A twenty-two-year-old just won the biggest jackpot in Quebec’s history after buying a lottery ticket from the store where he works.
Gregory Mathieu is a bagger at the IGA Extra in Québec City, Canada. On Wednesday, he brought the lotto office the winning ticket. According to a lotto official, “There will be eight winners from the same family. He shared it with seven family members.”
The lottery plans to hold a press conference today to introduce Mathieu and have his picture taken holding a giant check. Officials plan to give the winner advice: “If you like your job, you don’t need to retire yet. And be careful what you post on social media.”
That’s good advice for us all.
Imagine how much your life would change if you won a $70 million lottery today. Now think of all the ways it would not.
The latter answers define you far more than the former.
Your net worth and your true worth
If I won that much money, I would still be a husband, father, and grandfather. I would still want to do just what I’m now doing at our ministry. I would want to have the same friends.
Most significantly, I would still be a child of God saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9). And my eternal reward would depend not one iota on my net worth in this world.
Henri Nouwen: “You are not what you do, although you do a lot. You are not what you have collected in terms of friendships and connections, although you might have many. You are not the popularity that you have received. You are not the success of your work. You are not what people say about you, whether they speak well or whether they speak poorly about you. All these things that keep you quite busy, quite occupied, and often quite preoccupied are not telling you the truth about who you are.
“I am here to remind you in the name of God that you are the Beloved Daughters and Sons of God, and that God says to you, ‘I have called you from all eternity and you are engraved from all eternity in the palms of my hands. You are mine. You belong to me, and I love you with an everlasting love.'”
What would not change if you won the lottery?
Focus on those answers today.
And thank the God who owns the entire universe that he owns you.
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