lottery

Winning the Lottery

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

So, the lottery is up to something like $1.4 billion. I also read that if every single person in the U.S. had a winning ticket, every person would win $4.3 million. I believe whoever calculated that was off a few decimal places. The actual total would be $4.30 per person, enough for a value meal at Taco Bell.

I have ideas with what I’d do if I won the lottery. I’d buy one of those old houses on Fair Street in Franklin. I’d finally get my red Mini-Cooper. I’d travel a lot and go to all those places I’ve always wanted to go.

I’d be very generous. I’d give to charities and pay off people’s debts and buy really nice stuff for my friends and family. Or would I?

I believe wholeheartedly that people that aren’t generous with $1 won’t be with $1 million. If you’re not a charitable person now, the chances are that sudden wealth won’t change that.

Maybe the answer is to start looking for ways to be generous now. It doesn’t necessarily have to involve spending lots of money on others. It could mean spending time with people. It could also mean donating your talents.

The best way of all to learn generosity is to remember how generous God has been to you all this time. He saved you, didn’t He? He rescued you from your own mess and gave you everything you needed in Jesus, right?

That kind of generosity should inspire us to a kind of generosity that is most needed yet most rarely given– a generosity of loving people not because they deserve it or earn it but because God loves the unloveable and calls us to do the same.

In fact, when we tangibly love those who can never return that love, we are most like the God who loved us when we were at our worst.

But I’d still like the opportunity to prove that all those millions wouldn’t change who I am fundamentally as a person. I’m just saying.

PS If you’re a millionaire and you don’t have a bookshelf that spins into a secret room you’re spending it wrong. Give me your money.

 

Hot Chicken on a Friday Night in Franklin

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I had another first tonight.

I ate my very first hot chicken. Technically, it was medium hot and it was listed as “crybaby,” but I’ve discovered that was as hot as I want to go. I was sweating and dabbing myself with a napkin and saying things like, “Lawd, have mercy.” I felt like Madea in one of those Tyler Perry movies.

FYI: They have four levels of hot chicken, with the hottest requiring a signed waiver before you eat it. I kid you not. As the famous philosopher Paris Hilton said, “That’s hot.”

I somehow managed to get diverted on my walk back to Five Points on Main Street. I ended up walking through an area that was a little sketchier than I normally like, but I kept walking until I saw something familiar– good ol’ 11th Ave N.

From there, I was good. Maybe there’s a life lesson in that? I’ll leave it for you to decide.

I worked my way over to Fair Street, my favorite place to walk in all of Franklin, and even looked for the friendly cat that I saw a few weeks back. Alas, he wasn’t there.

I spent time in the dark in my favorite church building– St. Paul’s. After all that hot chicken and all that walking and sweating, it was probably best that I was alone.

I got my iced beverage from Frothy Monkey– I wanted pumpkin spice or something else fall-ish, but I settled for hazelnut. Still, I had my Harper Lee book, so it was all good.

If I ever win the lottery (or some rich distant relative leaves all his dough to me), I’d love nothing better than to live in one of the old houses either on Main Street or one of the nearby roads. I’d be super-trendy in my red Mini-Cooper with my Mac Book Pro and my downtown Franklin cottage. Someone should definitely make that happen.

But for now, I’ll just continue to live in the moment and count my blessings and give thanks for another day to be alive and celebrate the God who always knows how to give the best gifts to His children.

 

 

If I Had Lots of $$$$

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I was thinking what I’d like to buy if I had loads of cash, i.e. I won the lottery or a distant rich relative kicked the proverbial bucket.

Note: This is all for fun and none of it has any bearing whatsoever on reality.

I’d like to buy:

1) A red mini-cooper (preferably one with a British flag emblem either on the roof or on the side-view mirrors).

2) A Mac Book Pro.

3) One of those houses either on West Main Street, Fair Street, or one of those side streets around the heart of historic downtown Franklin.

4) The complete series of Friends on blu ray.

5) One of those ultra lightweight carbon bikes.

6) An upgraded DSLR camera that shoots HD (maybe a Leica camera even?)

7) A sizeable donation to Freedom’s Promise (who works with the victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia).

8) Being able to anonymously buy people’s dinners and pay their bills.

9) A really old Bible from the 1700’s.

10) A really old coin from the 1700’s.

11) Anything from the 1700’s.

12) A vacation in Scotland, Ireland, and England.

13) A cruise around the Mediterranean.

14) A newer and spiffier iPad with improved WiFi.

15) To stay one night at both the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and Opryland Hotel in Nashville.

16) One of those portable DVD players.

17) More vintage transistor radios to add to my burgeoning collection.

18) One really old and really big radio that still works (like the one in A Christmas Story).

I think that covers it. At least it covers all that I can think of in my tired old brain at 11:03 on a Saturday night on this first day of August in the year of our Lord 2015.