It was announced this week that Robert Harris became the single largest winner ever in the Georgia Lottery. They have decided to take the single lump payout of $165 million before taxes. Wife Tonya said the only big change in their lives will be moving from their mobile home in Portal, a farming town of about 600 between Statesboro and Swainsboro. "I'll be back in jeans and a T-shirt tomorrow," Tonya Harris said. "It is not going to change me at all. Him maybe but not me — I'm too country." I hope she is right.
Whenever I think of big lottery winners I think of Jack Whittaker. Remember him? Whittaker won a nearly $315 million on Christmas 2002, then the largest undivided lottery prize in U.S. history. He took his winnings in a lump sum of $113 million after taxes. Since then, he has faced his granddaughter's death by drug overdose; he has been sued for bouncing checks at Atlantic City, N.J., casinos; he has been ordered to undergo rehab after being arrested on drunken driving charges; his vehicles and business have been burglarized; and he has been sued by the father of an 18-year-old boy, a friend of his granddaughter's, who was found dead in Whittaker's house.[i] As if that was not enough, Whittaker assaulted a worker in a Charleston, WV casino and when they tried to reach a settlement, he claimed he could not pay it because thieves had cleaned out his bank account.
I don’t know if you have ever won a big payoff or not, but we can all say we have been blessed. We are blessed in various ways: health, family, friends, provisions, salvation, etc. It is human nature to grow so comfortable with our blessings that we no longer see them as blessings, but instead take them for granted and grow complacent. In fact, sometimes we even have the nerve to complain even though we are so blessed.
Listen to how God warned the children of Israel about their soon to be received promised land:
For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. - Deuteronomy 8:7-10
Take some time today to do what hymn writer Johnson Oatman, Jr encouraged us to do:
Count your blessings name them one by one,
Count your blessings we what God has done
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings see what God has done.
Oh, and if you do hit the big payoff one day . . . remember your ol’ buddy, Jim! I’ll be glad to take some of the curse of your blessing off of your hands.
[i] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/12/ap/national/mainD8MJRI400.shtml
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