may not give us a full map or fully reveal where He’s leading us right away – we may not see the big-picture treasure map- He does make it clear that we can ask him for anything. So let’s be encouraged that we can ask Him to show us our purpose or calling, and there is a thrill that comes from knowing that we do NOTHING without being Him, and we can take each clue from being in His presence of what is coming next. But God alone is our treasure map, revealing Himself to us more and more as we are with Him, and with full confidence we can know that the treasure that awaits us is far greater than what any movie treasure hunt would yield

Prayer:

God, thank you for leading and guiding me.

Show me how to abide with you in all that I do.

I know that you are leading me through each season,

And I praise you that haven’t left me to figure things out on my own.

I delight in what you are revealing to me that I abide you.