When I was a young teen, my dad experimented with investing in the commodity futures market. He grew potatoes on the family farm, and a farmer friend had convinced him to hedge his crop against low prices through the purchase of futures on a commodity exchange. Dad lost several thousand dollars in the venture, and swore never to invest in the futures market again. The lesson was painful enough that he developed a philosophy for life out of the misfortune. He said to me, “Son, never put your money into an investment you don’t understand.” He stuck with his motto and prospered in the farming business, which he did understand. Our family has benefited over the years in heeding his hard-earned lesson. Loss was turned into gain.
In tough economic times, people’s faith in a turnaround can be tried by unemployment, credit crunches, bleeding budgets, shrinking income, and mounting debt. There is a spiritual lesson to be learned, though, and a blessing to be gained in these difficult periods that enable us to triumph over lack. Supply is not temporal, subject to cyclical human conditions. Its substance is spiritual, produced by God, and available independent of cash levels in the bank. Through prayer we reach this spiritual understanding, which brings blessings and turns loss into gain.
When Abraham (at this point still named Abram) was instructed by God to leave his homeland and take his family to a foreign country, he had to rely on an understanding of spiritual substance to sustain him. He obeyed, and at the age of 75 he left the familiar behind, including his home, neighbors, farmlands, social, political, and economic ties that he had grown accustomed to during his lifetime (see Gen. 12:4). Abraham was asked to start over in many ways. He had mobile wealth to take on his travels, but his spiritual sense informed him of even greater gain to be acquired for heeding God’s command and not mourning the loss of temporal lands and neighborly ties left behind. His clan prospered in the new country, and their faithfulness to God’s direction beneficially affected the history of the world. Abraham’s short-run loss turned into long-term gain.
