I’m sitting at a booth in a well-known local cafe’, having just witnessed something that prompted me to write my thoughts down.  Hope you don’t mind.

I walked into the cafe’ and took my place in line to order, waiting patiently.  A few minutes after coming in, a young woman and her son (I’m guessing 3 years old) come in and take their place in line.  Without stopping, the young boy makes a bee-line to the front of the line where the pastries are displayed just-so behind a piece of glass, goes directly to the monstrously sized cinnamon buns, and begins to yell ever-so-loudly while pointing at the cinnamon buns:

“Unt Dat!”

“Unt Dat!”

“Unt Dat!”

“Unt Dat!”

“Unt Dat!”

“Unt DAT!”

“UNT DAT!”

“Unt DAT!”

“Ma!  Unt DAAAT!!!”

As humans, we “unt dat”, don’t we?  It’s a different “dat” for each of us.  Just as an example, lately I’ve been fixated on a new TV (which is preposterous because we don’t even have cable).  I’ll take any excuse to saunter through local big box stores and just stare crazily at the wall of flat screen wonderousness.  Sales people approach me, “Can I help you, sir?”  With a silence that clearly says, “Just leave me alone with my precious”, I don’t even bother to look their way.

And I suspect that if you’re honest–I mean with the honestly of a 3-year-old in a bakery–there’s a “dat” for you, too.  I suppose “dats” are harmless in and of themselves; the harm comes when we give too high a priority to those “dats”.  When we pay mental, emotional, and even financial wages to obtain our dat, to the detriment of other things and even ourselves.

Here’s the thing about that dat.  It’s only dat because you don’t have it.  Once you have it, it’s not “all dat” anymore.  I can nearly guarantee that if I had a 60″ flat screen TV in my family room, it would hold that awe-inspiring-wonder status for no more than a half an hour.  After that time, it’d be nothing more than my TV in the family room.  And my mind would have to conjur up the next “dat”.

So, I need to be careful what glass I run up to, press my face against, and yell “UNT DAT!”  Because that dat might become more than I bargained for, stealing away my joy from what really, truly matters.

Jesus once told his followers not to run after those “dats” that rust and decay.  Instead we need to keep our eyes on the dats that DON’T rust and decay; those things that CAN’T be stolen away from us no matter what.  He went on to say that we should “lay up treasures in heaven”.  The idea here is that we live our lives depositing into an eternal account that cannot and will not be hacked into, depleted, or suffer loss.  An account that is untouchable, permanent forever, and eternal.  And when you leave this world (and all the dats with it), you’ll receive from that account what you have stored up.