One of the fundamental concepts of investing is diversification. The idea is to spread risk by buying a mix of assets that move in opposite directions in response to changing economic conditions. If your tech stocks are taking a beating, for instance, then hopefully your consumer staples are trending up or at least holding steady. There are even “counter-cyclical” stocks that supposedly do better when the broader economy does worse (e.g., auto part companies, because people are fixing their cars instead of buying new ones, and alcohol distributors for perhaps obvious reasons).
Unsurprisingly, financial professionals debate each other fiercely over how investors should allocate their portfolios, but no one will counsel going “all in” on one or two investments (not even, perhaps, Bitcoin anymore). You might as well go down to the casino and make a day of it. Last year, the now-defunct Archegos Capital Management touched off a minor crisis when it borrowed billions of dollars to place enormous bets on a mere handful of tech and media stocks, most prominently Viacom CBS. When Viacom CBS reported bad earnings and its stock tanked, Archegos’s creditors quickly realized they weren’t ever getting their money back. The bank Credit Suisse alone found itself writing off $5.5 billion.
Diversification as a means of managing risk has applications outside the world of finance. The recent midterm elections, for instance, saw a marked rise in “split-ticket” ballots, i.e., people were voting for the Democrat in one race and the Republican in another. For such voters, living under a divided government is better than giving one party the power to potentially ruin everything. Another example of the diversification principle in action: dating multiple people at once is a practice that appears to be growing in acceptance. “Love don’t come easy,” but maybe you’ll not have to wait as long if you try out multiple potential partners simultaneously.
More generally, it’s pretty rare for every aspect of our lives to be going well at the same time — but it’s equally uncommon for everything to be going wrong all at once. If work is terrible, we console ourselves in the love of our spouse and children, or perhaps our friends. Conversely, if our relationships are chaotic, that’s all the more reason to pursue career success or even to find solace in elaborate hobbies. We think instinctively in terms of, “If X goes wrong, then at least I have Y to fall back on.”
And such thinking rather easily finds its way into the realm of religion. In the time of the ancient prophet Elijah, the people of Israel were, so to speak, trying to hold stock in multiple gods. They had the old covenant with Yahweh, of course, but it also made sense to cultivate some relationships with the local deities indigenous to the Levant. You know, just in case … In a time of protracted drought (see 1 Kgs 17), it seemed like a particularly bad idea to alienate the ever-popular storm god Baal. You can never really tell with gods, anyway, as they are invisible, sometimes silent for long periods of time, and apparently capricious. The smart move is to keep your options open. If the Yahweh thing doesn’t work out for whatever reason, then at least you’re not looking at a total wipe out.
But Yahweh famously insists that his followers push all their chips in and exclusively rely on him. Unlike the more accommodative Ancient Near Eastern deities, he tolerates no side action, no hedging of one’s bets, no diversification of one’s spiritual portfolio. He is irked that his people are trying to maintain a relationship with him while simultaneously playing the field. “How long will you go limping with two different opinions?” Elijah demands of the crowd gathered on Mt. Carmel to witness the showdown between Yahweh and Baal. “If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kgs 18:21). The people remain non-committal until Yahweh proves himself to be God, thus securing the exclusive loyalty of Israel — at least for the next few pages of the Bible.
There probably isn’t an exact one-to-one correspondence between this passage and our situation as contemporary Christians. It’s not likely that many of us are secretly building shrines to Ganesh in the basement. But neither is this story irrelevant. To use the language of Paul Tillich, all of us are “ultimately concerned” in the sense that we are relying on something to provide a reason to get up every morning, something to give us a “future with hope.” The New Testament insists that the sole basis of this hope is in knowing Christ: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:8).
Can we truly say this along with the apostle Paul? Maybe sometimes. More often the answer is something more like, “I count everything as loss … except getting the book published,” or, “… except having healthy and happy kids,” or something else besides Christ that certainly feels necessary for a life worth living. If Christ is unknowable, if there are prolonged seasons of spiritual drought, then at least we’ve got this other thing to fall back on. We are maintaining well-diversified portfolios — or, to put it a bit differently, our hearts are divided. Nor is there a quick and easy way to unify them on this side of eternity.
But the unfathomably good news is that God is all in on us: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful” (2 Tim 2:13). His heart towards us is not divided. His bets on us are not hedged, nor does he cut his losses when things get tough: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion on the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). God loves us with his whole heart, mind, and strength — so much so that he will not ultimately allow us to bank our deepest hopes in lesser and temporary things. But in the meantime he accepts faith the size of a mustard seed, and even that seed itself is his gift. We were never a promising investment, but it is our great fortune that God isn’t much of a cost/benefit analyst. He simply loves.
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4 responses to “Diversification and Divided Hearts”
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Love this, David.
Hope you’re well!
This is lovely. My heart feels so divided all the time and I just can’t help it…faith and doubt, strength and weakness, love and fear, hopefulness and hopelessness. I pray that God’s undivided heart would fill me up when I am divided and forlorn.
The example of the “diversification” by the people during the ministry of Elijah is hitting close to home. I need to pay attention here.
The use of 2 Timothy 2:13 might need a little work though. 13a probably pairs with 12b.
But what a great article for reminding us about Commandments 1 and 2 and Jesus’s Greatest Commandment. Thank you David.
I thought this was an apt assessment:
“They had the old covenant with Yahweh, of course, but it also made sense to cultivate some relationships with the local deities indigenous to the Levant. You know, just in case…”
Good post!