Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Copyright 2012:  singeronthesand

Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don't ever

count on it.  You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring

down its scorching heat, the flower withers.  Its petals

wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a 

barren stem.  Well, that's a picture of the "prosperous life."

At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration,

it fades away to nothing.

James 1:10-11 [The Message]

The wildly anticipated Mega-Millions lottery draw last Friday night ended with numbers that belonged to three lottery tickets - one each in Maryland, Illinois and Kansas.  No one has come forward to claim the prize in Kansas and Illinois, but the curious case of Maryland has the lottery results in an uproar.

A single mother of seven children who works at McDonald's claims that she has the winning ticket.  "Well, good for her!" you say?  Ah - as with any situation where a huge amount of money is involved, the plot thickened very quickly.  This woman is the employee at Micky D's who received the collected money from the office pool to go out and buy lottery tickets for the $656 million jackpot.   Now that she believes that she holds one of the winning tickets - worth $218 million before taxes - she claims that the winner was not one of the tickets purchased for the office pool, but a personal purchase she made with her own money.  Naturally, everyone who works at that McDonald's begs to disagree.  No one actually knows if she has the winning ticket.  The employee pool tickets are locked in the office safe at the fast food chain, which is guarded by two armed/uniformed security personnel.  The lady has a lawyer in tow who has never seen the ticket in question, but is, I'm sure, billing by the hour.  

Is this lottery an unusual circumstance?  Far from it!  NBC News spoke with a Long Island couple who won a $165 million jackpot in 2010.  They waited for several weeks to claim their prize because they were afraid that their children might be kidnapped or they might be killed for the money.  Their advice: anyone who wins a great deal of money must constantly "live with your guard up" because someone is always coming into your life to try to take a portion of your riches.  Doesn't that sound like a great life?  Not to me.

It is not at all unusual to read of lottery winners or highly paid sports figures, actors, etc., who have blown straight through their money, landing in far worse financial shape than before they received the funds.  An older, disabled friend of mine received a $250,000 inheritance when his father passed away.  Within two years, the money was gone, and he is now virtually homeless.  All the toys that he accumulated went the way of the dumpster when he was evicted from his apartment.   

James cautions us to remember that what is here today may very well be gone tomorrow.  The old saying, "Money does not buy happiness" is a truth you can take to the bank.