Most people fantasize, from time to time, what it might be like to be the richest person on earth.
What if we could buy anything a human heart might possibly desire?
For William Randolph Hearst, that fantasy was reality. He actually did buy anything his heart desired.
In the process of building an unsurpassed media empire of newspapers and magazines during the early decades of the twentieth century, Hearst accumulated staggering wealth.
Among his multiple residences was Hearst Castle, which he built (although never actually finished) on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean not far from San Simeon, California. Hearst owned something like 100 miles of oceanfront property. The Castle sat in the middle of a quarter million acres.
Let’s just say that if he ever got the urge to do a little mowing, it would have taken longer than one weekend.
Hearst filled the Castle with world-class paintings, sculptures, and handcrafted treasures. Checkbook in hand, he plundered the salons and drawing rooms of Europe. It’s estimated that at one time he personally owned 20% of the world’s fine art.
Today the Hearst Castle remains a one-of-a-kind museum that is open to the public.
It’s reported that at one point Hearst fell in love with a beautiful print. He simply had to have the original painting. He dispatched one of his staff to track it down. It was not an easy task, and it devoured several thousand dollars.
Ultimately the staffer returned with both good news and, well, surprising news.
The good news is that he had located the original painting.
The surprising news is that Hearst already owned the original. It was in storage in one of his warehouses.
It’s possible to search the world for a treasure we already possess.
Do we seek joy, peace of mind, grounds for living with confidence, and assurance that life’s finish line will be extraordinary? None of those treasures can be purchased with a checkbook.
But they’re all available, right now, to those who have bet their lives on following Jesus.
Why is it so easy to forget that we already “own” everything we so desperately seek?
“We have to accept that human culture is in a mass hypnotic trance,” writes Father Richard Rohr. “We’re sleepwalkers.” That's why Jesus says on multiple occasions, “Be watchful!” And the apostle Paul pleads, “Wake up, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!” (Ephesians 5:14).
We may find ourselves slogging through another day with our own set of wishes:
If I only knew God was really there. If I only knew everything was going to be OK. If I only knew that my life mattered.
All too often we’re oblivious to the fact that we already have the blessings we’ve been searching for.
Rohr continues: “We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness. Little do we realize that God is maintaining us in existence with every breath we take. As we take another it means that God is choosing us now and now and now.”
It’s not that we need to go on searching for some kind of lost work of art – a spiritual masterpiece that will finally make life complete.
That treasure already belongs to us in Christ.
We just need to wake up and realize we’re already the richest people on earth.
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