Lottery Fever

Last week the nationwide “Powerball” lottery in the U.S. was offering a jackpot that had grown to $1.5 billion.  That is $999 million plus another $501 million. That is a staggering number of millions. This largest jackpot in history drew tremendous publicity and sometimes long lines made up of ticket buyers.  If you live in the States, no doubt you heard about it.

Wonderfully Made and Full of Purpose

Every 60 seconds, 258 babies are born across the globe.  In the next hour that means there will be 15,480 new lives on earth. A year ago those would have just been interesting statistics. However, in one of those seconds and in one of those hours in November, one of those babies was our first grandchild. Most of our peers already have quite a collection, but this little girl was our first.

A Christmas Story

One of our Mind Change Moment readers, Toni  LaGatta, shared this story with us and we wanted to share it with all of you. Thanks to Toni for letting us pass this along.  It is a bit longer than our usual posts but well worth your time. Merry Christmas and may God bless you in the New Year.

Christmas of 1979 will always be very special to me. I was a single mom with two boys, 4 and 7. I worked in Kissimmee, Florida, as a dental assistant, making $110 a week. Our 1973 Chevy worked most of the time, and through a special program I had managed to move into a small three bedroom house. It was our first Christmas in our new home, and I was wondering how I could make it special for the kids. I couldn’t afford to go home to Virginia where my family was, and none of them could afford to come to Florida. I had been divorced a few years and the kids’ dad lived in Texas. It was going to be just the three of us for Christmas.

Maximum Choice, Minimum Meaning?

Jonathan Sacks, writing in his new book, Not in God’s Name, says we are living in a century that “has left us with a maximum of choice and a minimum of meaning.”  That is a powerful, although sad, description of what it is a like in a world that is increasingly secularized.

One tech website says they identified 3,997 different smart phone models available in the world today.  With TVs you can pick a 24-inch flat screen or go up to 110 inches or land somewhere in between with dozens of brands to choose from. If you are into music you can use iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, Sirius/XM radio and dozens of other means.  We could go on, ad infinitum, but that is enough to make the point: A maximum of choice.

The Completely Different, Upside Down Way

Slowly consider Paul’s words from Philippians 2:

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,

   did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

When a Little Thing becomes a Big Thing

I have been watching college football since at least 1959 , but I am afraid I have taken only small amounts of wisdom away from this diversion. However, viewing a significant game this past Saturday, I heard an analyst make this comment about a certain well-executed play: “That’s a little thing, but little things can become big things.” He proved to be prophetic as what looked like a little thing, did, in fact, become a big thing that played a role in a big win.

Power to Encage

This week’s “moment” comes from Sheila. The title is not a misprint.

We all have times when we feel overwhelmed. It may seem our thoughts and worries and fears are buzzing all around us, dive bombing and looping in our minds. We feel our heads being jerked here and there, making it difficult to focus, to decide which of these assailants to go after first. Our anxiety builds and crescendos and we feel totally out of control and at the mercy of the battle going on in our minds.

Let me suggest an analogy that might help you to pull out of the fog and get more direction and focus.