Beauty matters to painters, musicians, and photographers, but what does it have to do with investing?
The creation account suggests that beauty is also at the core of faithful stewardship and investing. Today, we’ll discuss “Investing in Beautiful” with Jason Myhre of the Eventide Center for Faith & Investing.
Jason Myhre is the Executive Director of the Eventide Center for Faith & Investing, an educational initiative of Eventide Asset Management, and an underwriter of Faith & Finance.
Beauty matters to painters, musicians, and photographers, but what does it have to do with investing?
The creation account suggests that beauty is also at the core of faithful stewardship and investing. Today, we’ll discuss “Investing in Beautiful” with Jason Myhre of the Eventide Center for Faith & Investing.
We all encounter beauty in various forms—an orchestral performance, a mountain hike, a beach stroll, or even a bouquet of flowers at home. However, we seldom consider the role of beauty in our work or finances. Beauty is integral to creation and essential in our stewardship of God’s world.
In Genesis, God is depicted as a worker, creating the heavens and the earth and declaring His creation "very good." The Hebrew word for "good" encompasses moral perfection, functional excellence, and surpassing beauty—a concept better captured by the compound word "beauty-good." God, as a master artisan, crafted a world full of potential and delight.
Humanity is called to contribute to the beauty and goodness of creation through work. Genesis 2:15 says, “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it.” This passage indicates that humans are to make God's creation even better. God’s creation is full of hidden potential, like seeds, waiting for us to uncover and develop it through our work.
Uncovering Creation’s Potential
Consider simple examples like bread and wine. God created grain with the potential to become bread and grapes with the potential to become wine. These transformations reveal the hidden potential within creation, brought to fruition through human work.
A more sophisticated example relevant today is semiconductors, which are essential for our smart devices and computers. The fundamental material for semiconductors is sand. Kristen Say from Eventide Asset Management aptly describes it: “With semiconductors, we’re taking sand and teaching it to think.” This potential was embedded in creation from the beginning, waiting for us to uncover and develop it.
Theologian Craig Bartholomew also offers a powerful analogy: Imagine being a sculptor and receiving a call from Michelangelo, who asks you to complete a sculpture he started. This mirrors our role in God’s creation: to finish and enhance the work God began, thereby revealing all its hidden beauty and goodness and glorifying God as the ultimate Creator.
Applying This Vision to Business and Investing
As Christians with a biblical worldview, we must view business and investing through the lens of this divine vision. The Genesis instructions for developing the beauty and goodness of creation still apply to us today. Businesses are called to create products and services that are genuinely good, and that truly serve humanity. Investors play a crucial role by supplying the capital that enables and expands the good work of businesses.
When contemplating investments, we should ask whether the companies we invest in create goods and services that enhance the world or harm God's creation. Embracing this perspective helps align our investments with our faith, ensuring they contribute positively to God's world.
Faith-Based Investing
The good news is that the faith-based investing movement is growing. Numerous Christian faith-based investments now help us avoid companies whose products contradict biblical values while supporting those that meet human needs and enhance the world.
Understanding and developing the hidden potential in God's creation is a profound aspect of our work and investments. By aligning our investments with Christian values, we honor God and contribute to the ongoing revelation of His creation’s beauty and goodness.
To learn more about faith-based investment resources and to find a list of faith-based investment options, visit faithandinvesting.com/faithfi.
On Today’s Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions:
A close family member is dealing with excessive medical debt that totals around $200,000. They had long-term medical issues and were unable to work for a period of time. Some of these bills have now gone to collections agencies. I'm figuring out how to handle this debt and where to go. We've been helping them occasionally, but their living expenses are tight.
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