Thinking about investing in others always motivates me. It’s a great leadership concept. I want to pour my life into other people, but what does it exactly mean to invest in others? Jesus did it all the time. He could just sit with people and quickly he was asking questions and challenging their responses. He did it naturally, he didn’t need a time or place. Jesus lived at the soul level, always moving the questions deeper and deeper and until he reached folks’ deepest fear or need. The woman at the well is a good example of this. His lack of desire to exalt himself could be the key to his strategy. Never putting his needs before others, he was able to build relationships that produced fruit.
The idea of investing in others means we have to give something up now for the chance of getting more back later. Sometimes we like the idea of investing in others because we get to tell people about our lives and they get to see how great we are. That is not true investing. Investing our time, life mistakes, hard truth and love could be embarrassing and difficult. Having to share how God has walked us through his discipling process isn’t a walk in a rose garden. Telling our transformation stories, even though hard, does tell the story of love. Investing doesn’t always give us a return but the process alone will remind us about how much God loves us.
