Investing Early

Invest Early

“Invest early, invest often and enjoy the miracle of compound interest.” This financial strategy has been stated many times by experts trying to help people with their personal finances.

Unfortunately, I have not been blessed with excellent business skills. It seems like I have always bought too late, too little or too dumb. However, that doesn’t mean I have been bad with my investments.

Let me explain.

When we arrived in La Paz, Bolivia, one of the young men in whom I first invested my time was David Quiroga. A young social studies teacher looking for answers, David trusted in Jesus as his Savior at a Luis Palau campaign. Through our work with those meetings, we came into contact with David a few days after he made this decision.

David began to come to our house regularly. He played table games with us. He discussed politics with us. We studied the Bible together. David began to grow in his faith. Later on, he became one of my students at the seminary.

Since then, David has planted several churches. His most recent one is in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in one of the poorer barrios in the city. I like to think of some of those people with whom David shares, people I have never met, beginning to walk with the Lord. Talk about compound interest!

David is not the only one in whom we invested early.

Dino was a young rebel. He attended our church in La Paz for over six months before he made a decision. He has now spent the past twenty years in ministry in Paraguay. Nelson caused me no end of trouble as a young man. Since his rough beginning he has planted three churches in the greater Buenos Aires area. Rene used to beat the woman with whom he lived. Today, he is a national leader in a well-known ministry.

Investing early makes sense.

I am thankful for the men who invested in me. My relationship with my father had a few serious bumps, all caused by my rather interesting personality. I am extremely thankful for his patience, love and tenacity in reaching out to me. I believe he thinks his investment was worthwhile. However, considering how much he had to put in, it would be understandable if he felt there should have been a higher pay-out.

My father-in-law opened my mind through wide-ranging discussions. There is no doubt that some of who I am today is the result of his investment in that young hippie who showed up on his doorstep asking for his daughter.

Mel Connell was the pastor of the first church I attended after becoming a Christian. I have to give Mel all the credit in the world. Even though I had caused him problems earlier on in his ministry, he didn’t think twice about investing in me. Try to imagine a holiness preacher with thick-rimmed glasses walking around with a young man with hair down to his shoulders.

We were probably the original odd couple.

When I moved to Texas, God brought me into contact with John Faulkner. At the time, John was president of a foundation and vice-president of a college. All he was to me was a man with a deep knowledge of Scripture who allowed me to ask questions.

I am afraid my questions have caused a lot of other people to shake their heads.

Kevin Dyer founded International Teams. Kevin invested in me by opening doors at key points in my life. He also gave me one of my life mottos: “Make a decision and make it right.” I have tried Kevin, I really have.

Sometimes I think we miss what Jesus was about. If you ask a Christian why Jesus came to earth most of them will respond, “To die for our sins.” That is true, but there is more that we probably need to see.

Admittedly, the will of God was that Jesus would come and die. Unfortunately for us, it is also God’s will for us. We need to die to ourselves. That often seems like a long, painful process to me.

The work of Jesus was something different. In John 17:4 Jesus said, “I have shown your glory on earth; I have finished the work you gave me to do.”

What was that work? The simple answer is: investing in making disciples of others. After three or three and a half years of public ministry, Jesus could honestly say to his heavenly father, “I have done everything that I could by investing in these fellows. I am going to have to trust you to work out your will through them as they continue on.”

Twelve men. No, it was really only eleven! Still, the “compound interest” seems to have paid off. Christianity managed to take off based on the investment Jesus made.

We probably all wish that we had invested early and more regularly, but it is never too late. Today might be a good day for us to look around and think about who should invest in. Shoot! Maybe something could actually come from spending time with that odd-looking kid with the earring and tattoo in the back of your church.

You never know where he might end up.