Risk

Day 38

There’s an investment ad I’ve been hearing on the radio lately that starts out with this (probably government-mandated) warning: “Investments and securities involve the risk of loss.” When anything related to money, business, or economics comes up, I tune out. I’m not concerned with rising stocks, bull and bear markets (?), or any of that. Probably because I don’t get them. This morning, though, that little warning line I’ve heard a dozen or so times really grabbed me.

It wasn’t so much the investment part that made me think. I know you can lose out with bad investments. But securities involve the risk of loss? Granted, I don’t have a clue what securities are. But securities? Come on, now – how can you call something a security if there’s a risk of loss? Seems a little strange.

Maybe that’s because I’m so used to God’s economy: Nearly 2000 years ago he bankrupt heaven to make an incredible investment in the destiny of lost sinners: his Son, Jesus, died on the cross, fully paying our sin debt, so that if we simply believe in him, we receive the free gift of everlasting life, which is an eternal security that involves no risk of loss.

And that, my friends, is the way security should be.