Overheard countless times in the last two months: “I am concerned about the poor performance of my investments and savings.”
Not heard even one time in the last two decades: “I am concerned about my poor performance in laying up treasure in heaven.”
{Image from reader Ronni Hall and Cory Jamison. Thanks!}
Today's post carries what sounds like a theologically heavy title, but after last week's series of posts and the amount of commentary they generated, I'm starting the week light. Honestly, this week is just packed, so my mind is on other things.
No, today's extremely off-topic post has to do with treasure hunting.
My son recently got interested in buried treasure. Trying to find ways to occupy a particularly precocious nearly-six-year-old boy whose physicality matches his William F. Buckley-like vocabulary is tough on a perpetually sleep-deprived dad. Looking for a book on Amazon a few weeks ago, 
I saw a sidebar featuring a handheld GPS receiver available for $79. Not realizing they'd come down so much, I was intrigued because the sport of geocaching interested me. Being an outdoors type, anything that smacks of orienteering, backpacking, or the like catches my attention.
Formerly the hobby of disaffected twenty-something Ivy League grads whose dads sat on the board of Conglomo Coproration, geocaching has seriously taken off now that many handheld units are available for under $200. I picked up a Magellan eXplorist 210 (with a computer connection for downloading cache sites—a must-have feature) for only $116 this last week. Considering that the biggest outlay for geocaching is the GPS receiver, the whole hobby/sport is really cheap fun. With more than 1000 caches listed within twenty miles of my home, we've got a lot of adventure ahead of us for quite some time.
Needless to say, my son has eaten this up. We spent a total of six hours out finding caches on Saturday and Sunday. One of the cache locations was near a covered bridge—a beautiful spot. Several were located in early 19th century cemeteries near us, making for an interesting historical journey. And our very first cache my son found and not me. I'll never forget that excitement on his face.
So we're hooked. Any number of people can be involved. If you're looking for wholesome, family entertainment that can be done literally anywhere on the face of the planet, then check out the Geocaching.com Web site. Many of the caches we found and the log books we signed showed proof that Christians are pursuing this sport in large numbers. Plus, it's neat to see that a tiny cache located only two miles down the road from us had seen visitors from as far away as North Dakota. That's wonderful.
Have a great week and consider taking up geocaching.