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Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Psalm 127:1a (NIV)

When I was a teenager my parents began making regular summer visits to the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. When I was just out of college and the girls were babies, my folks would rent a house for a week or so each summer and invite the family to join them there. I can remember taking long sunset boat rides during those years. Dad would gun the engine and we would jet off across the water. Conversation was nigh unto impossible, so I would sit in the bow of the boat just dream. I would day dream of owning my own place on the lake someday, though at the time I considered it a pipe dream.

By the time the girls were in elementary school my parents had bought a small trailer home on a lakeshore plot there. Just over a decade later they were ready to sell, and Wendy and I were in a position of investing in the place. What had only been a pipe-dream a decade or two before was actually becoming a reality. We pulled the trailer home off the land, had a walk out basement foundation poured and put a manufactured home on the foundation. In the spring of 2010, a group of friends gathered in the bare basement to begin a summer long task of finishing it.

The first morning of construction I gathered the guys together and handed them each a black Sharpie. With the above verse fresh on my mind, I asked each of them to pray for the place, to pick a verse from God’s Message and to write it somewhere on the bare cement foundation. The verses they each wrote on the walls are covered over with insulation, framing, and drywall, but we will never forget what is written there.

Next weekend I’m taking a small group of guys for a little winter retreat at the lake. In another month or so Wendy and I will begin making regular trips down to prepare for another season of family, friends, fun, rest, relaxation and sun. It’s become a part of the seasonal flow of life for us. I don’t know about Wendy, but I still shake my head with wonder from time to time. We have been blessed, and I don’t want to lose sight of the source of our blessings nor cease to forget what is written on the foundation. I want the love, laughter, tears, and conversations which take place in that house to have eternal value. I never want our labor to have been in vain.

There I will go to the altar of God,
to God—the source of all my joy.
Psalm 43:4a (NLT)

When it comes to giving gifts to our little friends, Wendy and I like to give books. It’s become kind of a thing with us in recent years as the number friends with small children proliferates. We’ve seen the frustration in parents eyes at birthday parties and at Christmas time. Their kids open yet another buzzy, blinky, beeping toy which will hold their child’s attention for a short time while increasing the din of noise pollution in their home to levels the EPA would condemn as hazardous to human sanity. Books, on the other hand, tend to become treasured keepsakes. They promote togetherness and family time. They entertain and inspire over and over and over again.

A few years ago we gave a book to one of our little friends and I scribbled an inscription on the inside the front cover. I later learned from his parents that their son requires them to read the inscription each time they read the book. Wow. How cool. Suddenly what I wrote for an inscription took on a new meaning and purpose.

This past weekend Wendy and I bought an “I Spy” book for a couple of young friends we were visiting. It was cool because it was made up of works of art from across centuries and artistic periods. Children can play I spy with their parents while learning about art. When it came time to write an inscription I wrote an encouragement to our young friends that while God’s Message promises that those who seek will find, it’s also important to be wise in where you choose to search. The choice of where you look determines the quality of the treasure you find.

I thought of my inscription and encouragement to our young friends this morning as I read the verse above. The author seeks out God’s mountain and searches out God’s altar to find God the “source of all my joy.” Every one of us want a little joy in our lives. Who doesn’t desire joy in the midst of today’s rat race. The question is: Where am I looking? What am I choosing to chase after in an effort to find it?

The choice of where you search will determine the quality of treasure that you find.