Where your treasure is
your heart will be also.
It is earlier than day, at that last hour before dawn when everything is blue, a light, familiar, peaceful shade of blue, covering, like a blanket, children and birds asleep. Snow hugs Strasbourg and I feel closest to her at this most intimate hour, when she and I alone in the world are awake. It is during this strange and privileged moment that I most ardently desire to belong to her, this little town so far removed from the life I have known. The window above my bed overlooks the river, its most charming bridges, and the whimsical houses of La Petite France.
I have not picked up my pen in a while. In order to write about life, one has to look at it straight in the eyes. But when life gets hard, it is easier to look away and keep moving. Sometimes, it seems necessary for one’s survival to keep moving. Thus you stop looking at life, and you stop writing. One cannot do both simultaneously - living and writing.
“Il y a un temps pour vivre et un temps pour créer, ce qui est moins naturel. Il me suffit de vivre de tout mon corps et de témoigner de tout mon cœur. Vivre Tipasia, témoigner et l’œuvre d’art viendra ensuite.” A. Camus, Noces à Tipasa, 1939.
In the final months of 2025, something in my life changed forever. This shift dragged into my heart a monster of sadness, sorrow, and grief. The kind of sadness that could potentially crush you alive and make you forsake the taste of water. This is when I decided to stop looking at life and stop looking at my feelings. If I wanted to survive, I had to keep moving. One day at a time. Doing the little things, looking after the lives of the people God had put in my care. If I wanted to carry them, I could not fall apart. So I stopped feeling altogether, I numbed my heart to protect my peace.
When numb, you might do foolish things to feel, to feel just anything - pleasure, pain, disgust, guilt, hatred, shame, fear, safety. When numb, you might sin against your heart and entertain thoughts that betray your values. Lack of purpose breeds vice. Everything becomes important yet at the same time nothing matters anymore. You lose sight of the essence of life and start chasing distractions from the pain you refuse to touch.
When I arrived in Strasbourg this winter, my chest was still heavy with unattended and unspoken grief. In my idle hours, I would fall into the trap of doom scrolling ; letting myself get mindlessly carried away by the stream of videos and pictures of utter strangers on social media.
What a plague. What a plague has social media become. We’ve been collectively brainwashed into thinking we need a 10-step skincare routine, we need that trendy bag, we need that luxury car, we need fifteen new outfits for every vacation trip, we need tons of money, we need the biggest diamond on the ring, we need the prestigious job title, or the investment assets, we need the twelve longevity supplements a day, the Botox, the micro needling salmon eggs into our face, the rhinoplasty, the corrective cosmetic surgery, higher cheekbones, face lift, prominent abs, red light therapy, the most expensive Pilates classes, the biggest biceps, the most niche aesthetic, the coolest looking group of friends, we need the shiniest vitrine of our existence so carefully curated for everybody to admire and envy, including ourselves. We spend a lifetime staring into our belly buttons and thinking about what’s the next thing we need. We parade our belongings for everybody to see, we parade our relationships, our emotions, sometimes even our most vulnerable moments for “likes” and “followers”. It has indeed become a world of “followers”. We consume in a single lifetime more than our entire ancestry combined has ever consumed, yet we are the most dissatisfied, disillusioned, anxious and depressed generation.
In an attempt to find shelter from this madness, and a shred of meaning somewhere, I went back to an old childhood friend who had never let me down – I started reading the Bible again.
I am not a submissively religious person myself, but rather a lucidly spiritual person, I believe. Something I usually tell my friends is that religion is the politics of faith - I don’t care so much about the politics, only my faith matters to me. Only what I know, deep in my heart and soul, to be true. I do not care for dogmas, nor for priests, nor any figures of religious authority who claim to be closer to heaven than a daisy on the side of the road would be. The God I know is synonym of Love and Love only - and he speaks to me through nature, its mountains and seas, through people, through pain, through beauty, through music, sunlight, silence, prayer, tenderness, children, and often through what people call The Holy Book.
I told a person close to my heart that I was reading the Bible again. He recommended to me a bouquet of his favorite verses.
There, I found one that pulled me into its arms and still hasn’t let me go.
“For where your treasure is
There will your heart be also.”
Matthew, 6:21.
The infinite wisdom of this verse is in its intentionally inverted syntax.
One would expect «Where is your heart, there your treasure will be » - as in, follow your heart and you’ll find your treasure. But that is not the message here. The message is something different, deeper :
Whatever you decide that your treasure is - the thing that completes your life, the thing you cherish, value, pursue, seek - that is what will define you, that is what will define your heart. Where your treasure lies, will lie your heart.
Therefore, if your treasure lies in the realm of material, earthly things, your heart will stay confined in that shallow and fleeting realm - and it will become, in return, shallow, fleeting, and rotten. However, if your treasure is set in the realm of immaterial, holy things, then there will your heart belong.
That is how the verse reads in its context (Matthew 6:19-21) :
Treasures in Heaven
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
For this verse to make sense, one does not need to believe in the existence of “Heaven” in the meaning of a Five Seasons Hotel above the sky where the good ones are enjoying eternity with God and his angels… Heaven is a metaphor, a symbol of what transcends our mortal, finite, corrupt existence.
