Profit And Loss

Profit and Loss - True Treasure

Day 1: Be Thou my vision

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew 6:24).

Vrouwenzand—Lady’s Sand. According to an old folktale from the Netherlands, this sand bank is all that remains of the once thriving harbor of the proud, lofty, rich, glamorous port city of Stavoren—now a small, quiet village with a population of roughly 1000.

The tale centers around the Lady of Stavoren, a rich widow who piled wealth on wealth as her fleet of merchant ships sailed the Seven Seas from the mighty port of Stavoren. As her pride and greed grew, says the story, she charged the captain of one of her ships to bring back the most precious cargo in the world. When the wise captain brought her back a cargo of wheat—reasoning that wheat provided life-sustaining bread—she angrily commanded him to throw the “worthless” wheat into the harbor.

Not long after, in one unfortunate circumstance after another, the Lady of Stavoren lost her entire fleet, and ended up destitute, longing for a crust of bread. Meanwhile, the wheat she had discarded became snarled in sand borne along by the currents. Eventually the stalks of wheat grew into an immense sandbank that destroyed the harbor, and with it, the pride and wealth of Stavoren.

The Lady of Stavoren may be just a folktale, but the dangers of false values and mistaken priorities are quite real. True, there isn’t always as quick or direct a route to accounting as in the story, but accounting does come. Often in this life, and certainly in the one to come.

Jesus has much to say about true worth and genuine priorities in His teachings, dedicating an entire portion of The Sermon on the Mount to this subject (Matthew 6). He warns about the short-sighted investment of what the world may see as “precious cargo”:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

By contrast, He urges us to invest, like the wise captain, in what is real, and valuable and truly precious:

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

Jesus discusses the need for healthy vision and perspective to discern and distinguish value:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22).

May God give us vision, so we do not confuse darkness with light. May God give us discernment, so we do not miscount profit and loss and wash up on the sandbanks of spiritual poverty and destitution.