VIEWPOINT

Eight workers at a Nebraska meat processing plant claimed the Powerball jackpot a few days ago. At $365 million, it was the biggest payout in U.S. history.  The group will share the record winnings, meaning each will get about $15.5 million after taxes. 

It took them four days to come forward, enough time for many of us to entertain thoughts about what we would do with all that money.  We all know the saying that “money can’t buy happiness.”  We have some doubts, however, about the truth of that proverb.  “Sure it can’t buy happiness,” we think, “but it can give a rather substantial down-payment toward it.”  Money does make this world go around in some ways, and a whole lot more of it in our pockets could make things spin a lot more smoothly.  When we catch a glimpse of some of these astronomical lottery jackpots, it’s almost natural to dream about how we’d spend. 

Maybe we should think twice and consider the outcome.

Even though one ticket won the “Mega Millions” drawing on February 28 for $267 million, that wasn’t the largest single payout.  That distinction belongs to Jack Whittaker of Charleston, West Virginia.  He was the winning ticket-holder of the largest undivided lottery jackpot in U. S. history.  Instead of having the full $314 million doled out over time, he opted for the one-time payout, which netted him $113 million after taxes.  As an expression of goodwill generated by his financial boon, he donated at least $20 million to various charities.  “Maybe the lottery has given the world another philanthropist,” some suggested. 

Unfortunately, he is yet another example of the “unluckiest lucky person.” Whittaker’s wife, Jewel, regrets the day her husband purchased the ticket.  “I wish all of this never would have happened,” she told the Charleston Gazette in 2002.  “I wish I would have torn the ticket up.” 

Since his jackpot, her husband has twice been arrested for drunken driving and has been subsequently ordered into rehab.  He had $545,000 stolen at a strip bar, and he was sued over incidents at a nightclub and a racetrack.  He’s dealt with several thefts involving his vehicles, office, and house.  His granddaughter and an 18-year-old friend died from drug overdoses. 

Whittaker isn’t the only one who couldn’t handle wealth.  Evelyn Adams won the New Jersey lottery twice in the mid-1980s, but still managed to lose the entire $5.4 million and reportedly lives in a trailer.  The late William “Bud” Post II, who won $16.2 million in a Pennsylvania payout, was successfully sued by his girlfriend for a third of the winnings, fired a shotgun over a bill collector’s head, failed at several businesses with his siblings, and then – to add insult to injury – his brother was convicted of trying to kill him.  In short, money earned suddenly and without effort can be quite destructive.

We would do well to remembers Jesus’ words:  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth . . . store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19, 20).  

Other portions of the New Testament are consistent: “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Tim. 6:9, 10).

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”(1 Cor. 4:18).

I look forward to seeing you Sunday with a Bible, a smile and a positive word! 

                                           RA