I was surprised to read that Robin Hood was in the news, but not as surprised as the good people of Sherwood Forest. It seems the merry men of the Robin Hood Society of Sherwood Forest suddenly had thousands of new followers on their website and on Twitter. They were so overwhelmed they thought it must be a prank or a hack. Turned out it was thousands of potential investors in the US stock market mistaking them for a day-trader app with the Robin Hood name. 

The Robin Hood stock market investors managed to manipulate undervalued stocks, like AMC Theaters and GameStop, into record highs. This caused millions of dollars in pain to professional hedge fund investors who thought they had the stock market game under their control. (I have just exhausted my understanding of this part of the story.)

Someone else who was surprised by the Robin Hood phenomenon was 10-year-old Jaydyn Carr of San Antonio, Texas. Jaydyn owned 10 shares of stock in GameStop, a company that sells computer games in the mall. His mother had bought the shares for Jaydyn two years ago as a Kwanzaa gift. To introduce him to financial investing, she paid $61.90 for stock in the store he loved to visit,. Last week Jaydyn cashed-in his investment for $3,200! As an investor, Jaydyn has decided to put $2,200 into his savings account, and is looking to invest the rest. He likes Xbox and Roblox games.

An article in the NY Times reported:  “Ms. Carr said she became committed to teaching her son about financial literacy after Jaydyn’s father, an Army combat medic, died in 2014 from combat-related complications. A certificate of deposit she opened with a death compensation payment provided an entry point to teach her son financial responsibility — lessons she said she didn’t learn until later in life. She has taught Jaydyn how to speak to bank tellers, how to save his money, how to use a debit card, when to recognize when something is an impulse purchase and, recently, the charming game of the stock market.” (January 30, 2021)

Jaydyn received a 5,000% financial return on his mother’s investment in him. In what or whom are you investing today? Investing in others brings the best returns. Investing with the Good News of Christ brings the highest returns. (See Matthew 6:19-21.)  

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Invest in things eternal. And let’s experience the love and power of God together while apart.  

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When we were courting, Dorothy and I rode a roller coaster at Six Flags Over Texas. I had never been anywhere like a Six Flags in my life. She kept mentioning that it was an unusual day because there were no lines for any of the rides. We saw some shows, wandered throughout the little shops, and rode just about any ride whenever we wanted. We stayed that day until the park closed. It was as if the time together at the park was tailored just for us. Later we learned most people stayed home because of the record-breaking July heat (107°).

Dorothy and I rode only one other roller coaster together after we were married. She quit riding after watching people ride the Zingo at Bell’s Amusement Park at the Tulsa Fairgrounds. Dorothy quietly said to me that I could ride as many coasters as I wanted, but she never wanted a newspaper headline to read, “Pastor’s Wife Dies on Roller-Coaster Ride.”

She has not wavered, even when our family, along with Dorothy’s parents, spent another day at that same Six Flags—the day her 80+-year-old father rode both a roller coaster and the parachute drop! My last roller-coaster ride was at Branson’s Silver Dollar City in December 2019. I strained my shoulder on that ride by holding on too tightly. I had forgotten the rule for riding all carnival rides. The secret to an enjoyable ride is to relax, lean forward and trust the operator of the ride. That is hard to do when your brain and all the voices around you are screaming, you are going to die!

2020 has been a current-event roller-coaster ride that just keeps on going, now into 2021.  In fact, there are multiple roller coasters going. Many of us keep trying to get off one ride only to find ourselves on a different ride. I am not alone in thinking I might be going a little frazzled because of it all. We are all on life’s roller coaster running full force for this season. This too shall change. Don’t let the ride scare you away from faith and hope and love. Let your headline read, “Faithful Through It All.”

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Lean forward and trust the Operator. And let’s experience the love and power of God together while apart. 

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Homer G. Lindsay, Jr. was our pastor when I was licensed to the Gospel Ministry. He was a heavy man and admitted he was big even as a boy. Whenever he was preaching and got close to Galatians 6:7, he would tell the same story. Being able to tell the same story repeatedly as if it were the first time is an artform passed from generation to generation, and not just to preachers. He would recount being assigned one hot muggy day to plant seven rows of corn in the backyard garden. The rows were already tilled. He was given the bag of seed corn and a round measuring stick. The assignment was to poke a hole in the soil, place one seed in it, then cover it over. He was to lay the stick down and poke a hole at the other end, and so on until all the rows were planted. To hear him tell it, he thought he would die after the third seed (not row, seed.) He was sweating, he was dirty, his knees hurt, and his back was beginning to ache. By the time he got to the top of the third row, he was through, but not with the planting. He made up some excuses to go in, but his father sent him right back out to finish the job. He made a couple more half-hearted attempts to sow his seed, then sat down at the top of his row by the fence. Young Homer was leaning on the back fence when he got the idea. He would plant the first 3 or 4 seeds at the front of the remaining rows and bury the rest of the seed in a hole in the back corner. His parents were so proud of him. He was so proud of himself for getting away with it.

The seeds he planted that day were exceptionally good seeds. The stalks would grow tall and provide sweet corn for the dinner table. But it only took a couple of weeks for his deception to be discovered by his father. The gardener always tends the details—looking for bugs and weeds and mischief. Homer Sr. noticed the empty rows behind the tender shoots of corn. It was a mystery. Were there hungry birds or animals raiding his garden? Eventually he saw the messy clump beginning to sprout by the fence. A time of questioning, a time of confession, a time of repentance and discipline; judgment day arrived for Homer Jr. (See Galatians 6:7-10)

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. We reap what we sow. Let’s experience the love and power of God together while we are apart.

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