A Sure Investment

If I knew of one unfailing stock that I could invest in, would I not invest all of my assets, cash, credit, everything? Yes, I would.

The economy: It's in national media, it's affecting our friends' and families' lives, it's affecting our lives. Lots of people are talking about it.

So back to the image of the stock market: If I knew of one, just one, sure stock option, I would invest everything I had (which, being a social work student following a season of mission work, eh, is not much in the world's eyes but it's okay :) ). Last semester I wrote a research paper about the Great Depression and the Great Recession, and as I studied the Great Depression, all the theories and arguments about its causes and effects, who was in office in what position where and the environment of Wall Street in the early 20th century, this reality, straightforward and simple, became clear to me:

A singular cause of the Great Depression was greed.

I do not mean to oversimplify the catastrophic and multi-factorial social issues of poverty and the Great Depression, but I have to observe that perhaps one cause of the Great Depression was not so much "corporate greed" as it was just plain old human greed, the kind of selfishness that has always existed since the Fall, as Richard J. Foster observes in a great book I recommend entitled The Freedom of Simplicity.

We are not that much holier and better, if at all, than those who were "responsible" for the stock market crash in 1929. Several books and articles I found blamed stock traders and investment bankers and industrialism itself openly for the crash and depression. But the truth is that the whole country was caught up in a kind of Corinthian-esque lavish lifestyle. To blame a few people or a single economic reality for a corporate ("corporate" meaning "done by or characteristic of a group of individuals acting together") social problem of material gluttony and endemic self-sufficiency - falls short because that narrative does contain the full truth.

In many areas of our lives, I think Christians can make an almost full investment. As long as we as Christians, or if not, us nice and good people, invest in the right direction, we cut ourselves a break. Or maybe as long as we're not in a leadership position that carries with it overt trappings of power and prestige, we cut ourselves a break. We forget - I forget every day, several times a day - that God made us for greatness and in His eyes, each of us is a leader and made in His image.

So to where do we turn? Where is the sure investment to be found? In the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one sure bet. His promise is something I can fully invest in, without doubt, without a backup plan. His promise may not be fully fulfilled, but I can accept it from Him on good credit. While we are in this world, we will have to hedge our bets, utilized a kind of this-age shrewdness, as we navigate a world in which evil and sin exist. We will have to make due with having one solid plan and then having back up plans, options B and C.

But: in prayer, we are free to have just one Plan A - because that is what Jesus Christ has come to be for us. And we actually do harm to ourselves and others when we keep other options open and fail to fully invest in the Lord. Today, in this age, if we have multiple bank accounts, for example, if we spread our assets, some might call us "wise." In the world, having two bank accounts or two credit cards, does no harm to us. But in the Kingdom of Heaven, this attitude of hedging our bets does real damage, and splitting the odds is not a good thing.

And because we have to live this way in the world, this is precisely why we need to keep investing fully in God. We need a haven from that necessity.

Do you know the feeling of sinking into a comfortable armchair? The Lord says, "Come, sink into me. Sink into my love."

So: lest we fill our lives with choruses of "prudence" that beneath their veneer can often actually amount to nothing more than variations on self-sufficiency and doubt in God's faithfulness, let us return to Him. Come, let us return to Him, as Hosea and this season of Lent encourage us to do. It's quite simple, and it'll all work out, if we live in the freedom of simplicity.

And let us pray for the world, particularly for those who are in poverty, that is, without basic necessities. But perhaps most of all, let's pray for those who are in poverty because they still hunger for the reality of God's imperishable and fiery love for them; and I am one of "them."

Thank you, Lord Jesus;
Come, Lord Jesus.