We’ve all heard the proverbial warning, I’m sure: “Don’t put all your eggs in the one basket”. I’m not sure of the exact origins of this proverb, but it goes back several centuries. The proverb suggests that someone who has physically put all the eggs they have in the one basket and is then at risk of dropping the basket, will lose everything they worked so hard for. It is a warning to spread your risks across several baskets so as to avoid a total loss. This saying still holds value in today’s financial investment circles, and carries a certain amount of wisdom. For example, when it comes to something like superannuation, our financial adviser will spread our “eggs” across several “baskets” in order to minimise the possibility of a total loss if one “basket” is dropped. In simple terms, we should weigh our alternatives and put some eggs in one basket and some in another. This could apply to almost anything – applying for multiple job opportunities, or education options, and so on- so that we have options if our first choice doesn’t materialise. Almost anything. Not everything.
Hedging your bets might be another way of putting it. We tend to think that about almost anything - that to depend for our success on one single person or plan of action, is unwise. It is too risky. If someone puts all their eggs in one basket, they put all their effort or resources into doing one thing, so if that fails, they have no alternatives left. And we live so much of our lives like that- always hedging our bets, spreading risk, not putting all our eggs in one basket. In many ways, as with our superannuation retirement planning, it is wise to spread our eggs across different baskets. This is called diversification. And this is wise in volatile times.
But we cannot live all our lives like this. Yet, so many do. Many cannot commit to one person in a marriage relationship, for example, preferring instead to have options and alternatives, in case one relationship goes bad. The tragedy of this is that with such a spread across so many relationship baskets, relationships cannot go very deep, and the riches and depths of love can never be plumbed, never experienced. There is only so much of us to go around. Christians can even do this, albeit often unconsciously. For example, we can think, “Well, if God doesn’t do this, I can always do this.” This is about egg options and baskets – it is not about faith. It is about the Christian spreading their eggs across several baskets, just in case.
When Jacob secretly fled from his father-in-law, Laban, he took his two wives (Rachel and Leah), his children, servants and livestock overnight. Rachel, unbeknown to Jacob, had stolen her father’s household “gods” (little figurines). Laban pursued Jacob and caught up with him days later. He was angry at the way Jacob had behaved – mind you, Jacob probably had good reason given the way his father-in-law had cheated and deceived him over many years. God spoke to Laban and warned him about going hard on Jacob. And so, by the time they met up, Laban had translated most of his anger into the fact that his household gods had gone missing, and he suspected Jacob. Rachel had them …
Genesis 31:34 (NIV)
“Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel's saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.”
Why is this a thing, you may ask? Well, previously, when Jacob had told Rachel and Leah that he was leaving and taking the family, they had responded …
Genesis 31:16 (NIV)
“Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
They were happy to trust Jacob’s God, Yahweh. But when she left, Rachel took the family gods – just in case.
Whilst the proverb has some merit and wisdom for how we might plan financially, when it comes to discipleship and the life of faith in God, it has no merit at all. It is foolhardy. We Christians, when we choose to follow Christ, very consciously put all our eggs in the one basket because that basket is secure and cannot be taken from us – God is not going to drop the basket; no eggs will be lost. We trust that. We live on that. We’re talking life here, not merely eggs.
And that is faith.
We don’t do what Rachel did, “just in case”.
Psalms 16:8 (NIV)
“I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”
We never have to worry regardless of life’s upheavals and global instability. All our eggs are now safe. They’re in the one basket with no other options needed. Our life is in God’s hands.
Psalms 16:9-11 (NIV)
“Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, 10 because You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will You let Your faithful one see decay. 11 You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.”
When it comes to faith and discipleship, are all your eggs in the one basket?
Think on these things.
Ps Milton