Where Your Treasure is

According to Reuters, there USED to be a $5 million dollar toilet in London.  "Burglars have stolen a fully-functional 18-carat gold toilet from Britain’s Blenheim Palace, where it had been installed as an art exhibit, police said on Saturday."

As a pastor, it is  my nature to always be thinking about how life intersects with faith, and when I ran across the article about the missing gold toilet, I couldn't help but think about these words from Jesus:

‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6: 19 -21

What does it say about the nature of where your heart is when you have a $5 million dollar toilet?  Of course, since it was an art piece, my sense is that was exactly the point.  It was a piece that wasn't supposed to make us say, "Ooh, I want one!", but to make us question the kinds of things that we give ourselves away for.  

That is what it is to spend money, of course.  We use our time, our lives, to make money, so when we spend it, we are trading our lives for whatever it is we buy.  Now, before you judge the guy with a 5 million dollar toilet, let's look to our own lives.  I'm not likely to have a golden toilet, but I have a closet full of things that are "just a few bucks" Most of those items will go to the rummage sale soon.  Does it matter whether you flush 5 million dollars at once or 5 dollars at a time? Either way, it is a worthy question to ask, "Where does this mean my heart is?"