Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Pirates, Pieces of Eight, and the Peace That Surpasses Understanding
What drives our fascination with hidden treasure? From childhood pirate stories to television shows about underwater discoveries, there's something compelling about the search for valuable things lost to time.
Today's reflection bridges my personal connection to maritime history—a piece of silver from the legendary Atocha shipwreck—with the far greater treasure described in Matthew 13:44. The Atocha's story is remarkable: a Spanish galleon laden with New World riches, sunk by a hurricane off Key West in 1622, its treasures scattered by a second storm and seemingly lost forever. Yet treasure hunter Mel Fisher persevered through 14 years of searching and profound personal tragedy before finally discovering the motherlode in 1985.
While finding sunken treasure captivates our imagination, Jesus points us toward something infinitely more valuable—the kingdom of heaven. Like the man who sold everything to buy a field containing hidden treasure, we're invited to recognize what truly matters. God's kingdom isn't about material wealth but offers what money can't buy: genuine joy, lasting peace, clear purpose, and freedom from fear. In a world pushing us toward anxiety and conformity, this spiritual treasure provides stability and meaning.
Whatever storms you're facing today, remember the tremendous value of the treasure God has placed within you—His presence that guides, strengthens, and remains with you through every challenge.
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Good morning. I am Danny Mac and you're listening to Starting Right. Every weekday morning I'm going to be here to share stories of life and hope from God's Word. So grab a cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. Sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right.
Speaker 1:Ever since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by pirate ships and finding hidden treasure. That fascination has carried on to this day, as I find myself watching television shows about the search for treasure on islands or in the bottom of the sea, or searching wherever they may be able to try and find it. There's just something about it that fascinates me. A number of years ago, I was fortunate enough to purchase a piece of silver which was recovered from a sunken ship called the Atocha, which left Havana in 1622 as the Admiral's ship and as part of a flotilla of 28 ships headed back towards Spain. Shortly after they left, they ran into a hurricane just off of Key West. That hurricane sunk eight of the ships, including the Atocha, which was carrying the vast treasure of gold and silver. Within a month, another hurricane hit the area and spread the remains of the Atocha all along the coast, making it very difficult to find.
Speaker 1:A man by the name of Mel Fisher began to look for this back in 1971. In the ensuing 14 years he lost his eldest son, his son's wife and a crew member when one of the salvage boats they were working on capsized. But still he kept looking and pursuing this treasure. Then in 1985, he found the treasure. The motherlode of the Atosha's treasure was hauled in. Much of that was kept and many of the pieces went into museum. But they took other pieces of the silver bars and they made them into jewelry, which happens to be a piece that I own. I thought that was pretty cool. To me it's fascinating to think that there's all kinds of treasures out there waiting to be found, waiting to be discovered, and yet we have the greatest treasure in our hands every morning.
Speaker 1:In the book of Matthew, chapter 13, verse 44, it says the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get the money to buy the field. This man who found the treasure was so excited that he could get it. He gave everything he had to just get his hands on it, just to be able to have it. It's talking about the kingdom of God. It's talking about how important God's way and God's world are to us and they need to be to us. It's talking about where our priorities are and what we want to have. When we talk about the kingdom of heaven and the treasure of the kingdom of heaven, it's not talking about money. It's talking about the great joy, peace, happiness, fulfillment, sense of purpose, sense of design and understanding of goals, where we're going and what we are here for in every part of our lives. That is made clear to us when we understand our relationship to God.
Speaker 1:Our relationship with God can suffer from a lot of things. It can get beat up from a lot of things. There can be the storms of life. There can be the trials and frustrations that we face every day. There's a lot of pressure on us to conform to the people and the things around us. There's a lot of pressure on us to accept the fear and to conform to a fear-mode society. But we don't live in fear.
Speaker 1:The treasure that we have gives us life and it gives it to us more abundantly.
Speaker 1:It sets us free from fear and gives to us peace and strength from our God.
Speaker 1:That's the treasure that we have and the knowledge that when we leave this planet, when we leave this place whenever that is, however that is we go to be someplace better.
Speaker 1:Our treasure is greater than anything that we could find in this world. Our treasure will not hold us back. Our treasure will not get us wrapped up in all the things we can buy and we can have and, what's more, we can have more than just a little piece of that treasure, like I've got of that silver from the Atosha. We can have all of the treasure of God within us, all of the power and goodness and grace of God within us. We have it in us and when we have it in us, we can take advantage of it, for the powerful riches of God, for the fullness of our lives, are complete within us and within you and me. Today, let's recognize the tremendous value of the treasure that god has placed within each one of us, because he loves us, he's guiding us, he's with us and we can trust him every step of the way. Have a great day, my friends. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on Starting Right with Danny Mac.
