Out Our Way: A $5 Coke

Remember the mess we had when someone at the government “Einstein” came up with the idea of making dollar coins the same size as a quarter?  Well it wasn’t just foreigners who sometimes mistook one for the other. Ever pay $5 for a $1.25 pop?

Well the same is true of God’s gifts. Each talent or skill or blessing is important in its own right, but not all have the same value or importance in our lives or the Kingdom’s work. We need to know where to put the emphasis and focus in life in order to make the best use of what has been entrusted into our hands.

Someone sent me a great email about a beautiful woman who decided to let millionaires and billionaires know she was available. She sent out texts to rich men saying that it was her desire to marry a millionaire. One of those rich men was a pretty cool character in my book because he pointed out that it was a bad investment.

He was a major executive who regularly doubled or tripled his personal worth every few years and he offered the young woman this advice. In the field of investments there are long-term assets that continue to grow in value over time, and there are also short term assets whose value does not last. For example the luxury car of today is the used car of tomorrow, and its value declines with each passing year.  There will always be a newer and fancier model coming out and those who buy a particular car for the prestige of ownership will not keep it long. The same is true of “eye candy” brides.

And so he advised this young woman to seek to offer something more than her beauty if she was serious about seeking the good life. “Seek love, which does not fade,” he advised, “for love, like the other truly good investments, only increases and becomes more precious with time.” He finished by saying, “You may not get your millionaire, but you may find the joy, peace, and fulfillment that even the richest people in the world cannot buy at any price.”

   One hopes this young woman took the advice of this investment banker who, like the good servants in the parable of the talents, took the time and the effort to get the most bang for the buck and invested wisely in the Master’s interests

(John Bruington is pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Havre. Copies of the “Out Our Way” column and cartoon, as well as his weekly cartoon and children’s message series “Bruin-Town Tales,” can be viewed at the church website: http://www.havrepres.org. The book “Out Our Way: Theology Under Saddle” is also available at Amazon.com.]