Investing in Your Eternal Life

"Investing in Your Eternal Life"

Russel K. Benedict

July 22, 2003

When one thinks of the number of prophet seers and revelators that have been at this pulpit, it could be intimidating. But I have this hope that the spirit will make up the difference today.

I really am grateful to each of you for coming. I had this vision of standing before an empty auditorium and needing to invite those on the stand to take a seat on the floor so I would not be speaking to an empty hall. After all, when the speaker has a title like director of financial services, it likely does not engender images of a dynamic speaker. My supervisor, who also has an accounting background, has commented on the power of an accounting personality. He noted that having an accountant show up at a party is like having two really fun people leave.

I have some involvement in the investment process here at BYU-Idaho. This afternoon I plan to teach using an analogy, comparing the temporal concepts of investing with spiritual objectives relating to investing in our eternal selves. Perhaps you will learn some things that will improve your temporal well-being, but the overriding goal is to focus attention on the process of investing in our eternal lives.

Over the years I have read and studied the investment process in hopes of improving the long-term returns for the University. In general, the accumulation of investment wealth is a function of three primary elements:

Capital invested - rate of return - elapsed time

Capital invested in the temporal sense generally consists of the cash that one allocates for investment with the goal of increase by earning dividends, interest, rents, and other income or through asset appreciation.

The rate of return in temporal investing is expected to be a function of risk, which often relates to volatility, and the level of confidence for expected return and the potential for loss. The higher the volatility and greater the risk of loss, the higher the required rate of return expected by the investor. In simple terms you cannot expect the return on your federally insured investment into a money market account to have the same upside potential as an investment in a new tech stock.

The elapsed time is the extended period over which the invested assets are allowed to grow/and compound. The impact of the compounding of interest is a concept all of you should become familiar with.

As I have pondered the investment process, I have come to the conclusion that there are some significant similarities between the laws that govern the temporal investment process and those related to investing in our godly selves, or our eternal investment. You are all familiar with the parable of the talents as found in Matthew 25. You will recall that the master gave talents to three servants. To one he gave five, to another two, and to another one talent. As a youngster I always thought a talent referred to how well one might play the piano, paint, or sing; but during the New Testament era, a talent was a denomination of currency equal to 3000 shekels, which apparently was a considerable sum of money. You will recall that two of the servants double the talents, but the third that had received one talent buried it in the ground out of fear of loss and received no increase. What you may not remember is the penalty of his failure as found in Matthew 25:30.

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This sounds like pretty harsh treatment for being fearful of losing the talent, so I think we can safely assume there is more to this parable than first meets the eye. The servant’s sin was disobedience. He knew his master, and his master had an expectation that during his absence the servant would do with the talent what the master would have done with the talent. The servant clearly understood the master’s expectation and by accepting the talent agreed to those expectations. He then did nothing. This could be likened to those of us who come to know the Lord, make covenants, and then fail to keep them.

The Lord has given each of us a talent or an asset that he expects us to use and invest wisely. That asset is time. It comes to us moment by moment in seconds, then minutes, then hours, days, months, and years. We do not know how much we will receive in total. Each morning we are given a fresh supply of investment capital, generally about sixteen waking hours. You may recall in the parable just discussed that the Lord gave no greater reward to the servant who doubled five talents than the one who doubled two. They both entered into the joy of the Lord. I think it is safe to say that a life of a few years can gain the same ultimate reward as a life of many years. It depends simply on what we do with the time we are given.

In temporal investing, an increase in anyone of the three elements, capital invested, rate of return and elapsed time, results in an increase in the accumulation of wealth. It is obvious that the more we invest, the more we should accumulate.

What is less obvious to some is the impact that the rate of return and the passage of time have on an investment. By way of example using the chart being displayed, if you invested $1000 at age 20, by the time you were ready to retire at age 65, you would have over $73,000 on that single investment if you earned a 10 percent return each year. Cut the rate to 9 percent and you have only about $48,000. In this case, a 10 percent reduction in the rate of return results in a 34 percent decrease in the ultimate value of the asset.

By keeping the rate at 10 percent but cutting the term to 35 years, you would have about $37,000. So a 22 percent decrease in the time held results in about a 50 percent decrease in the ultimate value of the asset.

The last line is an example of deathbed repentance. If you invest $1000 at ten percent for one day, you gain 27 cents. So what’s the point? First of all, in planning your temporal investments, it’s good to know that starting early is important and selecting good investments with a little higher return will make a significant difference. These concepts are often referred to as the compounding of interest.

