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I Just Won the
Lottery!! ...now what? MP3
printer-friendly
an exercise in stewardship
Almost twenty-five years ago, the Washington State legislature approved
a state lottery. Not long after this, it seemed that individual
state and multiple state lotteries began popping up all over the
country. One day I read somewhere that a multi-state lottery prize
had risen to some $50 million dollars. I became intrigued.
After all, who hasn't daydreamed at least once about winning such a
prize? Maybe you have.
Rather than just daydreaming about winning fifty-million dollars, I
sat down and began writing out a budget outlining just how I might
spend, save and invest such a sum. The budget was based on the
18.75 million I would have after taxes. I looked over my finished
product, deemed it good and filed it away. About six months later
I happen to pull it out and was shocked and perplexed at what I was
reading. WHAT WAS I THINKING!! The whole budget shown with
lack of fiscal maturity and just plain stupidity.
I wrote up another budget. I declared this one to be "really good
this time." Half a year went by, I looked at the budget, AND IT
HAPPENED AGAIN!! The budget was riddled with useless elements and
misguided choices. I wrote out a third version but the same result
played out over and over again. Finally, after a decade and a half
of rewrites, I had something solid. I have not made any
appreciable changes in the last ten years. Imagine the problems I
would have had if I had actually won the lottery all those years before.
Maybe this is why we learn of so many lottery winner horror stories.
Several are broke within a short span of time. Others end up with
broken families and alienated friends. The systemic problem is a
lack of stewardship.
God Wants Planning, Not Just Drifting
Through Life
Lottery winners have failed in their management of the money simply
because they lacked PRIOR planning. For you and myself, it is not
important to actually win the fifty million dollars. This is not
what spiritual growth is about. Growth comes from the stewardship
we learn just contemplating that kind of money. The point is, if
you can properly handle this kind of money, you can effectively handle
any amount of money. Planning is a part of the Salvation Process
and our relationship with God. It is the literal committing of
spiritual principles to written form. Let us look at some
scriptures.
The ants are a people not strong, yet they
prepare their meat in the summer. –Proverbs 30:25
How do they do that? The only other place ants are mentioned gives
us the direction we seek:
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her
ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth
her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
–Proverbs 6:6-8
Ants are industrious. No one would ever call an ant a sluggard.
God created the ant and everything about them is His design. Like
many things in nature, God wants us to learn things about Him (Romans
1:20). The word sluggard, if you look at word meaning and
commentaries, denotes not just laziness but one wise in his own mind
and/or one who sins. God is encouraging us to be upright in a
balance of reliance upon Him and following His abundant examples of
planning and stewardship. The ant instinctively knows that summer
is followed by winter and they "plan" accordingly. Let us look at
some human examples from the Bible.
Joseph
Joseph was told that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven
years of famine. His knowledge was not unlike that of the ant who
is given a time of plenty and must endure a time of lack. What did
Joseph do? He planned and executed the plan.
Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint
officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt
in the seven plenteous years. And let them gather all the food of those
good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let
them keep food in the cities. And that food shall be for store to
the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land
of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.
–Genesis 41:34-36
David
David had a specific goal: the building of the Temple. He
proceeded with abundant planning and preparation despite the fact he
knew he would not actually be there to build the Temple. Notice
these passages form 1 Chronicles 22.
And David said, Solomon my son is young and
tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be
exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I
will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly
before his death. Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the
house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand
thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it
is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest
add thereto. –1 Chronicles 22:5, 14
Read all of chapter 22 and you will see David putting reliance in God,
invoking planning and preparation and thinking of the many others who
would benefit and actually add to his work. The scriptures state
that he did "abundant" planning. This is what God wants us to do.
Making a budget for the net proceeds of a fifty-million dollar lottery
win is good training. Notice other wisdom from Proverbs and the
book of Luke:
Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy
thoughts shall be established. –Proverbs 16:3
A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD
directeth his steps. –Proverbs 16:9
Note: Planning is a partnership
between us and God.
The thoughts of the diligent tend only to
plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.
–Proverbs 21:5
Note: Planning takes diligence,
perseverance and time.
Prepare thy work without, and make it fit
for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.
–Proverbs 24:27
Note: A wise person plans and then
executes the plan.
Be thou diligent to know the state of thy
flocks, and look well to thy herds. For riches are not for ever: and
doth the crown endure to every generation? –Proverbs 27:23-24
Note: "Be diligent." "Look well."
Know that the times of plenty will be replaced from time to time with
periods of need.
For which of you, intending to build a
tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have
sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation,
and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
–Luke 14:28-30
Note: We often use these verses with
one contemplating baptism and entrance into the Salvation Process.
However, they offer great wisdom for all our physical, financial and
personal planning throughout our lives.
So go now and prepare that budget for the $18,750,000 check you would
receive from winning a fifty-million dollar lottery. Put it away
for six months and then review it. You'll be on your way to wise
stewardship.
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