Some Things are Risk-Free

A risk-free world is an illusion. Yet in a world fraught with risk, there are some investments which provide so great a return they are relatively risk-free, and it is such rewards which give purpose to life.

What falls into this category of sure winners? At least three things. Without necessarily putting them in order of priority, try these: 1) Investment in relationships, 2) investment in honest labor and 3) investment in works of lasting spiritual value.

Relationships are the glue that hold us together and keep us from drifting apart in a sea of loneliness. Yet today relationships are strained and often broken, and when we reach out in friendship or love and an overture or gesture of care is rejected, we tend to pull in our bridges and mind our own business. "Once burned, twice shy," we think. "I’ll never risk loving again." The cost of living on an island of isolation is too great to bear. True, there is risk involved in relationships, but the merits of friendship and love far offset the risks.

Another low-risk investment is in honest labor with its fruit. Today we live in a society which wants something for nothing, harvest without sowing, reward without investment.

But there is no lasting satisfaction in reaping where you did not sow or taking what does not belong to you. A hard and fast rule which doesn’t change is that there is nothing really free in the world. Someone somewhere made the investment which you are now enjoying.

Then there are immaterial rewards in life which cannot be measured in the currency of money and gold. God’s promises to His children are based upon His nature and character which is changeless and unaffected by the whim of emotions. A clear understanding of those promises gives definition and meaning to life, even if they are not without risk. Run the risk.

It is here that love, faith and hope come into the picture. It is here that what God tells me about the certainty of heaven becomes an anchor to my life. The rewards are a clear conscience, the knowledge that I have done my best, the certainty that I have treated others with the same respect I want to receive from them. If the only reward life has to offer is what I can see, I would indeed be a poor man, for as Paul wrote, "...For what is seen is temporary, but what is not seen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Only a fool would deny there is risk, but only a greater fool would allow the risks to stop him.

Resource Reading: Philippians 1