Do you know someone who is always finding money? Do you know someone who goes on a walk and finds THIRTEEN four-leaf clovers? Do you know someone who is always winning things from a radio station that they were caller number nine and had the correct answer? Do you know someone who won a rubber duck race and won a JEEP? Do you know someone who goes to a basketball game and is sitting in the seat that is called to have a chance to win $50,000 by making a half-court shot and then DOES? Do you know someone who won the trip of a lifetime in a contest they didn't enter?
Aside from the basketball winner, I know someone in all of those circumstances and that person is NOT me.
I am one of the most "unluckiest" people I know. When I was growing up, I remember having raffles at school and the more tickets we sold for the adult raffle, the more tickets we got to enter in the "kids" raffle. The prizes were usually something like a brand new bicycle or basketball goal. I could have sold all but one of the tickets in the raffle and I NEVER won.
When I got older, I can remember my grandparents putting lottery tickets into the adult "kids'" stockings. I remember scratching them off and the only thing I ever "won" for my mom or dad was a FREE ticket! Wooo!
In high school, I only once was on the honor roll. (I was a lot more focused on figure skating than I was school at the time.) There was a nearby Ford dealership that gave entries to win a Ford Mustang if you were 16 or older and on the Honor Roll. Nope, no winning here.
When I was 17, my mom got a call on St. Patrick's Day and I was sitting in the room at the time. The person on the other end of the phone said, "Is this Mrs. B?" My mom answered in the affirmative. The person then went on to tell her that she had won an all-expenses paid TWO WEEK trip to Ireland for two people. My mom told the person that they must be mistaken, because she hadn't even entered a contest and then hung up. The person called her back to tell her that she was with the Purdue Alumni Association and when my mom had donated to them, she had been automatically entered into the contest. My mom was, of course, very shocked! My sister and I were going to be watched while my mom and dad went on the trip together. My dad fell very sick with the flu a week before the trip and my mom offered to take me instead. We went to look at my passport, which had expired, and unfortunately there was no way to renew it before the trip. So, I sat at home while my mom went to Ireland.
I have played the lottery just a few times in my life, partly because it's not a very good thing to get wrapped up in (Note: Gambling is not specifically talked about at any point in the Bible, but the Lord does say that the love of money, and inherently the love of trying to gain money, is the root of all evil. 1 Timothy 6:10) and mostly because I know I will NEVER win. However, I did win once. I bought a ticket on my eighteenth birthday because I COULD. I won $2.00 that I never even turned in because in my youth, I was dumb enough to want to keep it as a keepsake because the lottery ticket had my birthday as the draw date. <sigh>
I have called in probably a hundred times to radio stations, on land lines, cell phones, payphones, work phones, doesn't matter... I have only once even been given a "caller number" and that was three. Nope, never even won so much as a CD at a radio station.
Recently, I've been spending a few free minutes each week to enter contests to win some FREE cloth diapers! Blogs are giving these out all of the time. I have just about given up because I've entered a couple hundred contests and have yet to win.
Basically, until this point in my life, the only thing I've ever won in life was the 4th Grade Science Fair, my 5th grade class Spelling Bee (lost miserably against the other classes), a contest to sell the most Girl Scout Cookies (after my parents bought 200 boxes), a few figure skating competitions, a contest to sell the most items in my Sales class in college (didn't even use the prize), and a photography contest sponsored by the National Ski Patrol (I won 3rd in one of several categories). So, everything I've ever won, UNTIL NOW, I have done it by merit alone (mine or someone else's). I've never won anything that was based on pure "luck".
But folks, I have great news! A few weeks ago, hubby and I got some FREE tickets, from a friend, to go to a home and garden show downtown. We entered a few of the contests while we were there to win different prizes. A few of the contests we entered were to win things like: a free patio set, a free bathtub renovation, and free gutters. Oh, so exciting!
A couple weeks after the show, I got an email stating I had won something! I couldn't believe it! In fact, we thought maybe it was a hoax and I even asked on Facebook if anyone else had "won" this prize! But, it was not a hoax!
HERE IT IS! IN ALL OF ITS GLORY!!!!
BEHOLD:
Out of all the contests I've ever entered to win (cloth diapers, bicycles, lifetime trips, music CDs), I have won a DUMPSTER! What does this say about my "luck"?
Well, I have to be honest here.. I think in all of this God is just protecting me by not allowing me to win. In the Bible, God cautions us against worshiping fate or "luck" in Isaiah 65:11-12. Here's the NIV translation:
"But because the rest of you have forsaken the LORD and have forgotten his Temple, and because you have prepared feasts to honor the god of Fate and have offered mixed wine to the god of Destiny, now I will 'destine' you for the sword. All of you will bow down before the executioner. For when I called, you did not answer. When I spoke, you did not listen. You deliberately sinned--before my very eyes--and chose to do what you know I despise. Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "My servants will eat, but you will starve. My servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. My servants will rejoice, but you will be sad and ashamed."
Whoa, buddy! Those are scary and powerful words from the Lord! So, if we forget to worship the Lord and instead place all of our focus on "fate" and "luck", thus worshiping fate, we are destined to be executed! I guess I'm actually glad I haven't won enough of anything to be tempted by Lady Luck into an addiction of worshiping fate like a god or idol. That is definitely something to rejoice in!
Now, excuse me while I go finish filling my free dumpster!
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