A Financial Parable
There once was a small town where nearly the entire population was afflicted with headaches. Some were a mere annoyance, others were raging migraines. Needless to say, these headaches, and how to relieve them, were the topic of much conversation in this city.
But life goes on, and people need a place to save their money and a place to borrow money, and one day a new bank opened up in town.
Other banks offered many different programs for saving and checking, but this bank had just one program: a certificate of deposit with a 20-year term. Normally a bank with a single program with such a long term would never attract customers, but this CD was special -- it promised an annual 100% rate of interest, compounded annually.
Other banks had certificates of deposit, but the best interest rate you could get was standard at all the other banks -- you could get a maximum of 5%.
The city was abuzz with this amazing new program. Everyone had their calculators and their phones out, calculating how much they could make on their savings. The economics teacher at the local high school offered this simple calculation:
Principle x ((1+interest)^20) = value
Since many of his former students still struggled with math, as he drank coffee with people around town he would write down on a napkin the following simplification :
For a 20-year certificate of deposit at 5% interest, multiply your initial investment by 2.65 and that would be the amount you would withdraw after 20 years.
For a 20-year certificate of deposit at 100% interest, multiply your initial investment by 1,048,576.0 and that will be the amount you would withdraw after 20 years.
As a good teacher does, he generally followed that up with a specific example. "If you invest 10,000," he would say, "then after 20 years at 5% you will have 26,500. After 20 years at 100% interest you will have well over 10 BILLION."
And after the initial shock wore off, people would go back to discussing their headaches. Headaches are nothing to trifle with -- there are few things in life that will hold your attention more than a good headache!
Now it had become the habit of the other banks in town to offer aspirin or paracetamol to their clients who came in with headaches. In fact, it had become quite the popular marketing strategy and all the banks had a constant stream of people coming in to get a pill or 2 -- often the banks would simply leave the medicine out in a bowl on the desks so clients could pick them up like candy. As is the case with a bad headache, sometimes the symptoms were slightly improved, but generally the aspirin didn't do much -- but that didn't stop people from dipping their hand into that bowl!
It didn't take long before people realized that the new bank wasn't buying into that marketing strategy. They, too, saw the problem of the headaches, but rather than giving medicine indiscriminately they installed some medical equipment. A quick scan allowed them to know whether the client would truly have their headache relieved and it also allowed them to identify those who had allergies to the medicine.
And if the scan didn't indicate that aspirin or paracetamol was a good idea then the bank did not give it out.
The first time it happened the client was mildly surprised. But soon a ground-swell of outrage grew. How dare they?! Don't they know it is the job of the bank to give me something for my headache?!
The economics teacher continued to write his equations on napkins in coffee bars. But more and more people just expressed a total disinterest. He was amazed -- he was showing them a possibility to gain a return more than a million times over and they were not willing to listen because they had a headache and couldn't get a free pill.
What had been a rush on the bank in the beginning slowed to a trickle. Some who had already invested were inquiring about how to get their money out, even if they didn't get any interest at all.
God helps us with our physical and material problems. Sometimes. When He knows that alleviating this momentary suffering (momentary from the light of eternity) is BEST for us. But sometimes (most times?) He leaves us to experience these difficulties.
How dare He?! Doesn't He know it is His job to help me find a job, to help me get over this sickness?!
No. That's NOT His job. In His grace and mercy and love He makes it His business to give us what is best for us in the long term. And often what is best for us in the long term doesn't look very nice in the short term. He is looking for perseverance, completeness, godliness. The words "comfort" and "ease" don't really belong in that list.
Ultimately the BIG benefit God gives is HEAVEN. It is beyond our wildest dreams! It is on a completely different level than our discussions of relief from temporal suffering. It is incomparable with any reward we can imagine on this earth.
And yet it seems many seekers of God are seeking Him for the free pill rather than the million-times-over return on investment He is offering. When we are the economics teacher telling people about the benefit, do we talk about the real benefit or do we end up encouraging people to ask God again for the pill, hoping that He will "come through" this time and respond to their felt need so they will enter the door motivated by the potential alleviation of their temporal suffering...
After all, we say, if they will come in through the door for the sake of the pill then maybe they will invest something for the 20-year certificate of deposit...
