Investment

Why do we make investments? I mean I know what an investment does. I can see how they are valuable in the financial world. I understand that they can make life much easier down the road because you will have a nest egg, a cushion, something to rely on. I get that.

We are living in times when investments have gone south for countless people. The economy, the economy, the economy. It's all we hear about. It's bad. It's going down the toilet. It's a recession. Could it be a ghastly second Great Depression? I get that too.

I understand the value of investments but I also understand the risk.

The truth is I don't want to talk about money. I'm not interested in the stock market. Investments of those kinds aren't what is causing me angst tonight. It is personal investment, life investment, relational investment that confuses me. Not only confuses, but conflicts and confounds, irritates and hurts. It hurts. It really does.

Certainly a bad investment in the financial world can hurt me. But a bad investment in the relational world, how do you recover from that?

If my 401k tanks, I can work past retirement, take out a loan, start scrimping and saving all the more now so I can live better later. I can do those things.

But if a friendship tanks, what then? How do I recover? If I have given my life to someone, offered them the care they deserve, showed them the love of God, dedicated myself to their well being and then things don't go the way that I wish, my investment doesn't have a positive return so to speak, what now?

But I suppose the real issue is that these kinds of investments are radically different from one another. In fact, in my heart I know that I don't invest in the lives of others with the hopes to get some positive return. That is a bonus, but that isn't the motivation. I invest in others because I love them. I really love them.

I want certain outcomes. But there are no guarantees. Relational investing is really a bad investment when we look at it through the world's eyes. The likelihood that I will lose is way higher than that I will gain. And yet, I still want to give, to share life, to journey, to take the time with others on the slight chance that something radically new will take place in their lives. It has in mine.

To be honest, the return is much slower than I would like. In reality, the return is sometimes a statement that reads losses instead of gains.

I still think it is an investment worth making. I do. Countless investments have been made on my behalf. I'll still invest even if the relational market is tanking.