Capstone Reflection Paper: Participating with God in His Creativity and Cultivation
Introduction:
I am part of God’s creative process and this makes me a co-creator with God. The thought of it makes me tremble inside, confessing my unworthiness of such a calling. To participate with God in his creativity and cultivation speaks greatly about God’s infinite humility, allowing me to have a portion, albeit a tiny one, in his work of creation. He can do everything. He doesn’t need me. Just as how he handed over to Adam the fun task of naming the animals – a task that God himself could have done much better, he is now giving me a chance to contribute something to this world, to make improvements on what he has already created.
Working for money?
I am currently studying finance, which means I might soon work in an industry that is synonymous with money. And when people – mostly Christians – hear the words “money”, “wealth” and “finance”, almost immediately two portions of Scripture come to mind: 1 Timothy 6:10a “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” and about the rich young man in Matthew 19 who bragged about his good deeds to Jesus but folded when Jesus instructed him to sell what he had and give to the poor.
The world will always question the heart of Christians who are working in the finance sector and would point out that God and mammon can’t go together. Then along came this book, “Every Good Endeavor”, and told me I can liken God to an “investor” or “investment banker”. These are business terms and finance concepts. This is right up my alley. It makes a lot of sense to me to think that God, like an investor, “leveraged his resources to create a whole world of new life” (page 61). He made an investment and today all human beings, all life forms are benefitting from the income. Likewise, I can make an investment using my own resources in order to address a need, so that people can benefit from my income. Then I become a part of God’s creative work.
The problem with the rich young ruler was not his profession or the industry he was in. Although Matthew did not mention the young man’s line of work, he had a lot of money, so let’s just say he is in the business of making money or he is into finance, like me today. Jesus told the young mogul, probably the Mark Zuckerberg of his time, that if he wanted to be perfect, he should sell his possessions and give to the poor. That didn’t sit well with New Testament-time Zuckerberg. His heart was not really into pleasing Jesus, but perhaps more on showing off his good deeds. The problem was his unwilling and unrepentant heart, not the fact that he was wealthy. Nowhere in Matthew 19 did Jesus rebuke him for being rich.
As …