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A speaker shared the analogy of “Panning for Gold” as a metaphor for finding God’s love. Just like when you are trying to pan for gold there is a lot of dirt or muck that needs to be sifted through first before you can even see the gold hidden within. This is like our lives, the golden nuggets and sparkling gems are within us. Inside of each of us is God’s love just waiting for us to discover, a golden gem that will make our hearts and souls sparkle like never before. Yet most of us have filled our lives with a lot of muck so we get stuck. We might attempt to clean out the muck here and there, yet soon we stop because we are frustrated with the results when we don’t find “the gold” right away.
What I’m writing about is a great example. When I heard the speaker share this concept I took some time earlier to meditate on it and ponder what it meant in my life. What muck is getting me stuck, what’s blocking me from finding this gold all the time? The gold is there and we all have it, it’s just our choice if we are going to decide to try to find it, to pan for it. Once you do and you see what gems in your life you can uncover, you’ll get hooked to keep panning.
For me it’s like every day I’m so excited to see how God is going to speak to me. What gem am I going to discover today? I always can tell when I take the time to pan for it; which means for me that I take alone time to pray, read, meditate, write or any other spiritual rituals. It might be one of the speakers I heard that gets me excited to go deeper and sift through the muck. Or it might be something that came to me during my bible study time. I know when I’m ready to pan is when I can feel a great pull. It’s like I see the tip of something shining in my life that makes me want to go deeper and deeper. So I go within and search for the gold. The gold for me is often how to be more of what we are all called to be – more loving, more peaceful, more joyful.
The days that I choose not to go deeper and pan for the golden nuggets within are the days that I can tell I’ve missed out on something. I just feel off – less enthusiastic, less kind, less passionate, less gratitude, less patient and ultimately less inspired. I can see and feel the difference and I know others around me can too.
The good news is that the gold’s there and we all know what it’s like to feel this inside of us and how different we are because we have that inner peace, joy and love. We just need to take the time and make it a priority to go panning, not just once but daily. So even though we missed the actual panning days of the gold rush from long ago, we all have the opportunity to go within ourselves and find God’s golden gems just waiting to glow brightly in our lives.
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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.
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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.
