Jesus ... [then] said to them,
"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."
And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, 'You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God."
Two Portfolios Challenge
Christians typically have two investment portfolios.
As Christians we typically have two investment portfolios as follows:
Investment Portfolio 1: My earthly porfolio
Most of us Aussies spend a lot of time thinking about our earth-bound investments. We are obsessed with real estate; we seek out financial advisors; all Australian workers have superannuation; most of us know about negative gearing; have share portfolios or a managed fund; and around our BBQs often the conversation turns to investments. The older we get the more we think (worry) about having 'enough' for retirement.
Investment Portfolio 2 - My eternal portfolio
There is another portfolio which most of us don't have a financial plan for. That is, the eternal portfolio, or God's Kingdom portfolio. This requires some deep thinking about honoring God with our money, about the impact we want to make on the lives of those beyond our famiy, and thinking about a legacy we can leave with our God-given resources.
Parable of the rich fool
The Challenge
Start spending more time planning and tracking your 'eternal portfolio' (portfolio 2) than your 'earthly portfolio' (portfolio 1). That is, change your priority to the investments in God's Kingdom work. Think about your legacy from an eternal perspective.
Coming Soon...
To help you do this - GiveHigher provides a free account to (amongst other things) help you plan and track your eternal portfolio.