Finding Work

There are two types of money-making or profit-making margins told of in Scripture. The first one is work, or that of an honest laborer.

And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

Mark 4:26-29

Here the man gets up early one day and goes out with all the seeds he has to cast them into his chosen plot of ground. Nor is this done half-hazard like that of a dragon emerging from out of its' den to cast fire at the earth.

Then all

the

words

would

be over

here like

this on one

side of the page

and there would be

a lot of space left

empty to fill.

It would be a whole lot better and produce many more results if this man were strategic about it. Notice how I am busily typing all these words to fill up a page. More than that, every word has a meaning, written with care and a plan for your enjoyment, I hope. Then the man gets up every morning and goes to bed at night. He works while it's day and sleeps during the night. He tends the seed carefully, making sure no weeds in them appear. He also makes sure to carry them water and inspect them for insects who would eat up the crops. Then again too, he has to make sure no enemies or bandits come on them suddenly and carry them off. This is less likely for seed than for livestock. But nonetheless, it does take a certain amount of care. Notice the results. This man continues to work every day at it, seeing a little progress at a time until finally, comes the harvest. At that point, he gathers it in immediately lest it should spoil. Now, he has his investment returned and with it some interest. At the same time, the second principle is that of investment.

And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?

31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:

32 But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.

Mark 4:30-32

Notice how with investment the amount usually starts off very small, with say maybe one seed. This seed carries with it the potential of becoming a great tree which in turn benefits a lot of other things as well. Notice how the birds find for themselves a place of rest therein as well as shade for all other herbs around it. Imagine you had a handful of these seeds and scattered them all around in one area. The forest that would grow from that one potential is unrivaled. But then what if, your investment was hindered by some other forces. Say, there's stony ground and good ground and wind and rain. That would immediately lessen your growth potential or increase it, depending on how you leveraged the conditions. You could always arrange a trickle of water from a nearby source to water the field and thereby reduce the effects of the drought. You could put up things like scarecrows and noisemakers to deter predators. You could appear in the field every day to warn away travelers.

You could try to cover the field with large sheets of fabric or plastic tarps to ward off the rain or the storm. It might be expensive, but it would work. You could pluck out the stones and haul them away to another place. You could always get fertilizer and make the ground good. You could spend a lot of time preparing the soil. There's a lot of stuff you could do, all of it too much like work. I thought investment was supposed to be easy and quite possibly so did you. In fact, it might seem like a waiting game where there's nothing else you can do. But here we see that investments with the power of God behind them will never go wrong. At the same time, if he isn't, you may as well get ready for the sixty and thirty-fold that goes both ways we talked about previously. Regardless, you will want to make your invested amount as little as possible like a grain of mustard seed with as great of a reward as can be like that of a big old tree. Notice how all efforts take a lot of time, energy, resources, and money also. It's best to minimize these if you can.