"Send your bread on the surface of the water, for after many days you may find it." Ecclesiastes 11:1 (CSB)
I love the King James translation of this verse, "Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days." I call it a "Bob Ross" phrase as the imagery of casting bread, or provisions, on the water like one would skip stones is vividly painted. The man whose wisdom brought rulers from across the world to behold his wisdom tells us to fling our riches out into the sea with the assurance that it will return to us. Normally, for a "Wisdom Wednesday" we look at a passage from Proverbs (the book of wisdom) but today I'm going to fudge a bit and take some wisdom from Ecclesiastes; although this book is written by the man who has most of the proverbs attributed to him - Solomon.
Currently inflation is higher than it's been in decades. The dollar is worth around $0.88 while the cost of essentials is on the rise. Our purchasing power is substantially suffering. The more I put into my 401K, the more it recedes towards $0. I have seen a few articles quoting a wealthy author who gives financial advice, telling people to invest heavily right now. His encouragement is that a bear market, a state where the market is in prolonged decline, is the time to purchase and even dump MORE money in if one can. His message is one of hope - that the market cannot remain in a "bear" state forever; that it will become a bullish market in time and all that has been invested will bring exponentially enormous returns. Those who believe this message, begin to dump as much of their bread into the sea of wall street as they possibly can.
It's interesting that while some do not believe the message of this wealthy man, still his message is more easily believed and obeyed by others, even Christians than the message of Solomon. What does casting bread on the waters look like? Jesus said, "Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys." (Luke 12:33 CSB) Jesus, with more wisdom than Solomon and the wealthy investment author of today combined, tells us to invest. There is ministry to be done among the poor and fallen. We are to invest in this bear market that seems like we will not receive a positive ROI on our investment. Jesus promises that we will. He assures us that the returns will be not only exponential, but eternal. We can invest depreciating dollars for eternal wealth. We can invest our waning life and time into eternally incorruptible revenues. Jesus' message is a message of hope. Hope far greater than that of the financiers. The bear market can turn bull, but will once more eventually morph to a bear again; it oscillates between the two. We are more apt to believe the bear will turn to a bull. Jesus states that this bear market (earth) will be transformed into a bull market (the new earth); that what we invest for His kingdom will bring eternal dividends that will not depreciate and can't ever be lost.
This world is wearing out, it is in a constant, downward, depreciating spiral. Some will want to hoard, hanging on to what they have; reasoning that it's better to have a little even though it will depreciate than risk losing it all. Some may throw in the towel and just cut their losses as best they can while repeatedly misapplying a mantra from the apostle Peter "It's all gonn'a burn!". Instead, we are called to trust Jesus, we are exhorted to "Cast [our] bread upon the waters: for [we] shalt find it after many days." for in doing so we will "Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys." Now is the time to go all in.
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