Treasure and Pearls

For the past couple of Wednesday nights at church we've been discussing the parables in Matthew, specifically chapter 13. I guess I've always known the parables were there, but wasn't quite sure of how the related to my life here in the 21st century. Well, once again God proves me to be WRONG and showed me EXACTLY how parables relate to my life, and I hope they relate to yours as well. I want to focus on the parables we examined and discussed tonight, "The Parable's of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl" (writing that out it kind of sounds like a Pirates of the Carribean sequel). Anyway, so Matthew 13:44-46 reads:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."
Now, when I first read through this I thought, "ok, simple...God wants us to give up everything to follow him." Well, it's soooo much more than that. Pastor May described this first man "stumbling" upon a treasure as a kid on Christmas day...so overly excited about the new toys that he forgets about all the other toys he has- not intentionally or to the point where he has LOST anything but GAINED something better (the new toy). This has been true in my life. (Insert SHORT version of my testimony) I was saved at age 9, on my parents bed with my mom leading me through the prayer. I was baptized shortly after that and thus began my beautiful, Christian journey. Fast forward ten years and I'm in college, about 238923908 miles from God and all His glory. All along thinking, "I really should go to church more, read my bible more, pray more, etc. but do I really want to give up this 'awesome' life I have? The parties, drinks, drugs, friends, etc." See, I felt that in order to BE a Christian, I had to LOSE everything...or in terms of the parable "sell" everything. However, those materialistic things and people were not everything, so it wasn't a great price to pay at all for the greatness of my salvation. This is what I feel a lot of people say when faced with Christianity, "well, I don't want to give up my life." But, someone very close to me once said, "God will change your heart, those things will no longer be the desires of your heart." In the case of the first man, he went in "his JOY" and sold everything, because he had found something of much greater worth. I can definitely relate to this first man in the parable because I know how it feels to JOYFULLY give up things of this world (or desperately try to) in order to gain the ultimate hidden treasure--my salvation and relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, lets talk about the merchant in verses 45-46. The merchant differs from the first man because he is out "looking" for fine pearls, the first man simply "stumbled upon" the hidden treasure. He was consciously searching for metaphorically "refuge from the darkness," or from material things...which explains why he also "sold everything he had." All in all, we cannot estimate the worth of salvation. But, Jesus gives us these parables to help us understand that we aren't losing anything in following him, but we are gaining everything--eternal life.
My prayer is this: "God, I joyfully rid my life of things of this world so that I may gain everything in you."