(This post was first published July 9, 2009)

The kingdom of God is about desire. That’s what Jesus said.

Well, not in those words, exactly.

Instead, he told a couple stories about acting on desire.

He said the kingdom of heaven is like a man who was walking through a field and found a box of treasure. Okay, maybe he wasn’t walking through, maybe he was poking around.  Okay, maybe he wasn’t poking around, maybe he worked for the owner of the field and somehow discovered that there was a treasure in the field and followed the map to the buried treasure.

He sees it, but then, instead of taking it out which would have made him explain where he found it and made it seem a lot like stealing, he covers it up.

Then he takes his whole life, the work that he has done and the future security that he has earned and he dumps it all on the table and buys the field.

All of it.

He gives up everything that everyone else looks at as valuable. He looks like an idiot, like a fool. He is getting rid of all his liquidity. He is putting everything usable into dirt. He holds nothing back, not one moment of his past, not one promise for his future.

Then he walks out to the middle of the field, having heard the voices of those calling him “fool.” Having heard his wife, his family, his friends wondering about his ability to think clearly. Having heard his child cry as last wooden toy went on the table at the garage sale.

And picks up the treasure.

Jesus says that that kind of willingness to give up everything of apparent value for the sake of a treasure you know in your heart exists?

That’s how the kingdom of heaven feels.