Sunday, There's Treasure Everywhere

From Tim Challis last week:

I’ve always loved Calvin & Hobbes. My friend Brian first introduced me to the comic strip back when I was a young teen and I immediately fell in love with it. (Here is a must-have for any true fan: The Complete Calvin & Hobbes). The strip works on at least two levels. There is the philosophical level where Calvin and his tiger discuss topics of science, philosophy and religion that are clearly far beyond the grasp of a six-year old mind. Yet they reflect the questions most people wrestle with during their lives. And then there is the more realistic level, where Calvin is just a young boy doing what boys do: learning to ride a bike, going to school, imaging himself as a superhero or astronaut, building snow forts, fighting with girls, and digging for treasure. Every young boy is convinced that there’s treasure everywhere. Any boy with a strong imagination will realize that there truly is treasure everywhere.

Then Tim continues on how he sees theology everywhere,

The more I have thought about different topics, the more I’ve realized there is theology everywhere. And this is what motivates me to write; it’s what motivates me to read and to think and to explore. Everywhere I turn I see theology, whether in a book about the atoning work of Jesus Christ or in a book about the future of business or in a biography of a man who lives half a world away. Sometimes the theology is lying on the surface, exposed and easy to see. Sometimes it is hidden within and just needs to be coaxed out. But always there is something to think about, something to wrestle with, something to help me think deeply about how Christians are to live in this world.

Everything I read seems to provide some starting point for deeper reflection.

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I whole-heartedly agree that everything we read, see and experience can be grist for our deeper reflection mills. There's always greater meaning to all our life's experiences, if we let it in. I reflect on the deeper meaning of my grizzly encounter Friday and try to think about it in symbolic terms. When I do, a myriad of lessons begin to surface for me: Calling on the name of the Lord, standing one's ground, not panicking or going into your reptilian brain if possible, facing your worst fears and on and on.

I reflect on whether some other symbolic grizzly bear is retreating/is going away from my spiritual life? And it's all treasure to be unearthed for my spiritual journey. Sometimes these reflections bring quick answers and other times I have to wait for them to bubble up to the surface of my life.