What is the worst [best] investment (of time, money, etc.) you ever made? Why? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 942).
Why
do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay
no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your
brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the
time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the
plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove
the speck from your brother’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5 NIV).
Jesus
warns us about judging others. We should be doubly cautious about
judging ourselves. As a rule, we should leave any conclusive
judgment regarding ourselves or others up to God. This is due
primarily not because of our tendencies towards unfairness, but most
basically due to our lack of complete knowledge. It is generally
true that the more complete our knowledge, the greater our leanings
towards mercy.
From
this point of view, determining our worst or best investments is
problematic. I think of people sitting in jail because of legal
infractions. Surely they are rightly to condemn themselves for doing
deeds representing bad investments. Certainly some remorse is due.
Yet if they are willing to learn from their mistakes, who can say how
invaluable this admittedly costly education may be. (Even under
ideal conditions, education is never free.) Whenever we make a bad
investment, we need to appreciate that good things can come from it
and can represent a “wake up call” that simply would not be
available by any other means. Conversely, our best investments can
be an invitation for the incitement of greed and overweening pride.
Thus, best investments can lead to degradations far worse than bad
investments.
Those
of us who are Americans have great pride in our country's
Constitution. Certainly it represents a nearly perfect investment of
creative skills. Yet it could prove negative if in times of stress
and turmoil we bow down to the letter of the law, and forget its
spirit and the Constitution's unabashed confrontation of the truths of human nature.
Our focus should emphasize simplicity and humility and leave in
abeyance any final judgment as to the uniform rectitude of our
investments.
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