Playing the Market

There’s an investment strategy that has become popular with first time or novice investors called the “do-nothing” approach. Essentially one invests in a diversified portfolio and leaves it alone for a long time collecting the return on investment with little risk and little fees. In some spaces, it earns more than someone who is very active in the market. Many of us who don’t understand the game of the stock market have invested our pensions this way as a way to preserve our retirement. For all intents and purposes, this can and is considered to be a smart investment strategy. Do nothing and your investment will grow. However, it’s also considered to be a passive way to invest in the future. And the truth is this strategy has become a way of life for many. We go about our day to day. Do the same thing week in and week out. Investing little in the world market around us. Passive in our approach to the gospel. We do what we need to with little energy left over for anything else. The reality is that this isn’t something new, but inherited by the church of the modern day. We’ve lost the sense of urgency that Jesus will return. Lost the sense that how we spread the gospel here and now matters. In short, we’ve become comfortable with the way things are. The expectation now is that the church and its leaders are here to feed us rather than motivate or challenge us. Church has become a place of feeding rather than a place of equipping. 

The author of Hebrews said it best that by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:12-14 NIV). The problems that the church is facing today has been an issue from the beginning. It’s why this warning was written. To remind us all of the task at hand. To remind us of the urgency of the situation. Jesus promised to come back. We are promised that one day we will have to account for our lives. For the investment we made in the gospel message. The prophet Jeremiah once spoke for the Lord saying I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve (Jeremiah 17:11 NIV).

One day our investment will be judged by how faithfully we put it to work. Did we have a passive approach to all we’ve been entrusted with? Or did we faithfully attend our resources, skills, and time for the movement and advancement of the Kingdom of God? No one can answer that but you. When you’re called to give an account of your life, will your investment be seen as passive? Where we did nothing and hoped it grew. Or will it be seen as an active movement to grow the kingdom? How you invest is up to you. How will you invest this week?