The Traders: How to Live Like Value Matters
What Anton Kreil, Nassim Taleb, Naval Ravikant, and Jesus Christ can teach us about trading value for eternity.
Everything in life is a trade.
Time, money, opportunity.
The question isn’t if you’re trading, but what you’re trading for.
The man was wealthy beyond comprehension, and he was packing for a journey. What was on his mind wasn’t the trip.
It was his three employees.
He called them in one by one. To the first, he handed ten million dollars. To the second, five. To the third, one.
He didn’t say much beyond this: “Trade with it. Grow it. I’ll be back.”
The first two went to work.
They studied markets, took risks, started projects, made trades. They were looking to trade something of value for something of greater value. Not sacrifices, but trades.
The third man buried the money in a safe. He told himself he was being careful.
In other words. He did nothing.
He could have traded his one million dollars, but he didn’t.
The third man thought he wasn’t trading.
But burial IS a trade.
You trade growth for safety, multiplication for preservation, calling for comfort. He traded the Master’s trust for his own fear.
Every non-decision is still a decision. Every moment of paralysis is still a position. Not investing IS investing…
…in decay.
When the boss returned, the results spoke for themselves.
The first two had doubled what they’d been given. The third had nothing to show.
These men were traders. Two were good. The other was foolish. Two understood how trading works. The other was like most people.
The Master wasn’t looking for safety. He was looking for stewardship.
Stewardship
This story Jesus told 2,000 years ago is more relevant today than ever.
I like to listen to futures trader, Anton Kreil, talk about trading. Like most pro traders, he gets it.
He sits in his Dubai office, refusing any meeting that doesn’t clear $10,000 in value.
Then he leaves to get a $300 haircut and shave.
Contradiction? No. He understands that excellence in one area funds excellence in all areas. (Of course, I usually cut my own hair, and you can tell!)
The barber shop isn’t an expense, it’s a trade: money for confidence, for clarity, for the mental reset that helps him see the next million-dollar opportunity. “If you don’t value yourself,” he says, “neither will the market.”
Investor and thinker Naval Ravikant gets it. He turns down billion-dollar opportunities because they don’t align with his joy.
Economist and former trader, Nassim Taleb, gets it. He trades comfort for antifragility every single day.
They understand what Jesus was teaching in that parable...
The Power of the Value Trade
I’m trying to show you the power of the value trade.
Anton Kreil values his time and money, so he’s not spending. He’s trading.
We never spend. We always trade (if we value what we have).
Naval Ravikant teaches that you should aspire to value your time so highly that you refuse any work that doesn’t create massive leverage.
He once said, “Set an aspirational hourly rate for yourself, and stick to it. If a task is worth less than your rate, outsource it, automate it, or delete it.”
He traded doing everything for doing only what matters.
These men understand something that many Christians overlook: everything is a trade. Time for money. Money for freedom. Comfort for growth. Risk for reward. Reputation for truth. Security for meaning.
They live as if value is real and opportunity is finite.
They know the game they’re playing and the assets they hold.
We can learn from them and from the greatest traders of all time: the traders of talents, the man who sold everything for one pearl, and Jesus Christ Himself.
The Bad Trades We Make Without Thinking
Most of us are terrible traders. We don’t even realize we’re trading. We give away our most valuable assets for nothing:
Trading truth for niceness
Trading calling for salary
Trading eternal for temporal
Trading hard conversations for false peace
Trading our children’s presence for our career’s demands
Trading Sabbath peace for anxious hustle
Trading prayer for worry
Trading integrity for approval
Trading depth for breadth
Trading kingdom impact for personal comfort
Every one of these is a position. Every one has a return. Most of them are negative.
The Good Trades That Multiply
But there are trades that compound in eternity:
Trading comfort for growth
Trading control for surrender and trust
Trading reputation for integrity
Trading immediate pleasure for compounding interest
Trading a ton of shallow relationships for a few deep ones
Trading busyness for effectiveness
Trading fear for faith
Trading hoarding for generosity
Trading treasure here for treasure in heaven
Trading safety for calling
Trading the temporary for the eternal
These trades look expensive in the moment but pay dividends forever.
The Ultimate Traders
The merchant who found the pearl of great price sold everything to gain what was truly valuable. He made the ultimate value trade. Everything temporal for one thing eternal.
And the ultimate, ultimate Trader was Jesus.
He traded His throne for a manger. He traded an earthly kingdom for a heavenly one. He traded His life for the joy set before Him.
And He’ll return to reclaim what’s rightfully His — a renewed earth and a multiplied Kingdom.
We were made in His image, designed to be traders.
Entrusted with time, talent, and treasure, we’re called to invest, not to hoard; to build, not to hide; to multiply, not to waste.
The Kingdom Trader’s Framework
Here’s how to trade like heaven is watching:
Identify your assets: What has God entrusted to you uniquely?
Calculate opportunity cost: What does saying yes to this cost me?
Seek asymmetric returns: Where can small faith create massive Kingdom impact?
Embrace wise risk: The only unacceptable risk is burying what God gave you
Track your trades: Journal what you’re exchanging daily
Compound spiritually: Every good trade makes the next one easier
How Intentional Can You Be?
Ask yourself these ten questions:
What am I trading my time for right now and is it worth it?
Do my daily choices increase or deplete what God has entrusted to me?
What “buried talent” have I been afraid to risk?
Am I pursuing short-term comfort or long-term value?
What am I willing to sell to gain the pearl?
How can I structure my business and life for Kingdom asymmetry: small inputs, eternal rewards?
Where am I trading truth for approval?
Who are my trading partners, the people who multiply my growth or drain it?
If Jesus returned today, what would I have to show for what He entrusted?
Am I trading my life for joy, or just spending it?
The Market Is Open
Right now, as you read this, you’re trading. You traded time to read these words. (Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!)
Was it worth it? Only if it changes your next trade. If you do something about what you know.
The Master is coming back. He’s not looking for explanations about why you were careful.
He’s looking for multiplication.
The market is open. Your assets are ready to be deployed. Every sunrise is a new trading day.
Every day is a trade. Every decision is an allocation. You were made for wise risk.
The kind that multiplies good in the world and returns glory to God.
The Master has given you everything you need. Now trade like heaven is watching. Because it is.
This Week’s Challenge: Identify one thing you’re ‘burying’ out of fear. Take one small risk with it. Report back in the comments or reply to this email. Let’s hold each other accountable to wise trading.
A Prayer: Lord, make us wise traders. Give us courage to invest what You’ve entrusted. Help us see every decision as a trade, every day as a market, every interaction as an opportunity to multiply Your Kingdom. Teach us to trade our small for Your infinite, our temporary for Your eternal, our fear for Your joy. Amen.
Blessings,
Jeff B. Miller
www.IndieChristianBook.com | www.ChristianGhostwriting.com | www.Godspeed-Chruch.com
Wow. This really hit me. I need to think on this a bit.