By way of example, let’s suppose that somewhere in your life you will allocate 8,760 hours to the study of the scriptures. This happens to be the time available in one full year. If you invest much of that time when you are young, you will reap the rewards of that study for the many years remaining in your life. If you wait until you are seventy to begin your study, most of your life will have been spent without that important understanding and the related spiritual influence. This will change the value of your life to yourself and to those you have influence over. So by investing a significant portion of the time early in our lives, we get the compounding effect of holding the investment in knowledge and spirit over a longer period of time, allowing its influence to permeate more of our life. In addition, study of the scriptures is a high yield investment, meaning it has a high eternal rate of return. It compounds at say 10 percent rather than reading something like a useful textbook, which may compound at a spiritual rate of say 7 percent. If you think back to our example of compounding of interest, the resulting difference in asset accumulation given an original investment of $1000 over 45 years would be $21,000 at 7 percent verses $73,000 at 10 percent. Clearly, we cannot measure the value of our eternal investment in dollars and cents, but the returns associated with different patterns of eternal investment can be very significant over a lifetime.

The idea of starting early fits in with the concept of learning and growing in the gospel "line upon line." The Lord does not give us everything at once. It’s like going to college. Many classes have prerequisites; you must take classes in a certain order because to understand an upper division calculus class you must first have an understanding of algebra. Line upon line is the same. We cannot expect to understand the temple endowment until we understand the fundamentals of the gospel and are subject to the influence of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, the sooner we get started the further we can progress. Perhaps this is one reason the Lord sends His missionaries when they are young, so they can enjoy the benefit of what one learns as a missionary throughout a lifetime.

When we are investing into our eternal portfolio we are investing our words, our thoughts, and our actions; in simple terms we are investing our mortal lives. The investment options, like in temporal investing are endless, ranging from very high quality to very poor quality. Each moment of our lives, we are choosing an investment. Whether we drift along or plan well, we still invest every moment into something. It may be personal scripture study or it may be MTV. We choose to invest wisely or we choose to invest in losers. We may squander the moment with thoughts, words, or deeds that move us away from God.

In temporal investing it is generally understood that diversification of investments improves the overall quality of the return relative to the risk. This is the concept that says not to put all your eggs in one basket. The actual asset allocation we choose depends on the investment objectives that we have. For example, young people investing for retirement might be willing to accept a higher level of volatility and risk with an expected higher rate of return. As you approach retirement you may wish, at an appropriate time, to move to a more conservative mix that increases the stability of your portfolio. This concept of diversification and asset allocation can also be applied to our eternal investment.

To become a celestial being we must diversify our lives and ourselves. We must exercise our agency and our judgment in a way that brings about much good in our lives and the lives of others. We must set priorities and ensure that we are covering the main points. Those priorities will shift at different points in our lives. There are a number of broad objectives that should be high on our lists including:

• Working out our own salvation which is a very general overall goal
• Providing for the spiritual and temporal welfare of our families ("No success can compensate for failure in the home")
• Making and keeping temple covenants
• Getting to know God and His will through studying the scriptures and other writings of His servants
• Being obedient to the laws and commandments that we have been taught as we study
• Sharing the gospel
• Redeeming the dead
• Prayer
• Fulfilling church assignments
• Serving others

The actual things we put on our list of current goals might vary over time. For example, as a young student who is also a parent, your goals might include the following:

• Complete an education
• Work a job to avoid debt
• Spend time with the family
• Teach children spiritually and temporally
• Spend some special time with your spouse each week
• Accept and fulfill church assignments
• Go to the temple regularly
• Find a little time for R&R
• Get some exercise

If you were retired, your to-do list might include:

• Spend two days each week working at the temple
• Spend Monday’s doing genealogy
• Spend some time spoiling the grand kids
• Accept and fulfill church assignments
• Get some exercise
• Find time for R&R

Can we see that for a young married priesthood holder to spend three or four days a week at the temple, thus jeopardizing his education, his job and his family, would be a poor investment? While the temple is important to spiritual growth, it cannot be pursued at the exclusion of other important obligations, and should receive different weight at different points in our life.

In the investment world, the statement is often made that timing is everything. There are times when it might be best to over weight your investment in tech growth stocks, such as the last few years of the 1990s. A couple of years ago, those who moved to long-term bonds did well. That is the same with eternal investing. As pointed out in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, there are times in our lives when we should focus on different things. We change the target allocation.

The examples I have given so far are between various good options. In the investment world, there are frauds, deceivers, and shysters who would be happy to steal your investment capital. This is also the case in your spiritual investments. The great deceiver strives to rob you as pointed out in Moses 4:4.

