God’s kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field. (Matthew 13:44, The Message).

I am that trespasser who found something I wasn’t searching for, and now that I have seen it, I must have it with the entirety of my being.

Mark 8:34 invited me to become a follower of Jesus, a Christian. But Matthew 13:44 describes in a nutshell my call to Christian service, to ministry.

An accident, unforeseen, sudden. Yet it was subtle like that millisecond of silence and withheld breath that precedes the moment you realise that you have just made an awesome discovery.

As with the cross of Christ that I arise to carry every single day, I am constantly selling everything I have to own that field – to make sure I bring God’s kingdom nearer to the people around me.

It’s strange. The more I sell to buy, the field keeps getting bigger and the treasure, though flawless already, becomes even more precious. Bigger, more precious, costlier. So I must sell more, selling even what I didn’t even know I had, to attain it.

I cannot unsee the treasure. I cannot deny it. Sometimes it’s easy to curse this chance finding. Why did it happen to me? Why did it have to be my eyes that saw it?

Despite the sacrifices and the marketplace bargaining to sell my possessions at a good rate to purchase the field and its treasure…I am honoured to be this trespasser. If I could, I would sell everything over and over again until I possess it.