If the things you place at the center of your life are earthly, fleeting, shallow preoccupations, “treasures upon earth”, then eventually they will get corrupted by “moth and rust” and will be stolen by “thieves”. They will inevitably decay or be taken away from you - money, status, power, beauty…
But not only do these “treasures upon earth” not last - they will also corrupt your heart. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” : Because what we treasure, what we seek, changes our heart.
Think about the depiction of pirates in books and movies. The treasure they seek is a chest filled with gold coins and diamonds. Their treasure is money, pecuniary enrichment, and in searching for it, they become greedy, cupid, reckless, shallow and cruel. The movie The Wolf of Wall Street is a pretty good illustration of how putting money at the forefront of his life corrupts a man’s soul and drives him to the worst of himself.
How what we seek changes our heart.
This verse applies to all areas of life. The kind of career you seek alters you as a person. Corporate law and consultancy will not shape your soul in the same way that joining the army will, or becoming a professional musician, or a nurse, or a server in a restaurant, or a teacher, or an architect, or a diplomat.
You will get changed as a person depending on what you seek and value - power, status, money accumulation, service to community, advancement of science, creation of beauty, administration of justice, transmission of knowledge…
When deciding something so important as a career path - the crucial question is not “what is my purpose?”, nor “what career would I like most?”, which are valid questions, but they are not the essence of it. The essence of it, the primary issue is : what kind of person do I want to become? Where do I want to place my heart? How do I want my treasure to change me?
What we seek changes our heart and that is why we must be aware, mindful, intentional and wise about what we place at the center of our existence. That sounds pretty obvious, but stop and have an honest thought about this : what occupies your mind most of the time? What do you think about the most? What takes up most of the time on your calendar?
Sometimes, even when we think we have certain values, our reality does not align with them. You say you treasure family - how often have you called yours this week ? You say you treasure your community - when is the last time you did something uncomfortable to show up for someone you love ? Et cetera, et cetera…
Perhaps you do know that your treasure is love, community, connection - perhaps it is the pursuit of excellence, knowledge, science, justice, growth… Yet so much unrelated stuff clutters your mind on a daily basis. Things that should only be punctual desires inflate to occupy the mental space of a need, or sometimes worse, an obligation, a purpose, a treasure.
I think about the shoes I need to buy. The fitness classes I need to book. The new coat, the new dress. I worry about a few kilograms of weight, and how my arms aren’t toned enough. I think about finances and the investments I need to set up ASAP.
But all of this doesn’t matter that much. It does matter of course, pragmatically - but it is not essential. Sometimes it feels so important, so urgent, but really, it isn’t.
I worry so much about so many things. I let my mind get cluttered with futile preoccupations. And I find this gets so much worse when I am chronically online…
Yet deep down I have always, always had this sense of what is truly essential, and what is not.
I know what my treasure is, and where my heart lies. Do you?
What is your treasure? Where is your heart?
Allocation of time can act as a powerful compass to locate your treasure and check whether your reality aligns with your treasure.
This simple exercise can help (shout out to my friend whose name is, ironically, Matthew, thanks for sharing this with me) : Time everything you do for an entire week. Everything, even the moments when you do things that seem insignificant, or do nothing, and write everything down. This speaks volumes about where, in practice, your treasure truly lies. After this test, if you find that the life you are leading is misaligned with what you truly treasure, make sure to install small or radical changes to bring it as close as possible to true alignment.
It is not easy, to live aligned with one’s treasure. It may take many years, many detours, and many sacrifices. But remember : it is not about the speed with which you move, but rather about the direction.
Not only what we seek changes us, but also who we seek.
That is also a very important aspect and possible interpretation of the verse.
Who we seek changes us, it changes our heart, it changes our self and our perception of self. Whether in friendships, or in romantic relationships.
If we seek a person who is emotionally unavailable or avoidant, we will turn into someone who lacks confidence, self esteem, attention, someone whose emotional needs are never met. We will gradually despise ourselves.
If we seek a person who gossips, we will fall into that sin as well. If we seek a person who only cares about the material things life has to offer - how could we ever explore more with them? If we seek a person who indulges in an unhealthy lifestyle, chances are, we will get dragged into their habits too.
If we seek a person who is honest, kind, of pure heart, brave and intellectually curious, chances are, they will challenge us to surpass ourselves.
The primary question to ponder, more important than “do I like him/her?”, would rather be “do I like the way they change my heart?”
Dearest reader,
I hope you have enjoyed this letter.
To ponder, I leave you with these questions :
Where is my treasure? Is my lifestyle truly aligned with it?
What do I seek? Who do I seek? Do I like how it’s changing my heart?
There is a beautiful quote by Naval Ravikant that is always written on a post-it somewhere next to my nightstand :
“A fit body, a calm mind, and a house full of love. These things cannot be bought, they must be earned.”
Wishing you many treasures in heaven, and a heart aligned,
Most sincerely
Magray