And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.

He robs us of our lives in two ways. One is to entice us toward investing our lives into wickedness, which results in real losses. The second is to get us to twitter away our time here on earth, essentially investing in zero return assets. This is like burying your talent.

Wickedness is all around us. It is available on videos or DVDs for rent; it can be found on the Internet in your home or apartment. Dealers sell it in plastic bags on the streets; it is found in bottles in the stores. Wickedness is promoted in schools and in the communities of the world. It is easy to find, it is easy to become ensnared, all we must do is let it wash over us.

Over the years I have received many calls from stockbrokers trying to sell me some hot stock. Perhaps some were good and perhaps some were frauds. They do not want to sell me the investment because it is going to improve my lot in life; they promote the investment to improve their own lot.

Satan does not try to get you involved in vice to make you happy, he does it because misery loves company. An investment into his wares not only robs us of precious time, it ruins our ability to see the good opportunities. It ruins our ability to analyze and identify the pearls of great price. We reach a point like Laman and Lemuel as described in 1 Nephi 17:45 where it states:

Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God. Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; . . .

As God’s children spend time in pursuit of that which is low and prurient, they desensitize themselves to the influence of the spirit and may eventually lose the light of Christ, which is given to all men. At that point, they lose their attraction to that which is good and valuable, and eventually become a hollow shell that feels no happiness or joy. They even lose the ability to feel the pleasure that Satan enticed them with. This is the fate of those who invest in drugs, pornography, stealing, immorality and other forms of wickedness.

You will recall that in temporal investing, to increase the rate of return, we must be willing to increase in the level of risk taken. This is one instance where temporal investing differs from eternal investing. Temporal investors often lament the fact that they don’t have a crystal ball that tells them where the market is going so they can avoid the losers and find the winners. In eternal investing, the Lord had given us the scriptures, a road map that clearly defines the path we can take. We are told where the traps are that have be set to ensnare us. There is no need for us to suffer the consequences of poor choices because we can learn how to avoid them. Part of that path includes the expectation that we will "tune into the spirit," which can help us interpret and understand the road map. The more we become familiar with the gospel and the more attuned we become to the spirit, the greater the potential rate of return on our eternal investment with a corresponding decrease in the risk we take. The path is clearly marked.

Another thing to consider is that following the Lord gives us, in many ways, more time to do the things that can really bring joy into our lives. If you think about it, the commandments are divided into two major groups, those that tell us what to avoid and those that tell us what to embrace. For example, some of the Ten Commandments fit into the first group and as a result take little or no investment of our time. How much time does it take not to kill, or not to steal, or not to bear false witness? Or how much time does it take not to covet or not commit adultery. We also save time not worshipping the false Gods of money, materialism, or vice. Now it does take some investment to honor our parents and to keep the Sabbath day holy. But the reality is that the Lord has given us great latitude, within the principles of the gospel, to choose how we invest most our lives. As I have reviewed recent talks given at devotionals, I see that many of the major gospel topics have been discussed including:

The temple

Charity

Standing in holy places

Obedience

Humility

Obtaining spiritual knowledge

Prayer and many others

Each of these represents a valuable investment opportunity.

You are all very familiar with the saving principles and ordinances of the gospel, and I hope each of you have testimonies of that doctrine which encompass the straight and narrow way to heaven. They represent those things that we must do and those attributes that we must acquire to gain eternal life. Once we have invested in those things, what else can or should we do? How do we weave these principles and ordinances into lives that are spent working, socializing, rearing our families, and dealing with a wide range of life’s experiences?

The principle of moderation is similar to the temporal investment concept of diversification. Diversification and moderation allow and encourage us to have many diverse experiences and interests in our lives. For example, wholesome recreation, family vacations, and other activities are certainly supported by the gospel plan. You will note that here at BYU-Idaho we encourage your participation in very broad and comprehensive activity and service offerings. These are all healthful opportunities to develop your minds, bodies, and attitudes in very positive ways. Much of our lives should be spent doing things that we are not specifically compelled to do within the framework of correct principles.

As I have lived my life, I have frequently had discussions that make it clear that some members of the Church see the gospel as a cross to bear, rather than the good news. They may have feelings of inadequacy because they feel they should be doing something else or something more. I am not talking about those involved in serious sin but, by way of example, those young mothers who while caring for a young family feel guilt because they do not make it to the temple every week, or the young man who has 15 credits and a job but has not done all of his genealogy. A wise man once said that we should not feel guilty while sitting in the temple that we are not home doing our genealogy.

