Which came first, the wealth or the investment vehicle to express and contain it? A kind of weird question but one that seized us quickly as we looked at the derivation of the word investment from its root "wes" which refers to clothing. Words like vesture, vestments and wear make the connection clearer. Investment came to be associated with financial matters in the 17th century and literally indicated how one clothed his wealth.

In earlier times wealth was stored in gold, precious stones and even corpulence. One member advised that wealthy businessmen in Cairo used to encourage their wives to put on weight to display their affluence. Another noted a report showing that young women and men often find a pot belly in a more mature male a turn on, since it is thought to indicate wealth and stability.

Today we tend to dress our wealth in stocks, bonds, real estate and perhaps collectibles. The group wanted to look at these but also to extend our inquiry out to include all expenditures of energy aimed at giving an upward push to human life. Thus, we wanted our conclusions to embrace investments in say friendship, church membership and education.

We were now ready to explore the Christian Science of investment. Referring to our readings from John, one member showed how Jesus' followers had invested quite a lot of time and energy in a series of lectures and healing demonstrations. They were now tired and hungry. Jesus saw this, had compassion and supplied a meal, out of the "..amplitude of his pure affection." Not via funds from a bank account nor from stored food, but apparently from his preexistent spiritual wealth.

Another member ventured to state the Science of this story. Man, as infinite spiritual idea, already has infinite wealth. This is the fact, whatever the appearances. We ran into some squabbles over what to do with or how to handle a person in desperate need. Certainly you don't give them a pep talk or repeat a bunch of words at them. But in order to help, the Science must be absolute behind whatever sympathetic or comforting words are used. "Think to be heard of God; talk to be heard of men," seemed a good summary of this point.

As our readings also make clear (see the quotes from pages 507 and 527 of Science and Health), God is fully expressed as His idea man: "..the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind is all.." Contrast this with the dualistic Lord God's universe, where Adam (a belief in man) is appointed to dress the garden (matter). No wonder things end badly in Eden.

There are many statements by Jesus and Paul which might lead us simplistically to believe that wealth is anti-God (see for instance Matthew 6: 24-34, Luke 12: 13-21 and I Timothy 6: 9, 10). Any such reading does not accord with Christian Science which works against the belief in matter, not against human concepts per se. We need to see all contents of our lives, i.e., all our investments of time and energy, even the angels entertained unawares, as divine ideas and live them from that standpoint. This is Christian Science treatment and regularizes human functioning.

Competition came up. From a human angle, it's supposed to promote excellence; but it can have some pretty unfortunate side effects. One member thought all striving needs to be under girded with the understanding that excellence is through reflection of divine qualities. This seeing would bless not only the one praying but everyone involved, including competitors so called. No one can be deprived of his right place, but this needs to be rooted in Heaven, not human belief.

This line of thinking prompted another member to say he wanted to see all good as flowing directly from God. Thus satisfaction is a direct reflection of God. It is based on the fact that man is the idea of God and does not proceed from money, a job well done nor a love affair — all of which in turn are divine ideas: i.e., effects, not causes. God alone is Cause.

Should someone pray for his stocks and other holdings? Perhaps not quite in those terms, but how about the companies back of the stocks and all the employees, customers, stockholders and government agencies associated therewith? What about the competing businesses? A member gave us a jolt by indicating he regularly prays to see the unfoldment of the divine economy in and as his investments as well as all economic activities worldwide. He felt anything less would be sheer malpractice, or using an older lingo, a curse!

This led to an interesting area of what to do when one's investment or talent or whatever goes through the roof. Very tricky. The tendency is to rest on luck or bask in a belief of human smarts. In other words, the recipe for a "severe correction" as they say on Wall Street. Triumph needs more assiduous work than a defeat. As one member reported, he had remarked to the co-owner of some real estate, after the latter said it was the worst piece of land he'd seen in a long time, "Well, at least we don't have to work to eliminate false optimism." Human destitution is the place we can turn our attention wholly to God.

We barely touched on some shadow stuff about wealth and investments: all the uncomfortable, mostly unconscious foxes that nip at us, like greed, envy, power trips, and money issues robbing us of authentic relationships. But as we've seen, these problems could just as easily occur over someone's great beauty or talent. If we ever devote a meeting to this investigation, it should be a humdinger, with the need to keep absolute Science right at hand.

Meanwhile, a member requested we look at Patience and how we practice it in Christian Science.