Last night I listened again to a podcast about a guy who won a lottery ticket worth $250,000.00 every year - for the rest of his life. But, the guy said he doesn't plan to redeem the ticket. His concern is that it would ruin his family, especially his kids, so he decided to mail the ticket anonymously to a Children's Hospital.
Wow! It would be hard to walk away from that much money, but it turns out the guy is not alone. In a TED Talk, Rick Warren said he made tens of millions of dollars from the sale of his book "A Purpose Driven Life." In fact, he made so much money that he decided to return 25 years of salary to his church - and he also stopped accepting new paychecks. Warren and his wife are now "reverse tithers"; they give away 91 percent of their income to charity and now live off nine percent. This got me to wondering about other folks, so I did a quick search on people's net worth:
- Donald Trump (Real Estate) $4.5 billion.
- Oprah Winfrey (TV) $3 billion.
- Rush Limbaugh (Radio) $420 million.
- Barack Obama (President) $12 million.
- Average Adult (America) $45 thousand.
- Average Adult (Worldwide) $4 thousand.
Quite a contrast between number 1 and numbers 6 and 7! Now I know that some poor people are controlled by money, just as much as some rich people. Also, there are people who give their money to others, without regard to how much they own.
I guess having money is not the issue; it is our attitude towards whatever God has given each of us. And from what I've read, any sudden wealth exaggerates your current situation. If you’re unhappy, bad with money, and surrounded by people you don’t trust, money will make those problems worse. If you’re fulfilled, careful with money and enjoy a life of strong relationships, sudden wealth could make those strengths better.
For me, I was impressed that the lottery winner put concern for his family before money. And this morning, when I checked on what Jesus thought about the lottery, He reminded me, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?"
I guess having money is not the issue; it is our attitude towards whatever God has given each of us. And from what I've read, any sudden wealth exaggerates your current situation. If you’re unhappy, bad with money, and surrounded by people you don’t trust, money will make those problems worse. If you’re fulfilled, careful with money and enjoy a life of strong relationships, sudden wealth could make those strengths better.
For me, I was impressed that the lottery winner put concern for his family before money. And this morning, when I checked on what Jesus thought about the lottery, He reminded me, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?"
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