I've Been Investing in God and I Want a Refund!

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Several years ago, I began buying stocks, something of a hobby, something to do with a little extra cash I have from time to time. Nothing massive, I’m not running a hedge fund, just a few purchases here and there, like literally two shares in Apple.

Some of the investments I’ve made have gone well, but others have bombed. In fact, there is one company that I invested in, a Supermarket called “Coles,’ where I purchased like thirty shares because they appeared to be doing well. But the moment I bought shares in the company, they dropped and have stayed low ever since, for like three years. And yet if I sold them, they would probably go up the next day! Coles and Woolworths have a virtual duopoly in the supermarket scene in Australia and I’m baffled as to why a profitable company has had such a shoddy share price for the last three years.

Sidenote: On twitter, there is another Mike Bird, who is a Hong Kong-based financial analyst with a big following. That’s the Mike Bird you need to go to for your financial advice, especially for Asian markets, not Mike Bird the biblical scholar. My financial advice will probably lead you to the poor house!

Back to the main point: there are days when I feel like I’ve been investing in God and I suspect I’ve been suckered into some kind of religious ponzi scheme. I’ve been pouring in prayer, piety, worship, ethics, and nearly my whole professional life and what do I have to show for it? Teenage boys who I struggle to get out of bed every morning, massive mortgage, the constant exhaustion of being a second-tier manager in a seminary, a body ravaged with middle-aged ailments, and some guy on Twitter called “BibleBob” who keeps bringing up that stupid interview I did with an ABC comedian ten years ago that did not go well? If God were a company, I’d be raising some complaints at the shareholder meeting.

I have to say that my colleague Scott Harrower did a great sermon on this topic when he preached on Psalm 88. I commend it to you!

There are days where I wonder if I’m secretly subscribing to a prosperity gospel inside my head, imagining that God needs a performance review based on how my health, wealth, happiness, and satisfaction are doing. As if God is meant to pay off a regular and rich dividend, or else, I’m entitled to sell my shares and find a new deity to invest in, maybe Ahura Mazda has a good profit-to-share ratio.

But God is not an investment. God is the infinite, immortal, invisible, and incomprehensible divine being who loves me with an infinite love, promises me immortality, becomes visible in Jesus, and makes himself comprehensible to me in Scripture.

I’m redeemed from darkness and brought into the kingdom of the son of his love. And that is enough.

I have nothing to complain about. Yes, life has its ups and downs, I probably need shoulder surgery, and parenting teenagers is hard, but all things considered, I have no reason to doubt God’s love for me. And if I do, I look to the cross. If I feel crushed by life, I look to the empty tomb. If I feel broken and battered, I pray for the Spirit’s refreshment. God is good, and even when it doesn’t feel like God is good, God is still good.

What I need to preach to myself every day is that I haven’t invested in a religious get-rich scheme, rather, I have been adopted into the family of Jesus, and where he is, he has promised that I too shall be. He’ll never leave me nor forsake me and he has demonstrated his love for me by giving his life for me.

I know I need to hear that again and again, and I imagine you do too!