Praying for the Winning Powerball Numbers
I love taking trips.
Always have.
I remember my parents dragging my brother and me across the Western US as a kid stopping in every cool mountain town just long enough for fond memories.
* Playing with a kid in the next campsite in Estes Park, Colo. until I found out she was a girl, then ignoring her until they left. Man, she looked like a boy.
* Devouring a chocolate sundae so aggressively in Lake Tahoe that most of it missed my mouth prompting an angry “mom melt-down.”
* Drawing a line on the backseat of our Ford Bronco and daring my little brother to cross it for all 1,271 miles from Boulder to Santa Ana, Cali.
It’s these memories that sometimes make me sit in bed at night and tell God it would be fine with me if He wanted to make me win the lottery. “I’d be cool with winning Powerball, God,” I tell Him. "I'd be fine with lump sum or annuity and, of course, I'd give you a 10 percent cut." I'm thinking a Powerball victory would suit my life well, not because I want nice cars or clothes or houses or stuff… No, I want experiences. I want memories. I love taking trips. Europe. The Holy Lands. Big trout on New Zealand's South Island. Winning Powerball would fulfill my escape fantasy to see the world and leave my problems behind.
But I haven’t won yet.
And it’s not just because I don’t play (although that might help), it’s because God is pesky and won’t release me from what He’s got for me here and now. As much as escape sounds lovely at times to most of us, nothing will fulfill me and you like actually listening for and then acting on the purpose God placed us on this planet for. Listen... Act... God has us in the school, work and neighborhood we’re in to make the fact that Jesus came, died and rose actually matter.
Escape fantasies will disappoint. The plan God has for you to Make It Matter won’t. Discover that and you've hit the lottery.
Join us this Sunday, Nov. 15 for the continuation of our series, “Make it Matter” at Ascent Church, 550 S. McCaslin in Louisville, Colo.
