Issue 147
Huge numbers of people spend their entire working lives in activity relating to maximising return on investments. They take funds acquired through individual or corporate clients and devise ways of increasing their future value to the benefit of all concerned. Almost everyone tries to engage in this activity to a lesser extent by placing some hard earned income into the financial system with the aim of providing for the future. Companies and organisations generate or invest or reinvest funds in order to maintain status and create growth. The concept is so common that it is woven into the fabric of working culture, sometimes invisible to individuals but nevertheless holding things together.
For many, investment is seen as a long term project. Warnings of possible losses are printed on investment literature along with projections of profits.
Underneath this activity is a belief, not always explicit but nevertheless real. It could be expressed by saying, “tomorrow’s well being is related to today’s investment”. There is a future focus to such behaviour and it contains an element of hope. Yet this future focus is rooted in today’s behaviour. We cannot live in the future or the past; only in the present. The days that are coming are possibilities, but the day that is here is real. The days that are coming are uncertain; today has arrived. In human activity there is no guarantee of future days – we have no idea how long we have to live. But we do have today. The risk, then, of investment is to link something real and certain (today) with something unreal and uncertain (possible tomorrows). A better strategy would be to try to link today’s reality with a guaranteed future. Such would be an investment manager’s dream.
This dream, however, is exactly what is proposed by Jesus of Nazareth in his famous Sermon on the Mount investment portfolio. “Store up for yourselves,” he advises, “treasures in heaven”. These investments are not subject to the vagaries of the market, nor liable to decrease in value. This strategy links the certainty of today with the certainty of life after life. The future focus is beyond this market and world system.
The implications of such an approach are that today’s behaviour would be affected. The question is “what do I do today that will store up treasures in heaven?” Asking that question will affect how you manage your three major assets of time, money and talent. It will determine what and how you build, it will affect how you talk and interact with other people. It will shape the memories you inbed in others and focus the energy you use. It may cause you to drop some activities and take up others.
The question which remains is, “how can I know what constitutes storing up treasures in heaven?” Jesus of Nazareth didn’t hide the detail in the small print – the entire Sermon on the Mount portfolio gives you a magnificent investment strategy. Today might be the day to take a look.
Matthew 6: 19-21
19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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