Wealth and Poverty III - Gain and Loss ...

Thursday, Sept 3, 2009. Wealth and Poverty is our topic this week. We have started to explore valuable things, in particular the value of God's kingdom. Today we want to talk about value with respect to gain and loss.

A friend of ours has lost his partner recently. After many years of marriage, many journeys to different countries, many great experiences and wunderful hours she died suddenly. It is a heavy loss, a big shock for all of us. It is as if his life would be torn into pieces suddenly. They had a great wealth with their partnership. Their marriage with all the things it included has been a treasure. But this treasure was taken away within some weeks.

He had been working for his company for twenty years. Now it is insolvent, the whole factory will be closed by the end of the month. He had a good salary, everything seemed to be great until recently. But the sales have gone down rapidly, and investors could not find a concept for the future. Parts of the enterprise were sold, the others are closed down. He was in a wealthy environment, but now everything seems to go down the drain.

What is wealth worth if it is volatile, perishable, fleeting? How valuable are things which die quickly? Often in business the value of something is set in relation to the time which is left to use it. The value of a car or boat is going down when it gets older or when its licence expires soon. If we can use something for two years it costs more than if we can use it for one year only. How much is something worth which can be used forever? We would need to multiply with a very large number! Things which you cannot loose can have an extremely high value when they have any value at all. Or they are extremely dangerous …

In our life there are many things which we value highly even if they have a limited life expectancy. We care for a baby, for friends, for loved ones and we do not care that they will die at some point. Love is love and it is unconditional and not influenced by disillusioning circumstances. But this attitude does not fit into our modern understanding of our world. If things die soon, this should influence our idea about their value. A consequent attitude based on the limited horizon of our life span will need to be different from an attitude which has long term horizon. Short term value is different from long term value.

The horizon set by Christian faith is eternity. Life does not end with our physical death - it just ends the time which was given to us on this earth. The Christian perspective is a perspective which is truely long term. All attitudes are measured against the character of the eternal God, against the measures and values of God's kingdom. In this framework love makes sense - since we will continue to love and continue to live in God's kingdom. In this framework sacrifice makes sense, since we generate value in the long term perspective. The human heart is made for eternity, and in the light of eternity our values become what they want to be and should be. [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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