08-27-34-04-19-10.
A mere 1.8 miles down the road from me, there is a mass chaos of people swarming like flies around a little old 7-Eleven. This 7-Eleven is the same one my husband and I used to go to when we bought our late night Redbox videos to watch on a date night in.
My head is spinning that an amount of 1.6 billion dollars is about to be handed over to an unnamed individual (someone we may in fact know?)
But here’s the deal. What would you do if you won that amount of money? Splurge on every material item you can come up with in your head? Invest like a wise person should? Or how about donate large portions of it for causes around the world that are in need of funds to make a huge difference?
Ok before you go ape-crazy on me, no, I did not win. I actually would have had to purchase a lottery ticket to even be considered in the game pool.
But there is a certain someone who did win here in this little town of mine, and I can’t help but wonder what his life is going to be like now?
Without trying to go all dismal on you, I can’t help but sit here and want to pray for him. Without trying to sound overly spiritual and holier-than-thou but I honestly can’t help but think, if this certain individual doesn’t have a sound faith in them, wouldn’t this be just the thing to drive him further away from God? I mean why do you even need God when you have 1.6 billion dollars to do whatever the hell you want?
This kind of money can keep you living in a yacht for free. Eating bon-bons all day. With a chauffeur and bus boy ready at all times for your every need.
You can put your kids in private school like you’ve always dreamed. You can hire that work-out trainer you’ve been aching to afford. You can pay off all the medical bills that you’ve had for years piling up.
This kind of money can buy you anything you want.
Anything and everything… except what your heart is aching for most.
You see, our hearts are always aching for something more. There is always more to be had in this world that we are lacking of.
More stuff, more status, more sex, more love, more food, more health, more, more, more!
You will keep filling your heart and crowding it out with more worldly pleasures, and at the end of the day I guarantee that you will be left with nothing. Empty. Void. Numb.
This is going to be easy for me to say since I didn’t win the lottery ticket, but I honestly don’t know if I would do the right thing if I won, even being a Christian, to do what other Christians would expect me to do: To give generously and abundantly to others. To not get wrapped up in the material wealth of stuff of our culture. To give praise and glory to God for this “blessing” upon my life.
No, I know my heart. And my heart, even though right now I really think I’m in a better place with my faith, more sound in my love and devotion to Jesus than I’ve ever been, more open to giving to others than I’ve ever desired to be… even though I’m in a good place where I think I would truly give so much of this (hypothetical) money away to great causes, jump start our dreams of ministry, and serve to the great needs of others around me, I’m still not 100% sure I would be able to do the Mother Teresa move.
Money isn’t inherently bad. It’s not inherently good either. It is an inanimate object that is used for a means to an end. An end that could make it used for either good or bad. It is our choice.
But what makes money bad or good? Is it really subject to opinion? Is it weighed against a moral law? It there is a good or bad, then there has to be moral law right? And if there is a moral law there needs to be one who created moral law to make it, correct? Which means that moral law must have been made by a higher being… God. Which means there is a God who created money to be used by our choosing to make good choices, or the not-so-good ones.
Which makes me realize how much I need Jesus even more.
To humble myself.
To cleanse me of my greed.
My longing for wealth.
My desire for more.
Completely acknowledge Him in my messy state.
So I can make the right choices in those crazy mind-boggling moments, such as winning the lottery.
Lord I pray for this person who now has so much power in his hands. Power that will either destroy him and others around him. Or power to create, build-up, and love greatly for a purpose bigger than himself.
No amount of power, status, money, love, food, media, or popularity will ever truly satisfy the aching needs in our hearts. Especially money. No, there is something far greater and far more important to discover in this life than simply a winning lottery ticket found in the 7-Eleven 1.8 miles away from my house.
I wonder, which will he choose?
