Winning Life's Lottery

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Reinhold Niebuhr

There are those who win life's lottery, born to wealthy, well-positioned families, born with the genes and DNA for success, intelligence, good looks: hair color, eye color, slimness, tallness. Born with family traits of personality, energetic smile, heredity of presentation to the world, most of us do the best we can with what we have. Others are defeated, whipped, convinced of having lost the race before coming out the gate.

I met one of Manhattan's most influential real estate lawyers at a closing for property I had purchased. She was probably in her late 60s, still attractive, intelligent and totally in charge. Down by her chair was a small dog, she said, “Patsy comes with me to work everyday, she is the most precious thing of my life.” I went by to see her in a few months regarding another business matter, her chief assistant said, “wait here for a few minutes, she is having a bad day.” I heard her on the phone, weeping uncontrollably, she was instructing a veterinary service about picking up her dog who had died unexpectedly. She said, “the maid will let you in, she has her ready to go. You already have my instructions about her burial.”

In another instance, a local church organist, well known musician, Meredith college graduate who had never married, was completely devoted to her dog: Heidi. When the dog died, her friends all wrote sympathy notes to her about her loss. Would it not be wonderful if all this love shown toward pets, who we know will have a very short life, could be shown on children, many of whom would love to have a nice home and the wonderful love and attention given to animals. 7 out of every 1000 children in America are in foster care, North Carolina is ranked 16th by foster care population. 12,573 children were adopted from foreign countries and brought to America last year, mostly from China and Russia. The county in which I live, one of NC's smaller counties has 576 children in foster care. In 2009, $39 billion dollars were spent in America on pet food, more money than was given to all churches.

The most difficult area of evangelism, missionary zeal, is the street on which you live, or your own family, they always dance around the area of eternal joy, deceived into thinking they have some joy here and now. G. K. Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It had been found difficult and left untried.” We were not promised a bed of ease, the prince of the power of the air does not give up easily, he does everything possible to confuse and discourage. Very few predicted the dot com bubble, very few predicted the housing bubble, very few predicted the bailout bubble. We are in a bubble, and we do what we can to the best of our ability. In spite of life's problems, we are winners of life's lottery, simply by survival, simply by knowing God has a special love for each of us.

I was on the island of Samoa in the South Pacific, staying at the historic Aggie Grey's hotel, she was still alive when I was there, the woman who greeted the American troops on the beach during WW2. I asked the man who was cleaning my room if there was a church nearby since it was Sunday. He said, “yes, there is one right up the street and I will walk you there.” It was a clapboard building painted white, much like church buildings in eastern North Carolina. He got me to the front door and said, “I'll be back for you later.” Someone got me to a pew and I noticed the building was full of barefoot people, all were dressed in white. I couldn't understand the song they were singing, but I recognized the music on the piano, “what a friend we have in Jesus.”

She was evidently a missionary, the one conducting the service, a real high pitched voice, she read her scripture and then walked down the aisle, all the way back to me, and said in English, Psalm 84:5: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee.” At that time I just had a shadow of vision in my left eye, was getting more and more depressed with my blindness, this one thing saved my life, changed my life. I realized I could no longer depend on my strength, but I was blessed to have other strengths. From that day to this, I have realized that in spite of everything, we have won life's lottery if we realize our strength is in the Lord.