Faith and Lotto

Every now and then, I would buy a Lotto ticket. And for a dollar, I can go on hoping to hit the jackpot in the few days before the draw. I would imagine how that would change my life and what good things I could do with all that money. I know that it is mostly wishful thinking but there is still the possibility, no matter how slim, that I might just win. But realistically, I know that it is not going to happen and I still have to work to get the things I want get done.

Every now and then, I wonder if my faith is like buying a Lotto ticket. My faith gives me hope that things will be better and as I grow older that the best is yet to come. And in the face of the adversities and uncertainties of life, that gives me some grounding to boldly and confidently go forward. People do win in the Lotto. But not an awful lot. Many people, and I know many personally, are winners because of their faith.

But every now and then, I do wonder what if? What if death is stronger than life and that there is nothing after death? What if darkness is stronger than light and everything eventually ends in darkness? What if hatred is stronger than love and that we are all condemn to anger and violence? What is evil is more powerful than good and that there is no salvation at all for us?

Still, I keep on buying Lotto tickets even on the slimmest of chances that I would win. Still, I keep on believing even on the slim possibility that death is stronger than life or that darkness is stronger than light or that despicable hatred is stronger than love. My faith makes me a better person. And as a better person, I can make the world I believe in happen and come about.

I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
~ Psalm 30

he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,
since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;
for they themselves had gone to the feast.
Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,
where he had made the water wine.
Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.
Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
While the man was on his way back,
his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
He asked them when he began to recover.
They told him, “The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.
John 4:43-54