When the Powerball lottery jackpot gets as high as it was today ($550 million), lots of people buy tickets that don’t normally buy them, myself included. The common question is “What would you do if you won?” Answers range from traveling the world to paying off debt to taking care of family, quitting our jobs, buying a new home and car, donating to charity, etc. It’s fun to imagine what you might do if given the opportunity to decide what to do with that amount of cash.
For those brief hours or days before the drawing, you have a tiny bit of hope within – not an expectation of winning given the astronomical odds, but at least a small hope that it might happen. For all but the very lucky few winners, that hope is dashed once the numbers are drawn and you go back to the reality that is and likely will remain your life.
There is nothing wrong with hope. Hope is good. But the best hope is that which is placed in people or circumstances not likely to disappoint. Trustworthy family and friends, solid coworkers, the results of one’s own hard work over time – these are more deserving sources of hope. For me, my Christian faith and confidence in what God has done and will do trump all other sources of hope. In that sense, I’ve already won more than a lottery jackpot could ever provide.
I’m not saying to never buy lottery tickets (since I do it myself on rare occasion). I’m just saying to remember not to put all your hope there.
Leap year lesson #332 is Place your hope in that which does not disappoint.
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