Want a Real Investment Return?

by Curtis Shelburne

PRAYER CAN evidently pay dividends that even the most devout Christians might find surprising!

According to the Associated Press, a Spanish businessman named Eduardo Sierra was in Stockholm, Sweden, recently on a business trip. A devout Roman Catholic, Sierra took the time to stop at a local church and pray. Inside the church, he found himself alone, or, well, almost alone, except for the coffin and remains of an individual who was, of course, a complete stranger to the 35-year-old Sierra. For twenty minutes, nevertheless, Sierra prayed for the deceased.

On his way out, Mr. Sierra noticed a registry book and a note requesting that anyone who stopped to pray for the deceased individual should sign the book with their name and address. Complying with the request, Sierra observed that at that point no one else had signed. He was the first.

According to the news report, it was several weeks later when Sierra received a phone call informing him that he was a millionaire, that the man who had died, Jens Svenson, had been a 73-year-old realty dealer with no close relatives and that he had directed in his will that “whoever prays for my soul gets all my belongings.”  Amazing! I don’t know what sort of “return” Eduardo Sierra had envisioned from the time he spent in prayer in that Stockholm church, but I’m quite sure this was one that had never occurred to him!  I know this: In a day when the only things longer than some major sports figures’ financial statements are their criminal records, when well- known actors with moral standards lower than those of your neighbor’s tomcat get caught in sex scandals one week and make millions on their next movie two heartbeats later, I find it a bit heartwarming to hear about a man of obvious faith becoming a millionaire simply because he cared enough to pray.  I’ve never met Eduardo Sierra, but it seems to me that he probably knew something about what really makes a man wealthy a long time before he ever knelt to pray in Stockholm.

            May we be so wise. May we, no matter what our bank balances may say, be so wealthy.