As you might’ve heard, the North Carolina Powerball jackpot currently stands at almost $1.5 BILLION dollars! Of course, after taxes, that’s less than $700 million dollars. But still, it’s enough to make a lot of folks—including me—say to themselves, “Just think of all the good I could do, if I won that money!”

Unfortunately, I don’t play the lottery. So it’s unlikely that I’ll be celebrating any big winnings this weekend. But in today’s word from Matthew 25, I’m reminded that what I really need to be thinking about is what I’m doing with what I’ve already got.

I’d imagine that you’ve heard the story. Jesus says, “It will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.” (vs. 14-15, 19) And as you probably know, the men who got five bags and two bags of gold went out and doubled their master’s money. But the one who got one bag simply buried it in the ground and did nothing with it.

Naturally, we could question the fairness of the master. I mean, why not give all the men 5 bags of gold? But as the rest of the story makes clear, the master’s heart is less concerned about what each man started with and more concerned about what he did with what he had. To both men who did something with what they’d be given, the master said, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (vs. 21 and 23)

So today, I’d be thrilled to death if you could spend your Christmas making plans to do good with your lottery winnings. But I’d be even more thrilled if all of us could be faithful with all the other blessings our Master has given us.

May you share in His happiness today. Amen.