I can't believe that's the way to go. Let's get out of the business of selling pills and get back in the business of selling an investment product that is OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
1 Peter 1:3-9
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
But life goes on, and people need a place to save their money and a place to borrow money, and one day a new bank opened up in town.
Other banks offered many different programs for saving and checking, but this bank had just one program: a certificate of deposit with a 20-year term. Normally a bank with a single program with such a long term would never attract customers, but this CD was special -- it promised an annual 100% rate of interest, compounded annually.
Other banks had certificates of deposit, but the best interest rate you could get was standard at all the other banks -- you could get a maximum of 5%.
The city was abuzz with this amazing new program. Everyone had their calculators and their phones out, calculating how much they could make on their savings. The economics teacher at the local high school offered this simple calculation:
Principle x ((1+interest)^20) = value
Since many of his former students still struggled with math, as he drank coffee with people around town he would write down on a napkin the following simplification :
For a 20-year certificate of deposit at 5% interest, multiply your initial investment by 2.65 and that would be the amount you would withdraw after 20 years.
For a 20-year certificate of deposit at 100% interest, multiply your initial investment by 1,048,576.0 and that will be the amount you would withdraw after 20 years.
As a good teacher does, he generally followed that up with a specific example. "If you invest 10,000," he would say, "then after 20 years at 5% you will have 26,500. After 20 years at 100% interest you will have well over 10 BILLION."
And after the initial shock wore off, people would go back to discussing their headaches. Headaches are nothing to trifle with -- there are few things in life that will hold your attention more than a good headache!
Now it had become the habit of the other banks in town to offer aspirin or paracetamol to their clients who came in with headaches. In fact, it had become quite the popular marketing strategy and all the banks had a constant stream of people coming in to get a pill or 2 -- often the banks would simply leave the medicine out in a bowl on the desks so clients could pick them up like candy. As is the case with a bad headache, sometimes the symptoms were slightly improved, but generally the aspirin didn't do much -- but that didn't stop people from dipping their hand into that bowl!
It didn't take long before people realized that the new bank wasn't buying into that marketing strategy. They, too, saw the problem of the headaches, but rather than giving medicine indiscriminately they installed some medical equipment. A quick scan allowed them to know whether the client would truly have their headache relieved and it also allowed them to identify those who had allergies to the medicine.
And if the scan didn't indicate that aspirin or paracetamol was a good idea then the bank did not give it out.
The first time it happened the client was mildly surprised. But soon a ground-swell of outrage grew. How dare they?! Don't they know it is the job of the bank to give me something for my headache?!
The economics teacher continued to write his equations on napkins in coffee bars. But more and more people just expressed a total disinterest. He was amazed -- he was showing them a possibility to gain a return more than a million times over and they were not willing to listen because they had a headache and couldn't get a free pill.
What had been a rush on the bank in the beginning slowed to a trickle. Some who had already invested were inquiring about how to get their money out, even if they didn't get any interest at all.
God helps us with our physical and material problems. Sometimes. When He knows that alleviating this momentary suffering (momentary from the light of eternity) is BEST for us. But sometimes (most times?) He leaves us to experience these difficulties.
How dare He?! Doesn't He know it is His job to help me find a job, to help me get over this sickness?!
No. That's NOT His job. In His grace and mercy and love He makes it His business to give us what is best for us in the long term. And often what is best for us in the long term doesn't look very nice in the short term. He is looking for perseverance, completeness, godliness. The words "comfort" and "ease" don't really belong in that list.
Ultimately the BIG benefit God gives is HEAVEN. It is beyond our wildest dreams! It is on a completely different level than our discussions of relief from temporal suffering. It is incomparable with any reward we can imagine on this earth.
And yet it seems many seekers of God are seeking Him for the free pill rather than the million-times-over return on investment He is offering. When we are the economics teacher telling people about the benefit, do we talk about the real benefit or do we end up encouraging people to ask God again for the pill, hoping that He will "come through" this time and respond to their felt need so they will enter the door motivated by the potential alleviation of their temporal suffering...
After all, we say, if they will come in through the door for the sake of the pill then maybe they will invest something for the 20-year certificate of deposit...
I can't believe that's the way to go. Let's get out of the business of selling pills and get back in the business of selling an investment product that is OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
1 Peter 1:3-9
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
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