Hidden Treasure

2nd Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

Hidden Treasure

There’s a book I really enjoyed by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers: The Story of Success. It includes the now famous 10,000 hours concept. The idea, roughly interpreted, is that whatever talents we are born with, we need to expend 10,000 hours developing them to make them extraordinary. I started thinking about the 10,000 hours idea in terms of this passage, because I think Paul’s point is this extraordinary power, this life-changing, perspective-changing, world-changing power to love is the exception to the rule. Our ability to love people doesn’t start with us and our efforts. We don’t earn the right to be the treasure for other people through putting in our time.

We get God’s love to spread and share as a gift, present to us in the power of the life, death and resurrection of Christ. We get the most extraordinary power to love we can possibly imagine through acknowledging that the treasure is already within us, and letting it flow.

Which isn’t to say that practicing letting that love shine through us isn’t important. The more we draw on the power of God’s love to change our perception of life, the easier it gets to see the chances we have to be the hidden treasure in our broken world. The more we let ourselves be love in any situation – the easier it is to see the opportunities that abound!

Reflection Questions:

1) Can you think of a time you got to be the hidden treasure of God’s love for someone else? What was that like?

2) Have you ever experienced the sense that God’s love has come through someone else for you?

3) What can we do to make space for the love of God to flow freely through us into the world that surrounds us today?

Prayer: Dear God, Thank you for the immense privilege of the hidden treasure of your love in my life. Amen