Saturday, October 27, 2012

A 100% Return

His uncle offered him a deal:
lend him $10 for the night,
and he'd give him $20 in the morning.
A 100% return.
He had already offered the deal to my suspicious daughter.
She had refused to take it.
She was not going to be taken in by a sweet-seeming deal.
"I don't know him enough to trust him," she told me.
But Isaiah is more inclined to take a risk,
and more willing to take the word of someone he trusts.

"If he is honest in what he is offering,
and he can be trusted to keep his word,
that's too good a deal to pass up," I advised.
He thought about it for a minute,
and then went and got his money and handed a ten to his uncle.
And then everyone waited to see:
would he really double his money?
To his uncle's credit, he kept his word.
He had told him, "I am a Christian, and I am not lying."
In fact, he made Isaiah sit down and write a contract for him to sign,
signed it, and then paid him back about twelve hours early.
He told him, "Sometimes being willing to take a risk pays off."

Trusting the One who always speaks truth
is a worthwhile investment.
Normally, I would advise my son against these kind of deals.
Just trusting someone's word is pretty risky
in these days of phishing scams and banking scandals.
But I believed his uncle would follow through,
and I thought perhaps it would be something he pondered in the future.
And maybe he would remember it,
and take a step of faith one day,
trusting the word of Him who promised.

"...God, more abundantly willing to shew to the heirs of the promise 
the immutability of his counsel, did interpose by an oath,
that through two immutable things, 
in which it is impossible for God to lie, 
a strong comfort we may have 
who did flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us, 
which we have, as an anchor of the soul, 
both sure and steadfast, and entering into that within the veil..."

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