Some Christians think it is wrong to plan for the future. After all, have you ever seen a worried bird (Matthew 6:26)? What if Jesus comes tonight? Isn’t it wrong to think about making money—a form of greed? The only safe investment is in the Lord’s work: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Jesus will last.”

What are our assumptions about investing? First, money or assets should be put to work. This is in effect what God said to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: put it all to work (Genesis 1:26-29; Genesis 2:15). Second, we said that it should be profitable or fruitful. God’s creation mandate to the first couple was to be fruitful, to fill the earth and to flourish. Seeds are not meant to be kept in bottles or bins forever. That way they can never bear fruit. Rather they should be sown into the soil and produce a hundredfold—a rather good return on the original investment (Matthew 13:23).

Third, the future rather than the immediate present or the past is in view. Some African and Asian cultures are oriented backward as the spirits of ancestors keep “catching up” to the present generation. We would then be like people standing on a bridge over a fast-flowing river watching the water come toward us. But the Christian perspective is to turn around and watch where the river is going. We are future-oriented. Heaven calls us. The Second Coming of Christ beckons us toward the new heaven and the new earth. We are, as Jürgen Moltmann so accurately says, living not at sunset but at the dawning of a new day. Christ might come today—we should be ready. But he may not come for a thousand years—we should be ready for even a long wait like the wise virgins in Jesus’ parable (Matthew 25:1-13). It is precisely this balanced Christian view—longing for Christ to come soon but building for the long haul—that is the eschatological perspective provided by the New Testament. Martin Luther once said that if he knew Christ was coming tomorrow he would still plant a little tree today. Investment in the future is exactly what Christians should do, no matter how black the sky may seem according to a secular analysis.

Then take the fourth assumption—that risk must be assumed. Most people think that investment risk is simply the potential to lose money. But there are at least four kinds of risk to be considered: business risk (that the business or corporation will go out of business and not be able to meet its financial obligations); liquidity risk (that there may not be a buyer if you want to sell an investment quickly); market risk (that the fluctuating financial market may render your investment of less value); purchasing power risk (that the investment will not be able to exceed inflation by a satisfactory margin). All four kinds spell the potential for some kind of loss or failure. The more immediate issues are to consider whether the process is in place for continuously monitoring the risk and whether the expected return is proportional to the monitored risk. But it is impossible to invest without some risk. And failure might even become one of the most important learning moments. Wisdom comes more from failure than from success.

Risk theorists note that there are several ways of coping with risk: ignoring it, assuming (or retaining) it, eliminating the possibility of loss, transferring the loss to someone else, and anticipating the loss and planning toward it. On the first, it is folly to ignore risk, a game of let’s pretend that is bound to catch up disastrously with reality someday. On the most important possibilities and uncertainties, we must assume or retain the risk. By retaining or assuming these noninsurable risks we are called not only to trust God but to exercise faithful stewardship of our lives to reduce risk. In making investments this means diversifying, seeking wise counsel and not taking unnecessary risks to make big money quickly, the latter falling into the category of speculation or gambling. The proverbs counsel rejecting get-rich-quick schemes in favor of making small regular gains over a period of time, so accumulating wealth through wisdom and patience. “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow” (Proverbs 13:11). In all cases eliminating the possibility of loss totally is possible only by refusing to accept the adventure of life, for there is the dwindling of our purchasing power through inflation.

What would make us accept the risks attendant on making investments? One thing would be a God who takes risks! God took an enormous risk in making a creature with free will, in committing to the family of Abraham, in slipping into the human family as a vulnerable child. But the lamb was slain from the foundation of the earth. For the Christian this means trusting in God’s providential care of us and of God’s world, and believing that even temporary reverses will be transformed into general good, as exemplified by the victory of the cross of Jesus.