God Blesses My 401k?

So today I ran across a fellow Christian. Somehow we got on the subject of the stock market, which I had insensitively labeled a gambling institution. While he disagreed with me, I expected him to challenge me as I was prepared to sharpen iron. Instead, he went on telling me all about his investments and encouraging me to "invest" while I was still young (which by the way, I am not).

He was completely oblivious to the fact that I had just called him a gambler.

Many in the church today see nothing wrong with serving God and money at the same time. In fact, they believe that God wants us to prosper, and that He actually encourages us seeking prosperity. It is this kind of wrong thinking that leads to the "prosperity gospel" and to passivity about issues like globalization. As long as my 401k is rising, what could be better than that? It's a win-win gospel. This is surely God's will. He wants to give us the desires of our heart anyway, right?

Now I'm not saying that God doesn't want the best for us. For some of us, His plan may indeed allow for us to become fabulously wealthy.

But what if your investment harms God's environment? Or causes a hard working engineer in America to lose his job - indeed his entire occupation category - to cheap foreign labor - permanently? Or ends up funding radical terrorists who murder innocent people?

In other words, what if our "investments" cause the suffering of others?

Is that OK?