Its not bad to be passive

I remember reading “Wealth Without Risk” by Charles J. Givens when I was 12 or so. Also, read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kuyasaki a little later. They both touted the importance of investing. Both of them spoke of the importance of investing as early as you could so you would have more years to compound the interest. I remember seeing the graphs showing the dramatic difference in an investment account projected at age 60 when you start at 18 versus starting when you are 28.

The results of that were enough to push me into learning more about investing; what drives it, how do you learn to do it, how do you pick the right thing. The end result, of course, being a source of assets from which you can draw passive income. Business is interesting because it gives the opportunity to develop income sources even more quickly, and you don’t necessarily need cash to do it. You can leverage much more much quicker and get the passive income streams going.

Now what is the end result of passive income? Well, I think its so you can do “what you want”. If I decide to go to Disneyworld, I’m off. I could be free to really be myself and really benefit humanity because the best thing you can be is yourself. If I decide to fly to Europe… gone. If I decide not to work for 6 months, fine. It doesn’t really matter because I’ve got passive income, I can do what I want. I, I, I… and passive income can get me there.

When I was reading those books while a teenager, I used to write out different goals for my life. I never did write out why I really wanted to do what I wanted to do, however. It was just always a given – obviously the goal of everyone is to do whatever they want, right? That’s what everyone tells you, that’s what any retirement brochure, life planning coach, or ad on TV will tell you. That is the way the world works. I agree.

The gospel puts a reversal on the way the world works. My life is now lost in Jesus’. His life took the place of mine to God, so I’ve got nothing left to offer. Throw the “I” out of the equation at this point. So, what now? Was everything I read, studied, and pursued before simply wasted when selfishness no longer becomes the goal?

Of course that won’t be the answer, God can redeem anything in someone’s life when its turned over to him. The passive portion wasn’t bad or wrong, it was just aimed at the wrong target.

Martin Luther wrote “Paul talks about “the rightousness of faith”. God gives us this rightousness apart from our works – in other words, it is passive rightousness… So then, have we nothing to do to obtain this rightousness? No, nothing at all.”

I used to think, “if I could get to the point I had $x coming to me each month before I even get out of bed, then I could be creative, do something good, do what I want, etc. It didn’t really matter what would do, it wouldn’t matter. The point is the good thing I would have done have already been done by Jesus. Whatever benefit I foresaw myself having to humanity by having enough passive income to really “be myself” has already been given to humanity beyond compare when Jesus lived, died, and lived.

So, what was at the heart of what I was looking for? Something coming to me that I didn’t have to work to earn that day. Some support mechanism that would free me to serve where I would be most beneficial. Good goals to be sure. The only flaw was thinking that I could create the support mechanism, and that I could decide what to do after creating it. In reality, it was already there, and its not up to me to decide the next step. Its already been done… all I do is follow.

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