Others may see the gospel as a bunch of rules that they feel limit their right to choose. They see the gospel as a checklist of does and don’t, much like what the Pharisees of the New Testament promoted. They do not see that the gospel is really the good news. They fail to see the gospel as a guide to happiness that leads us around the many snares intended to destroy us. In essence they really do not understand and accept the power of the atonement.

There are many good things that we can be doing in life. They include such things as taking young children to the zoo, or going out on a date, or going to a ward social, or doing your homework. Each of us has the opportunity of choosing how to use each moment of our lives. Frankly, some do it better than others. If you find yourself spending excessive amounts of time in front of a tube watching TV, chatting on the computer, playing video games, or surfing the net, I would suggest that you are investing in low to negative return assets. Much that is available in those mediums will rob you of growth in your spiritual portfolio. Consider instead, signing up for an outdoor experience with the activity program here at BYU-Idaho. This will give you an opportunity for exposure to many different experiences like hiking, climbing, canoeing, golf, tennis, or skiing. Or perhaps you would enjoy being involved in competitive basketball or softball, or one of the other team sports as a player, or coach, or officiator. Participation in the many cultural offerings can also diversify your experience and increase your appreciation of the beauty of the arts. In addition, there are many service opportunities organized by and for students. These kinds of experiences can provide a foundation for healthful activity throughout your life, and provide a basis for family activities as you raise your own children. You know well the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 58:27 which says:

Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.

I believe the Lord is clearly saying we should live life and not just be observers. There are many good causes to engage in. We understand that it is difficult to have good spiritual health without having good physical, emotional, and mental health. We should keep this in mind as we select from the many options to diversify our investment into our eternal lives as we follow the straight and narrow way. We need to be mentally active, physically active, socially active, and spiritually active. We need to have positive interactions with others. We need to have wholesome laughter in our homes.

You will recall that when Adam was cast out of the garden he was told that by the sweat of his face he would eat bread. Our bodies were designed with the expectation that we would be giving them a physical workout once in a while. In diversifying your portfolio, be sure to include some time for physical activity and consider the fact that the super-sized drink alone that some of you have with your super-sized meal, has more calories than you should have for the whole meal.

To keep myself active, I have enjoyed trekking in the mountains over the years, often with my family. (Photo 1) Knowing that I am going to do this, I usually do some running so that I can enjoy the activity without feeling like I’m going to have a heart attack. (Photo 2) I take my camera and take pictures. I find such trips help me to maintain my physical, spiritual, and emotional health. (Photo 3) There is something awesome about walking through the natural creations of God. On one such Saturday outing in June, I encountered two young ladies who were BYU-Idaho students. As I recall, one was from Idaho Falls and the other from Utah. I was pleased to see them there, to know that they were experiencing the beauty of nature and not just "vegging" out in their apartments. As part of our investment, each of us should select healthy activities and hobbies to participate in. They become positive tools that we can use in rearing our families.

I have it on good authority that President Bednar has been known to run stadium stairs and that he and Sister Bednar have been seen skiing the slopes at Grand Targhee. I also know that he is a busy man not only as he serves as president here at BYU-Idaho but in his ecclesiastical calling as a member of the seventy. He also clearly has an unusual grasp of the scriptures. It is apparent that he is anxiously engaged; he is investing his life well, including time to exercise and revitalize himself.

President Hinckley is a great example of investing in his eternal life. After a long life of dedication to family, service, and gospel principles, at age 93 he continues to live his life at a pace not equaled by many people half his age. He was not always a prophet. At some point in time he was a young student like you, making the same decisions as you about how to invest his life.

Each of you gets to choose how you apply the principles of the gospel in your own lives. I hope what you have heard today is that the gospel is not a checklist of the things we can and can’t do. Life should be a wonderful adventure, where we share positive growing experiences with our brothers and sisters. Being anxiously engaged is not a trial of life; it is the fuel of life. Each moment of our lives can be something special, a time to learn, or share, or pray. Sometimes it should be a time for relaxation, particularly after long periods of work, learning, activity, and service . . . but don’t let your life slip away without fully experiencing it. Get involved, be diversified, invest each moment in something positive, and be joyful. Start now so that the "line upon line" process can begin. As stated by Moroni in Mormon 9:28:

Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield not to temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.

I know God lives and that he loves us, I know His son is the Great Redeemer, and I know the Holy Ghost can help us direct our lives. They are all real. We have a Prophet who knows and shares the will of the Father. Like the servants who received the talents, we know what our father expects of us. We have made covenants with Him. Now let us go forward and invest our lives according to His will that we might "enter into the joy of the Lord." I so pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen