{"id":824,"date":"2011-01-05T07:12:39","date_gmt":"2011-01-05T07:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2011\/01\/what-if-you-were-the-mega-millions-winner.html"},"modified":"2011-01-05T07:12:39","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T07:12:39","slug":"what-if-you-were-the-mega-millions-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/01\/what-if-you-were-the-mega-millions-winner.html","title":{"rendered":"What if you were the Mega Millions Winner?"},"content":{"rendered":"

$355 million is the jackpot at stake in this week’s Mega Millions<\/a> lottery played in 40+ states. It’s one of the largest jackpots in the history of US lottery.  “Did anyone win the Mega Millions?”<\/p>\n

Yup. At least two people will be splitting the Mega Millions<\/a> mega jackpot. Two people woke up this morning a whole lot richer. One winner<\/a> lives in Idaho, the other in Washington. <\/p>\n

That is a whole lot of money.<\/p>\n

I often think about how my life would change if I won the lottery. What would I do with a 9-figure payout?<\/p>\n

We’d like to think that we’d become our best selves. That is, the people we aspire to be when we’ve made it all the way. But would we actually become that way?<\/p>\n

When Jesus talks about money, He connects it to the deepest parts of our beings–our hearts. “Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.”<\/p>\n

If you want to know what your life would look like if you won the lottery, just look at your heart-relationship to your treasure now. It’d probably look a lot like that–just with more zeros behind it. <\/p>\n

Are you generous or stingy?<\/p>\n

Do you spend or save?<\/p>\n

Do you give money away or keep it for yourself?<\/p>\n

Are you a risktaker or do you play it safe?<\/p>\n

Do you work hard or are you lazy?<\/p>\n

Winning the Mega Millions isn’t going to change those things for you. You have to change them from the inside out.<\/p>\n

But on this day where two lucky Americans have become mega wealthy, what would you do with your winnings if it happened to you?<\/p>\n

\n
Click here to subscribe to Red Letters.<\/strong><\/a> Click here to follow Tom Davis on Twitter.<\/strong><\/a>
<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

$355 million is the jackpot at stake in this week’s Mega Millions lottery played in 40+ states. It’s one of the largest jackpots in the history of US lottery.  “Did anyone win the Mega Millions?” Yup. At least two people will be splitting the Mega Millions mega jackpot. Two people woke up this morning a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-current-affairs"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat if you were the Mega Millions Winner? - 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\/2011\/01\/what-if-you-were-the-mega-millions-winner.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What if you were the Mega Millions Winner? - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"$355 million is the jackpot at stake in this week’s Mega Millions lottery played in 40+ states. 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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\/824","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=824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}