You Should Have
Grace, Not Punishment, Is The Lesson To Live Out
by Eric Elkin
“In that case, you should have turned my money over to the bankers so that when I returned, you could give me what belonged to me with interest.”
What would be your first purchase if you won the lottery? Let’s say you won $158 million on the Powerball. What would be the first thing you would do with the money? Winning a large sum of money all at one time makes almost anything possible. So, if anything was possible in your life, what would you do?
I never play the lottery, but I always dream of winning it. Every year my lottery winning strategy changes. Some years, I use my make-believe winnings to buy a house. In other years, I buy a car. Right now, I would use the money to finish the remodeling work in our house. Those are just the first purchases. The second round of spending is always going out to others.
Earlier this year, Business Insider published a story about what actual lottery winners bought first with their winnings. The real-life stories reveal a diversity of approaches. For example, John and Linda Kutey of Green Island, New York, donated $200,000 to build a water park in their hometown. While Louise White created a living trust to benefit her family.
Bob Erb, a seasonal construction worker, decided to donate his actual work wages to a local food bank. He then spent $1 million supporting the legalization of marijuana. The combination is hilarious.
19-year-old Jonathon Vargas wins for the most creative purchase. He used his $35.3 million winnings to create Wrestlicious, a women’s wrestling show. Wrestlicious features scantily clad women wrestling and performing sketch comedy. The show lasted one season, but Vargas has not given up. He hopes to turn his original concept into a reality show. Don’t stop believing.
“For grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.”
Lottery winners rarely lose all their money on their first purchase. The losses typically come from subsequent expenses. It is the lifestyle developed from the newfound wealth that causes the problems. The question is not how to handle one purchase, but how to live with several purchases.
The problem is not just for individual people. Many for-profit and non-profit companies struggle to cope with large and sudden financial growth. An explosion of cash typically leads to poor decisions and wasted spending. When the money is gone, everyone looks back and says, “You should have…”
People tend to think money will solve their problems. This is a worn-out message often delivered from pastors. Yet, lottery winners prove this to be true over and over again. Large winnings only shine a brighter light on a pre-existing condition. The stakes of the game just become greater, but the game does not change.
Today’s parable presents a difficult image. There are winners and losers; good workers and bad workers. We tend to want to clean up the discomfort with “you should have…” answers. In the text is a fear of performing poorly. Yet, the heart of the story is still grounded in God’s grace. God forgives and loves the good performer and the loser.
A handful of stories about judgment cannot cancel out God’s abundant grace. Those who obsess on the punishment of this parable should have been reading the whole story. One bad purchase, nor a series of bad purchases cannot destroy God’s investment into you. This is the type of lesson we should be living, not just reading about.
Click to read: Matthew 25: 14-30
Reflection Questions:
What would be your first lottery purchase?
What is your biggest fear about how you spend the money?
How much of what you want to do with your lottery earnings could you do now without them?
Where do you find your own faith life shaped by what you should have done instead of what God does inspire of what you should have done?
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