Do You Trust in Sweepstakes?

“A good mind possesses a kingdom; a great fortune is a great slavery.”
— Seneca

Can sweepstakes or lotto provide you with true, lasting self esteem and happiness?

Here’s a real story that hit world news sometime in 1998. Gerald won 10 million dollars in the lottery sweepstakes in Canada.

But according to news, he couldn’t handle the instant money and fame. Canada’s Globe and Mail reported:

“He bought several new vehicles for himself and friends, purchased a house that turned into a nightly party pad and often celebrated his new lifestyle with copious amounts of drugs and alcohol.”

Gerald eventually went bankrupt due to overspending and failed businesses. He was eventually forced into taking a job heavy lifting in the farm to make ends meet.

According to media reports, Gerald hanged himself in his parents’ garage in 2005.

Philosopher Paul Tournier says,

“The yield of our life does not depend so much on the number of things that we do, but more on the quality of the self-giving we put into each thing. In order to add this quality, we must depart from the atmosphere of the modern world which is completely obsessed ... do, do, do always more. Let us rather, once again, become inspired and tranquil men.”

Sweepstakes lottery is sudden wealth. It does not produce tranquil men and women. It carries a distortion. The view that goods are ultimate. That it can fill your emotional void, and make you happy.

It is, to use a phrase from psychiatrist Dr. M.Scott Peck, just a mere way of “coping with our impotence.”

That’s because sweepstakes doctrine is purely material. The love for things. Instant money does not produce true or lasting feelings of self esteem and happiness.

Understand the delusion of sweepstakes. Avoid its trap.

“For the love of money is a root for all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:10)

Secrets of Your Self: