Our Spiritual Stock Portfolios
Baba Jude
Updated January 5, 2001

This past year how many of us made the painful discovery that stocks don't always go up--sometimes they stagnate and, worse yet, sometimes they tumble. The secret, experienced investors will tell you, is to ride out the troughs. Eventually, they say, your portfolio will regain its value and then even profit. The prudent investor believes in and sticks by his investment choices, where the speculative "get-rich-quick" investor will sell and sometimes suffer huge losses when times get rough. I wonder if a parallel could be drawn to our spiritual "stock portfolios?"

The beginning of a New Year is the perfect time to look at how we invest our God-given talents and gifts. The Psalmist, much like the prudent market investor, knows about the principle of riding it out: "...for those who sow in tears shall reap with laughter." So what does your spiritual portfolio look like?

Have you sold off some of our spiritual investments - that is if you made any - when you didn't see immediate, profitable results?

Did you invest enough time in prayer for those things that have meaning to Jesus ­ peace love, truth?

Did you invest enough time in pray for your pastor, asking God to bless him, to give him wisdom and courage to stand against the evils of this world?

Did you invest your overstock into the mouths of the hungry, buy shares in companies that clothe the naked, or mega-corporations that provide shelters for the homeless?

Were you able to keep sowing even with the prospect of never seeing a tangible result (according to Corinthians..."some are called to sow, others to water, still others to reap") was to be the inevitable outcome?

As we go into a new year, the year we shout to the world that we Asrmenians were the first Christian Nation, as a church, together, let us not become discouraged or tired in our spiritual investments into God's "stock market". Even though the last year may not have been one of our best years for worldly investors, let's not forget that consolidations, recessions, and droughts are all part of our spiritual growth. Interestingly, it is the times of drought that cause a tree to develop deeper roots, not the fruitful season. The drought causes it to become solidly rooted so that it can withstand the stormy seasons should they ever come.

Let us take courage and lift up our heads with confidence that God is floating our stock in God's time. All we need to do is to be faithful in our investment into the Kingdom of God, and God promises to multiply our gifts and provide a magnificent yield ("...but the gifts of the Spirit are given to God's people to profit from them." - 1Cor 12:7).

May God bless us mightily and increase our portfolio in 2001.

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Church Last Updated January 5, 2001

The Real Kodak Moments
Baba Jude

I finally put in order the 30 rolls of 8mm family movies my mother had taken and stored in a box. Going through them, the memories of my childhood was reactivated according to what was contained in those little yellow boxes. I printed identification cards for each and took them to the camera shop to be put on videotape. The films were usually of celebrations - celebrations that revolved around anniversaries, birthdays, name days, marriages, graduations - any reason to bring together the family to celebrate the event and, in our own way, to say thank you to God for the opportunity. Ma wanted them all captured on film. There were also the old photos of family members and friends that filled another box. Each simple photo also had its unique story behind it.

Pictures, movies, stories - all important because it gives an identity to our past; who we were, who was around, what was happening at the time, etc. It gives us a chance to relive those events, monumental or otherwise that happened to us and to those around us. How often we hear of people who have lost their homes due to fire or storm bemoan the loss of their family photos sometimes even more than the house itself.

Remember the pictures in Life Magazine which were able to tell the story about the moment - the end of WW II with a sailor kissing a girl, the Kennedy assassination with a little boy saluting his father's casket, man landing on the moon with a footprint in the dust - all the events in time which held the moment in still motion and to say this is what happened. Norman Rockwell had that same ability but with his paints and canvas.

I remember taking my parents to an exhibit of photos compiled by Ruth Thomasian of Project SAVE. Ruth has made it her life's work to collect, categorize and publish photos of Armenian families both in the old country prior to the genocide and their lives here in the United States following. In the exhibit there was a picture of an old man handing out what appeared to be books. My father saw this picture, teared up and said "Mr. Sunshine." My father then told me of this man who passed out books and candy to the children of the villages.

The note attached to the picture read: "At Aramian Varjaran (school), Sepastia, Ottoman Empire, 1909; poor children receive a free book and new shoes from Serop Kilarjian, known as Loosaper Emmi (Uncle Shining Light). Serop, educated in Germany, served as Director of Steins Department Store in Constantinople and, later in Sepastia, formed the Loosaper Miutiun (Shining Light Society). Using monthly membership dues of 2 cents, he purchased books for needy children."

A moment in time, not particularly spectacular for anyone except the children who received a kindness from an old man, Loosaper Emmi, - and now, decades later, my father in the winter of his life remembering the person, the action, the place and the emotion with this photo.

Opportunities, like photos, are moments in time. Loosaper Emmi brought education to his people in a part of the world very few knew existed, and someone took his picture doing it. Ninety years later, I am most thankful for his actions and, for the unknown person who took his picture, for without either, I would never have learned what he did for my father.

So as the New Year begins, take out your old photos and movies. See what they say to you. And the next time someone takes your picture, try to imagine what others who see it will remember and say about you long after you are but a memory.
Church
Time and Again
by Baba Jude

One day, Satan called three novice devils to his office. They were about to embark to earth to try to tempt and corrupt you and me, and old Satan wanted to hear their game plans. One of the young demons said, "I will tell them that there is no God." Satan said, "That won't work very well. Men do look around and see the divine order of things. They don't know him very well but they know there is a God!"

The second devil said, "I'm going to tell them that there is no such thing as hell." "That won't work either," Satan said. "They've created enough hell on earth to be convinced of the reality of hell!"

The third devil said simply, "I plan to tell men and women that there's no hurry." And Satan clapped his hands in delight and said, "Get going, boy! You're going to ruin 'em by the millions!"

We humans tend to assume that we have all the time in the world to accomplish what God would have us do. Where did we servants get this idea that our master will not return until we have our houses in "apple pie order"? Jesus said, "The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him." (Matthew 24:45-51).

The New Year is upon us and most probably for each of us, our houses are not in order. Have we accomplished anything really worth while during 2000? Worthwhile that is in the sight of God?

Today and each new day are opportunities we get only once. If you think that there always is tomorrow, the "third devil" of the story may be visiting you soon.

A PRAYER FOR THE NEW YEAR

O God, our Heavenly Father, as we enter upon this New Year, we commit ourselves to thy faithful care and keeping. Give us the grace so to love thee with all our heart and soul and mind and strength that we may live without fear, and so to love our neighbors as ourselves, that we may live without reproach. As our days so let our strength be; and grant that no chance or change may turn us aside from the doing of thy holy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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