"Imagine yourself near the end of the Civil War.  You're a Northerner, stranded in the South by the war.  You plan to move home when the war is over.  While in the South, you've accumulated lots of Confederate currency.  Suppose you know for a fact that the North is going to win the war soon.  What will you do with your Confederate currency?"

I remember watching a nature documentary recently about bird's mating habits.  Hey, don't judge - we've been in quarantine a long time.  Anyhow, I was fascinated by a seemingly useless habit that preoccupied certain types of birds.  They would spend their days flying around, looking for pretty, shiny novel objects to add to their nests.  You would think after they'd collected a few new decorations for their nest that they'd be content.  But they weren't.  Sometimes they were looking for a mate, and so they thought they must need something more impressive to attract her.  So they collected more.  Sometimes, they would spot a treasure in a rival's nest, and they would stake out their best opportunity to steal it.  And then, they would find a mate.  So, mission accomplished; now he could relax.  And yet, the collecting just continued.  

It was baffling and hilarious....until I realized this was just a microcosm of our American existence.  How often do we spend exorbitant amounts of both time AND money to procure a different, shinier version of something we already have?  It was a humbling and downright sobering realization.  Why do we do what we do?  

The thing is, as Randy Alcorn alludes to in "The Treasure Principle," we as humans are naturally drawn to seek better and better treasures.  We are designed to be discontent with this world since we are made for the next.  But it's so, so easy to think that the treasure is here, but it's just out of reach.  It's just around the bend, just within the next purchase, the next upgrade.  

Alcorn likens our earthly treasures to Confederate currency, which gives us a real-life comparison to draw from.  It had legitimate value at one time, but that value was ultimately fleeting.  Jon and I have had similar experiences leaving foreign countries with pockets full of foreign dollars and change.  A few coins are a fun souvenir, but really, any more than that makes you feel like you should have just gone "all out" at the last gift shop.  

The tired, but true point is that you can't take it with you.  Alcorn takes this adage and adds to it to help shift our focus:  "You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead."  He argues that we should be changing our strategy and focus, but not out of guilt or obligation, out of the joy of investing in something that lasts.  

- Rebekah Arias