Bad Investments

Proverbs 23:4-5

 “Don’t wear yourself out to get rich; stop giving your attention to it. As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.”

As of this day, many are making an investment in two jackpots worth 1.60 Billion cash.  They are Mega Millions and Powerball.  It is the largest drawing in U.S. lottery history; without a doubt, it would change ones life.  It is reported that if you won these Mega Millions, you could take home $904 million. 

Millions of people are pouring money into this investment, what are the odds of winning both jackpots, about one in 88 quadrillions. Now I am about as good in math as I am in grammar, so you understand I’m somewhat challenged, but a quadrillion is a significant number!  If you came to me as an investor and said I have a new business and I would like you to invest in it.  My first question would be, how long before I get my investment back? You said it’s about 88 quadrillion chances you will never see it again but if we hit it, your set for life, would you invest?

As the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted, and one must ask what would 904 million do for your soul?  It is not a new question, it is one Jesus asked and both Matthew and Mark gave an account of this in Scripture.  Shall we look at what Mark recorded; Mark 8:36-38, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?  Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?  If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

I had a young man out to work on my garage doors, and I ask him are you buying tickets for the big 1.6 Billion jackpot?  His answer was no sir and so being a salesman, I probed a little deeper.  The essence of our conversation was that neither he nor I were willing to allow that kind of trouble in our lives.  We got to the same point but came from different directions, mine was I’ve lived a long time and found God can be trusted to meet all my needs.  The young man had served our country in the military and was very content with the life he had.  He also understood the problems that come with cash one has not earned and had read the accounts of others who had lost everything after winning a jackpot.

But if you ask what I would do with that kind of power and money, I must go back to the prayer of a wise man named Aqur.  “Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor wealth; feed me with the food I need.  Otherwise, I might have too much and deny You, saying, “Who is the LORD?”  Or I might have nothing and steal, profaning the name of my God.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice