Sure Bet

OK, God, you know I don’t play the lottery. I just don’t cotton to the something-for-nothing fever.

I realize tonight’s jackpot is now half a BILLION dollars, but, seriously.

Gambling is not my cup of tea.

But, you know, God, IF I were to play…and win…I could do so much good in the world with the money.

Not that you would help me win. I know.

That’s not how you roll.

I’m just saying…you know… IF I were to play and win…I could help a lot of people.

I don’t need much personally.

So, I would give most of it away.

I’d make sure my family members were all out of debt.

I would put some aside so our son could have a good college education.

But, mostly, I’d just give it away.

United Methodist mission projects would be up there on the list.

Education is important – so some would also go to our alma maters and libraries and academic programs in our local schools.

Court Appointed Special Advocates is a cause near and dear to my heart.

Public Broadcasting…the Metropolitan Opera…animal rescue groups…

We could take a chunk of it and set up some sort of endowed foundation – to help support future great causes.

Yep. We’d give most of it away.

But I guess it would be OK to keep some of it.

It wouldn’t be much out of all those millions…but it WOULD be kind of nice to be able to design and build our own home…maybe a nice sunlit office for my writing…a nice space to host gatherings…two car garage so nobody has to scrape in winter…a flat yard…all one level so we could live there in our old age…

And speaking of old age…it would be prudent I suppose to take a little of that money and put together a modest nest egg for our retirement.

And…come to think of it…it would be so nice to be able to travel and see the world.

And…uh…

Huh.

That didn’t take long.

It wasn’t my intention, but my thoughts flowed fairly quickly from “giving most of it away” – to some of the nice things I’d like for myself.

I tell you what, God.

I think I’ll stick with my stance of not playing the lottery.

I will trust you as I go along.

Somehow, I know my basic needs will be met.

And that’s a sure bet.