Lotto Dreams

Okay .. here is something I've been thinking about.

Ever dream of winning the lottery?

If not the lottery, I’m sure the thought has crossed your mind about what you might do if you suddenly encountered a huge amount of money. In fact several movies have used this premise as a way to examine the nature of happiness. Even the movies seem to have it right on this one, money can’t buy you happiness.

Maybe you have made a deal with God in passing at one time or another where you said, “If I won the lottery (or became rich in some amazing way) I would give it away and be super generous”.

I have thought that, and I am sure many have.

Only a person made of pure evil has never marveled at people who are generous. Anytime I see people giving away checks to help people in need I think,”Man, I wish I had money to do something like that!”

But then I realized something hanging around my rich friends… they never had enough. The only people who were truly generous were those who “budgeted” for generosity.

If you want new clothes, an iPod or PS3 there are only three ways you can get the cash
1) Have it given to you (you can’t make this happen)
2) Work for it (you CAN make this happen)
3) Steal it (not an acceptable way to make the cha-ching)

I realized that I was waiting for someone to “give” me money so I could be generous rather than making generosity part of my financial plans.

When I was just out of college, I had some ideas for some illusions I wanted to perform, but knew I needed some help to build them. Don Wayne (Who helps guys like David Copperfield and Criss Angel do miracles) said he’d help me, but it would cost more money than I had at the time. What did I do? I begged for it, but nobody came through. So, I invented a dish made out of pasta that only cost me 23 cents per serving and ate it 3 times a day for 3 months to save the money I needed.

When we want something badly, we’ll do almost anything to get it. So why not work hard so we can be generous?

I don’t make loads of money, so I started budgeting for generosity. Our family tries to live below our income so we have some money to “give it away” when we want to.

One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. (Pr 11:24)

What made me think to write about this today? I realized I have not been doing this real well for nearly a year. When my daughter was diagnosed with diabetes it kind of threw us into a financial whirlwind with extra doctor visits, daily supplies and medications. I realized I had been less generous this past year than normal. Will it be easy to fix? Nope. But most things worth doing aren’t easy.

If you are waiting around hoping some day you’ll win American Idol or The Apprentice and THEN you’ll be able to be generous I have news for you, you probably won’t even if you have it. Because what you do with little, will also be what you do with much. (Luke 12:48)

Work on being generous now, it’s worth it.

Mark