From the time that I began earning a paycheck, I took an interest in investing. I am not much into real estate. Mainly because I couldn’t hit the side of a barn when swinging a hammer. But I do effectively smash my thumb on a regular basis. So when it came to the idea of making our income work for us, Elise and I gravitated towards investing in the stock market. But the thing is, I had no time or interest in researching each and every company that I might want to put some money into. Nor did I want to spend my days following all my investments. After all, when would that leave me time to ride my motorcycles!!
So when it came to deciding how to invest, I leaned towards mutual funds. For those who do not know what these are, a mutual fund is a collection of individual investments and managed as a group. So there are funds that group together small companies and others that group large companies, Then there are funds that focus on different types of bonds. And funds that offer mixtures. What you choose often depends on your age and what you sensitivity to risk is. But here is the key. Each fund has a fund manager. The person who directs what to include in the fund, what to sell and what to buy. As an individual you turn your trust over to that manager to do what is right to meet your investment goals.
Now here is the thing about investing…it requires a long range view. From day to day things change in the market. Often based on what is happening politically in the world. It is very tempting to tweak and adjust your portfolio on a daily basis based on what the price of oil is or what the Kardashians have been up to. But that often just results in you just chasing the proverbial tail. Rarely can you time the market to your benefit. So at times it is best to just close your eyes, know that you have a good long term strategy in place and then let the fund manager do their thing.
And, believe it or not, this is what God is telling us in today’s first reading from the Prophet (profit?) Habakkuk. The drumbeat of trying to convince the Israelites to stop chasing false gods and return to the one true God continues. Not sure what these prophets would do if they didn’t have the sinful Israelites to rail on day after day. But that is a subject for another reflection. God has just revealed to Habakkuk that He plans on using the Babylonians to strike down His people in an attempt to get them to finally see the error of their ways. But Habakkuk is like, “wait…these people are evil and You are going to work with THEM to punish Your own people?!” The Babylonians use hook and net, sword and spear to attack their enemies. They make no distinction between the good and the bad. Their evil ways are known throughout the land. The prophet wonders aloud why evil will prevail over what he sees as the good.
We see this in our own day as well, don’t we? We see those who are clearly not living a virtuous life getting all the spoils while the just seem to suffer. When Elise and I were younger and just starting out in practice, we rarely went out to eat or took vacations to far away places. Our clothes reflected a “retro-look”. Not because we were trendy but because we didn’t want to spend what we earned on what we considered to be unnecessary things at that time of our lives. We had friends who were jetting around the world and buying new cars. We held the line and made sure we paid into our savings. It definitely took will power but we are now seeing the fruits of those sacrifices.
So Habakkuk says to God, after lambasting Him for working with the evil Babylonians, I will sit here and wait for your answer to my complaint. You can almost see him leaning against a wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest and smugly saying, “Yeah. I’ll just sit here and wait to see what you’ve got”. And here was his answer from God:
Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write down the vision
Clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
If it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash man has no integrity;
but the just man, because of his faith, shall live.
Basically, God says to wait. The market will come up. It always does. Don’t sell off now when things are troubling. You will just be locking in your losses. Trust your fund manager. Trust ME! Have faith that I was here for you when you were in Egypt and I am here for you now. But I need to get My people’s attention. Trust me. I really do know what I am doing. There is a Taize hymn called, “Wait for the Lord”. Its opening line is:
Wait for the Lord, his day is near
Wait for the Lord, be strong take heart
I think this is what God is telling Habakkuk. And what He is telling us. Don’t get caught up in the news. The daily events. Don’t let the evil one get you to take your eyes off the ball. Off the long range view that God has for each one of us. Don’t get too low when things are going badly. And don’t get too high when all is right with the world. In the end we will all “retire”. And God will see the “equity” we have gained through the love we had for Him and His people.
