Chat
01-13-2016, 05:48 AM
What an interesting turn this thread is taking, and partly thanks to IslandHippyMama's story. It is one thing when the world ignores you; it is quite another when family ignores you. The only Person who I have concluded never ignores us is God. On the other hand, we often ignore God or dismiss Him (and for convenience sake, I use the male pronoun; I've never liked s/he). God granted us, upon our journey to Earth, abundant "free will," and if He were to take charge and step in all the time, in every moment of our lives, regardless of our opinion on the matter, there would be no "free will." And thus, we have to deal with others' "free wills," and their heartlessness or poor life decisions.
My family's lottery story does not involve actual winnings at all. But, my father still committed suicide, in part, because of the lottery. You see, he had figured out, to him perfectly, how best to spend a given prize, usually in the millions. He had it figured out to the penny. It obsessed him to the day he shot himself. He figured the taxes, the distribution versus taking a lump sum, he figured how much (likely) each person in his family would ask for, how many "friends" would come out of the woodwork to ask for money, how much to donate to charity, which charities, and then to set up a benevolent foundation with the rest. To him, he felt, since he had figured out his winnings so perfectly, then WHY wouldn't God allow him to win it?
He didn't dabble with psychics or try and find people who "sensed" numbers. We are dealing with the sovereign God of the Universe here ... would it really be that hard for God to ensure that any one ticket's numbers come up in a given drawing? You may say, well, God is not a part of the lottery at all. Maybe, maybe not. He can certainly take the world's evil and use it for good.
So, my father never won, and as I said, partly killed himself because of it. My father had come from a wealthy family (whose wealth never trickled down past him and his siblings, since his father remarried twice after his mother died, and both his subsequent wives took the rest). My father had to use his inheritance almost completely for more than a year when he was out of work and in treatment for alcoholism. Thus, the lottery seemed to him the ONLY way to make up his losses, and besides, he was a good person (his opinion), and again, had planned out exactly, fully, and perfectly how the money from any lottery winnings should be used.
As long as you see the lottery for what it really is, entertainment and diversion, I have no problem with it. The "sinister" aspect of the lottery, though, remains the illusion that it is something more. How many millions upon millions upon MILLIONS of dollars have already been won by how many people? And is the world any better of a place for it? You can say, well, all the past winners were the wrong people ... if I won, it would be different ... REALLY???
What if the lottery is of the Devil, and what if once you win, the Devil increases his temptations to you ... you don't really need to start that foundation, you don't really need to start that community, and on and on. Most lottery winners have to go into hiding now for an indeterminate period of time, because the "needs" of everyone around them become overwhelming ... right from the beginning. And since you are handing millions of dollars to someone or someones who don't have the past experience of dealing with millions of dollars, guess what ... the odds are those winnings will not be used as originally planned, be wasted, etc. That I know from my own life, and my own riches. I made good choices, but I also made poor choices. The worst part of my riches was in coming to grips with the fact, that I could do much evil with it, as well as good. The evil being what I wanted for selfish gain. I can safely tell you, the temptations increase as one's bank account increases, and at that time in my life, I simply could not dismiss these temptations.
I pray for whoever wins the Powerball tonight, or God forbid, no one wins, and it goes even higher, thereby increasing the illusion. In that movie BEDAZZLED, the lead character who sold his soul to the Devil, made his final wish, and gave it up to ensure someone else's happiness, not his. Only then, was his soul saved.
My family's lottery story does not involve actual winnings at all. But, my father still committed suicide, in part, because of the lottery. You see, he had figured out, to him perfectly, how best to spend a given prize, usually in the millions. He had it figured out to the penny. It obsessed him to the day he shot himself. He figured the taxes, the distribution versus taking a lump sum, he figured how much (likely) each person in his family would ask for, how many "friends" would come out of the woodwork to ask for money, how much to donate to charity, which charities, and then to set up a benevolent foundation with the rest. To him, he felt, since he had figured out his winnings so perfectly, then WHY wouldn't God allow him to win it?
He didn't dabble with psychics or try and find people who "sensed" numbers. We are dealing with the sovereign God of the Universe here ... would it really be that hard for God to ensure that any one ticket's numbers come up in a given drawing? You may say, well, God is not a part of the lottery at all. Maybe, maybe not. He can certainly take the world's evil and use it for good.
So, my father never won, and as I said, partly killed himself because of it. My father had come from a wealthy family (whose wealth never trickled down past him and his siblings, since his father remarried twice after his mother died, and both his subsequent wives took the rest). My father had to use his inheritance almost completely for more than a year when he was out of work and in treatment for alcoholism. Thus, the lottery seemed to him the ONLY way to make up his losses, and besides, he was a good person (his opinion), and again, had planned out exactly, fully, and perfectly how the money from any lottery winnings should be used.
As long as you see the lottery for what it really is, entertainment and diversion, I have no problem with it. The "sinister" aspect of the lottery, though, remains the illusion that it is something more. How many millions upon millions upon MILLIONS of dollars have already been won by how many people? And is the world any better of a place for it? You can say, well, all the past winners were the wrong people ... if I won, it would be different ... REALLY???
What if the lottery is of the Devil, and what if once you win, the Devil increases his temptations to you ... you don't really need to start that foundation, you don't really need to start that community, and on and on. Most lottery winners have to go into hiding now for an indeterminate period of time, because the "needs" of everyone around them become overwhelming ... right from the beginning. And since you are handing millions of dollars to someone or someones who don't have the past experience of dealing with millions of dollars, guess what ... the odds are those winnings will not be used as originally planned, be wasted, etc. That I know from my own life, and my own riches. I made good choices, but I also made poor choices. The worst part of my riches was in coming to grips with the fact, that I could do much evil with it, as well as good. The evil being what I wanted for selfish gain. I can safely tell you, the temptations increase as one's bank account increases, and at that time in my life, I simply could not dismiss these temptations.
I pray for whoever wins the Powerball tonight, or God forbid, no one wins, and it goes even higher, thereby increasing the illusion. In that movie BEDAZZLED, the lead character who sold his soul to the Devil, made his final wish, and gave it up to ensure someone else's happiness, not his. Only then, was his soul saved.