A Winning Lottery Ticket

(Pro 21:17 KJV) He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.

I think this is a principle rather than a law.  It is illustrated in life by lottery winners.  I have not researched it but the popular wisdom is that most people who win millions in the lottery are poor again within a short period of time.  When I am on vacation punishment and forced to watch TV shows I saw one that had a real estate agent hustling lottery winners and getting them to buy extravagant homes.  I don’t think there was ever a reference to how much it would take to keep the places up.  I would imagine that the HOA fees on some of them were multiples of what the people were used to living on.  It made for good TV for the oil and wine crowd but set my teeth on edge.

This does not mean that some who chase wealth will not achieve it.  The question is, will it bring that inner satisfaction that says, “Well done.”  It may in some cases but keep in mind that some people are deliberately going to hell.  They joke about heaven sounding too boring.

So?  We need to stop every once in awhile, not to smell the roses but to look up and see if we are still heading toward the goal we really want.