Where Your Treasure Is

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The seven-bedroom, three-bath house in this city’s West Garfield Park neighborhood had once been someone’s American Dream. But at a recent auction of about 100 foreclosed houses and condos, it was just Property No. 20 — and drawing no bids from a roomful of buyers despite its bargain-basement price. “Any interest in this home at $7,000?” fast-talking auctioneer Renee Jones asked the crowd. “If not, we’ll move on.” Among the investors was Thomas Smith, 48, who paid $16,000 for a five-bedroom, three-bath home in Englewood. Later, when the nine-bedroom, four-bath property that David Kosak’s boss had been trying to sell for a year went under the hammer, it fetched just $15,000 — less than one-third its last list price but a figure the 23-year-old broker’s assistant called “better than anything we’ve gotten.”

This kind of pricing for houses may never come to the area in which you live (unless you live in Chicago or maybe Detroit), but sometimes the American Dream becomes the American Nightmare.

We are warned by Scripture to make sure we are investing in that which we can never lose. The Gospel according to John reminds us that we have a mansion prepared for us if we are a part of the “redeemed.” We are reminded to put our treasure in Heaven where scenes like the one in Chicago will never occur.

Ask yourself where your treasure is. The Truth is that is the exact place you will find your heart. There are going to be difficult days ahead for all of us from a financial perspective. A wise investment in Heavenly things will be a wise investment indeed.