Fire and Gold

"Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants."
--Baha'u'llah

It's only recently occurred to me that he gold doesn't have to just mean material goods, it can mean anything we consider valuable and shiny (in the Firefly sense of the word shiny. Don't know what I'm talking about? Rent the Serenity DVD.)


I guess the key is sorting which gold is gold and which is pyrite. Or even which gold is pure and which is too tainted to be valuable... except if the gold was already tested with fire, maybe it's all been sorted and it's all the good stuff.  Maybe we aren't supposed to fall for the gold at all... 


So how do you know what in your path to pay attention to and what to step around? I guess it's all down to knowing yourself, knowing what brings you closer to knowing and worshipping God and what distracts you. 


Thoughts?