Making the Investments

One thing I love about scripture is how often it speaks to us in very practical ways to this day. When you consider that the Bible is THE holy book of the ages. The Bible is the ultimate collection of Holy Spirit writings that teach us how to get to know and come to God. YET in many places, such as Ecclesiastes 11, it meets us on the ground level of life. 

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon drops wisdom on investing and managing risks. A book from the business section of your local store couldn't do it better. 

Ecclesiastes 11:1–4 (ESV) Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. 2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. 3 If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. 4 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

The term "waters" refers to the marine merchant industry. This is not giving money away, this is investing in commerce. And verse two calls us to diversify. Then verse three seems like an odd scripture about the geological realities of rain and tree felling. But it's reminding us that there's a give and take to life while there are also firm realities that don't change. Yes, the investment you make will wane, and sometimes there's nothing more you can do but acknowledge the final reality of a venture but do not give up. Keep investing. Do not let past mistakes build fear in your heart. That's what verse 4 is about. One of my favorite texts in all of scripture:

Ecclesiastes 11:4 (ESV) He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

Observing the wind and clouds are tell-tale signs of an anxious heart. You try to find almost any bad news you can to stop you from sowing your seed. What Solomon says here is you'll never get anywhere when you try nothing. 

To drive home this point further, Solomon writes"

Ecclesiastes 11:5–6 (ESV) As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. 6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

So you can imagine a bad-case scenario, but you don't know for sure what will be. And just as life in the womb is a mystery that God controls (that's why scripture is adamantly pro-life), so too your risks can seem like dark unknown places where God does His best work bringing great things to life. 

And yes, in many lives, the dark days outnumber the bright:

Ecclesiastes 11:8 (ESV) So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

But again, we cannot let what might happen stop us from making something happen. The last verse says it well:

Ecclesiastes 11:10 (ESV) Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Getting worked up about past failures and letting the pain settle in your life is a mistake. Everyone has a few regrets. Stop looking at them and open your hand to today's opportunities. For when Christ came to us, He opened heaven to us so that we could live with the expectation of heaven's will coming to Earth through us.