{"id":2348,"date":"2012-03-30T10:49:06","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T14:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/?p=2348"},"modified":"2012-03-30T11:16:29","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T15:16:29","slug":"what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html","title":{"rendered":"What would you do if you won the $540 million Mega Millions jackpot?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Playing Mega Millions tonight?<\/p>\n

Let me say, “May the odds be ever in your favor.”\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Actually, you have a much better chance of winning the Hunger Games than you do winning the Mega Millions tonight. How long are your odds? According to one statistician interviewed by the LA Times:<\/p>\n

You are 19 times as likely to be struck by lightning twice, 33 times as likely to be killed in the next year by bees and 40 times as likely to be dealt five blackjacks in a row as you are to win Mega Millions<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you were the sole winner and took the lump sum of $360 million, you would automatically have 25% ($90 million) withheld for federal taxes. With $270 million parked in your bank account, what would you do?<\/p>\n

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is your heart will be also.”\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A good way of predicting what you’d do with your winnings would be to look at how you spend and invest money now. Why would you make different decisions just because you have more zeros at the end of your bank balance?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Playing Mega Millions tonight? Let me say, “May the odds be ever in your favor.”\u00a0 Actually, you have a much better chance of winning the Hunger Games than you do winning the Mega Millions tonight. How long are your odds? According to one statistician interviewed by the LA Times: You are 19 times as likely…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat would you do if you won the $540 million Mega Millions jackpot? - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What would you do if you won the $540 million Mega Millions jackpot? - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Playing Mega Millions tonight? Let me say, “May the odds be ever in your favor.”\u00a0 Actually, you have a much better chance of winning the Hunger Games than you do winning the Mega Millions tonight. How long are your odds? According to one statistician interviewed by the LA Times: You are 19 times as likely…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-30T14:49:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-30T15:16:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/03\/images-1-300x157.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What would you do if you won the $540 million Mega Millions jackpot? - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What would you do if you won the $540 million Mega Millions jackpot? - Red Letters","og_description":"Playing Mega Millions tonight? Let me say, “May the odds be ever in your favor.”\u00a0 Actually, you have a much better chance of winning the Hunger Games than you do winning the Mega Millions tonight. How long are your odds? According to one statistician interviewed by the LA Times: You are 19 times as likely…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2012-03-30T14:49:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-03-30T15:16:29+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/03\/images-1-300x157.jpg"}],"author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html","name":"What would you do if you won the $540 million Mega Millions jackpot? - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/03\/images-1-300x157.jpg","datePublished":"2012-03-30T14:49:06+00:00","dateModified":"2012-03-30T15:16:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/03\/images-1-300x157.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2012\/03\/images-1-300x157.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2012\/03\/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-the-540-million-mega-millions-jackpot.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What would you do if you won the $540 million Mega Millions jackpot?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2348"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2351,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions\/2351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}