For Where Your Treasure Is…

There are two songs rolling around in my head as I think about the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent reactions: Hank Williams Jr’s A Country Boy Can Survive, and Alabama’s Song of the South.

In Williams’ song, he croons, “The interest is up and the stock market’s down” and later, despite all the ills of the world, “A country boy can survive.”

In the Alabama tune, the verse replaying in my head is, “Well somebody told us Wall Street fell, but we were so poor that we couldn’t tell. The cotton was short and the weeds was tall, but Mr. Roosevelt’s a’gonna save us all.”

These two sentiments are common reactions to uncertainty. One: I can take care of myself. The other: The government will take care of me.

As agriculturalists, we’re of the land. We understand how to produce and survive. Through generations, we’ve honed skills and acquired equipment that will help us live off the land if needed. That’s a comfort. As Americans, we live in the greatest nation in the modern world. Our leaders and our resources will do all they can to see us through this tough time. That’s also a comfort.

Somehow, though, as I absent-mindedly hum those tunes, they feel misleading and hollow. When circumstances become this volatile, if all we have to look toward is ourselves and our government, that seems awfully shallow.

In trying times, I don’t need country songs, I need to be reminded of eternal truths. There’s one set of writings, full of wisdom, truth, and grace, to which to turn. David wrote this sometime around 1000 B.C.:

 The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

In the New Testament, this one rings true as the stock market is crashing, people are losing their jobs and the cattle futures are spiraling. Matthew wrote it.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Most of us have never lived through something like what we’re experiencing now, so it can be frightening. But it needn’t be. If our treasures are in heaven, if our trust is in the Lord, we can have peace no matter what happens because we know we are merely sojourners on this planet, on our way to an eternal glory where there are no tears, no disease, and no sin.