Tag: exciting escapades

Like a dog with a bone…

Dr. J.D. Wilkins2 Comments

Daily Post: Bury

Shot of a Handsome Labrador with Bone in his Mouth

The urge to bury bones, toys and other objects is in a dog’s DNA.  Instinctually driven, like their ancient ancestors, digging and burying something was a way to protect uneaten food.  Returning to those holes later to uncover their buried treasure, offered the dog an afternoon snack, or a midnight meal.  The late night meal would easily be true at least for our dog, which seems to have taken on a nocturnal nature, going out the doggie door at our bedtime, and wandering in and out at all hours of the night.  We’ve discussed many times how odd this is, and wondering what Sugar is doing. Today as I write, it mostly reminds me of the folks who love to go in search of hidden/buried treasure.

I read an article written in May 2016 about 7 treasures hidden in the State of Texas which most people don’t even know about.  These treasures really exist, or so I’m to believe, due to the rich history of Spanish and Mexican invasions into Texas.  For years treasure hunters have searched for a lost silver mine along the San Saba River.  Indians in the area told invading Mexicans about a strain of pure silver running through a hill in Central Texas.  Mines have been located, but no silver has yet been found.

The Sam Bass Loot of Denton is another good one.  According to the legend, an infamous robber named Sam Bass stole 3,000 gold bars from the Union Pacific Railroad worth about $20 each at the time.  While some of the bars have been recovered, the rest remains hidden, while rumor has the location in Cove Hollow.

Included in this article are the stories of:  Jean Lafitte’s Booty, The Mine in the Mountains of El Paso, Money Hill Treasure on Padre Island, Cypress Creek Gold in Upshur County, and the Google Earth Sunken Ship near Corpus Christi.  If you want to read about all 7 of these not-yet-found Texas Treasures, click here.  Everyone break out your metal detector and let’s go treasure hunting!

In the same way that I’m not a thrill-seeker and don’t go in for exciting escapades to get my heart rate up, I’ve mostly avoided the pie-in-the-sky pull of treasure hunting as well.  No, sorry, I don’t own a metal detector.  I’m probably more aligned with the old yarn, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”  There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to find hidden treasure, yet it can often serve as a barometer of what’s going on inside someone’s heart or mind.  In fact, the dog with a bone image is a good one for my point.

God has placed within each of us the capacity to know Him personally.  This place inside us, this “God-sized hole” is unique, in that it can only be filled or “satisfied” when we step over the line of faith into Jesus as our Savior.  When we do this, God’s hidden treasure – The Holy Spirit – comes to rule and reign in us, empowering us to live for God’s ultimate glory.  The Holy Spirit is the treasure we seek… by God’s own design.  What happens when we bury things in this space that is supposed to be filled with God?

When we bury the pursuit of money, power, lust, greed, land, cars, clothes, houses, or any other thing in this place, we have usurped God’s design, and become inhabited with an unquenched thirst for “more.”  When we abandon our treasure hunt for the truth, stepping by faith into Jesus… the hole God designed in our being is filled, and our thirst for treasure is quenched.. in Him.

Like a dog with a bone, we will fill this hole inside us with something… I wonder what it will be for you today.

Matthew 6:19-21
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

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Exciting Escapades

Dr. J.D. Wilkins1 Comment

Daily Post: Caper

caper

No one who knows me well would label me a “thrill seeker.”  I’m not into spelunking, volcano boarding, zapcat powerboating, bungy jumping, or rollercoasters.  These are not capers which interest me.  If you want to run with the bulls, kayak over Niagara Falls, go whitewater rafting, or swim with the sharks, you’ll have to find another partner.  All these fearsome activities are in the top 25 of an article aptly titled, “50 of the most thrilling, daring things you can do on vacation.”  Just let me play golf everyday of my vacation and I’m beyond thrilled.

BASE jumping is an acronym defining four categories of fixed locations from which a person can jump, using a parachute to break their fall. These include: buildings, antennas, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).  It boggles my mind that someone would actually choose to do this on purpose.  Not to be coy, but really, who wants to go to Toronto, to the CN Tower EdgeWalk (image above)?  116 storeys above the ground you will be tethered to the wall in such a way that allows you to walk around the building on a 1.5 meter-wide ledge, which takes most people about 30 minutes.  This caper would take me days to complete, if you could get me on the ledge at all.  Put me on a putting green, with my feet planted firmly on terra firma any day.

For all you adrenalin junkies out there, here’s one last caper you may not have heard of yet.  It’s called Extreme Ironing.  EI is a combination activity and performance art of sorts.  People take an ironing board to an extreme location and proceed to iron (I promise, I’m not making this up. Check out this link: Extreme Ironing)  What began in 1997 in the UK is apparently an actual worldwide activity today.  I just don’t get it.

Why do people do these things?  What causes a person to get out of bed in the morning and think, “what can I do today to cheat death?”  Perhaps the simplest answer is in the sense that this person wants to “feel” alive.  Maybe without the adrenalin rush that comes with extremely dangerous activities, they continually feel nothing.  Then I suggest it isn’t so much about “feeling” as it is about consciousness.

Woven deep within the human DNA is the need to have a sense of purpose, a reason for living.  Since we were designed by a Creator who does everything intentionally, the primary design characteristic of the human species, was to live our lives in such a way that we bring ultimate glory to God.  I’m just not clear on how the activities I’ve discussed so far accomplish this design goal.  Not only that, but if just obtaining the rush that comes from cheating death is all that is required, why does it have to be repeated constantly to “feel” alive?

No, this pursuit can only be explained one way.  The exciting escapade that brings real meaning and purpose in life is one that takes extreme courage.  The caper that allows a person to finally and completely feel alive, because they actually are alive, is one that scares the living daylights out of many people.  The way to finally gain that sense of purpose that all thrill seekers pursue, is to take one simple step.  The step of faith.  The committed, intentional, purposeful step of surrendering your heart and life to Jesus Christ as savior.

The only object to be pursued, that will fill that empty spot inside your soul, is the presence of God’s Holy Spirit, which Jesus puts into you as His seal of salvation.  Now that is an exiting escapade!

2 Corinthians 1:20-22
For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.  Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

Want an inexplicably exciting, death defying escapade?

Give your life to Jesus!

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