Desperation Reveals Desire

This post is dedicated to Jeff Powell, who gave away his time, wealth, and love to others.

In 1990, around one o’clock in the morning, two police officers walked into the Gardner Museum and told the security guards they were responding to a disturbance. The only trouble is they weren't really police officers. They overpowered the guards and proceeded to handcuff and duct tape them to poles in the museum’s basement. A little over one hour later, they disappeared, along with five hundred million dollars worth of art.

This was a high-risk operation. Those men wanted wealth so desperately, they risked decades in a cell to have it. Can you relate? Of course not. You're not robbing banks or beating up security guards. But let me ask you this: if you could have anything you wanted, what would it be? What would you risk to get it? What are you risking as we speak? What about this: what could send your anxiety skyrocketing, if you lost it? Identify this, and you'll identify what you truly love.

But why does this even matter? It matters because we rarely anticipate what we love being stolen. We hope life will be a afternoon's sail towards happiness with a gentle breeze. Instead, real life yields unexpected storms, violent waves in our face, and winds that knock us to the ground. One of the most famous paintings in the world is Rembrandt's Seascape, a depiction of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee. This was one of the paintings stolen, and to this day, it and its' captors have never been found.

However, there’s more to this painting and its depiction than one might expect. Jesus is sleeping in a boat while a terrible storm rages, and His followers respond by accusing Jesus of carelessness towards their predicament.

Don’t You care, Jesus? We ask the same question, do we not? If God is supposed to protect us, shelter us and give us peace, why does it seem like He's asleep on the job? Many of us are convinced that God is either unloving or ambivalent to what happens in our lives. And since God is missing in action, we decide to pursue our own peace, hunting for alternative treasures and pleasures that promise us happiness. Jesus reminds us that desperation reveals our true treasure, what we want more than anything else. And it's in these terrible moments we must ask ourselves if we've done the following:

“...lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”-Matthew 6:20-21

In this life, we'll lose titles, achievements, and even the ones we love. For the latter, we should mourn and weep. But as beautiful as they are, the loves on this earth aren't meant to last forever, they are meant to point you to someone else who does. Make Jesus your ultimate treasure. He will never wear out or rust. In our aching and longing for love lies something that’s always been there as long as we can remember. The first note of a melody. A hope and longing that cannot be taken. Inside these desires is something we know but cannot shake, an indisputable evidence that we were designed for something more. As mysterious and beautiful are the people we love, they cannot always stay as they are. Their memories are like symbols and signposts to something which cannot be satisfied in this temporary time and space. They are fleetingly beautiful, like flower petals in the wind, or a faint melody in the distance. This suggests we were made for something more the than the temporary, we were made for a song that will never leave our lips. If Jesus is real, and if our heart's treasure can lie beyond this life, then there's more than your current storm, there is a peace and a calm that only the love of Jesus can bring you.

"He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”-Mark 4:35-41

When Jesus’ followers thought they were going to die in the boat, they had a sense of desperation. Wouldn’t you? But I’ve realized what I often miss is that most stories involving Jesus have a sense of desperation. A Roman soldier is about to lose his only son. A father’s only daughter is near death. A young, rich man is asked to give away all the wealth he loves. Each story highlights something telling about human desires, and it’s this: Whenever our deepest desires are threatened, we realize what we treasure, and desperately cry out like the disciples in the boat. But Jesus asks you to do something seemingly impossible. He asks you to take a risk not for something on this earth, but something beyond it. The thieves of Rembrandt's Seascape risked much and received their reward. But at what cost? Desperate to grasp a fleeting treasure, their hearts likely lost the only treasure that mattered. A trade of the timeless for the temporary.

"God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

-Luke 12:20-21

John Wimber famously said that "faith is spelled R-I-S-K." Investing your heart in the love of Jesus is high-risk, high-reward. You sacrifice everything in this world for eternity. Jesus asks you in the midst of life's storms, and in the midst of what you love being threatened, to love Him more than any other love of this life. He asks you to love Him more than even your own life, just as He did for you on the cross. And if you can love Him above every person and every other thing, He'll grant the love you were made for, a love that all other loves point to, and a love that goes ever on and on.

And it's in this kind of love the clouds will clear beneath a rising sun, and squinting, you'll gaze upon an endless, eternal sea in front of you. An adventure and a sail that will have no end.