January 14, 2016

Dear ***

I’m not trying to play Catholic, but I have a confession to make. I played the big lottery this week, just on a whim. I wasn’t setting my hopes on bringing home $1.5 million [billion], but the way I had it figured, I had a better “chance” than most of the people who were playing, depending on their luck, a 50/50 chance actually: either God would say “yes”, or He would say “no way!”

Well praise the Lord I didn’t win; He knows I’m not ready for that much responsibility. I’m still working on being faithful with God’s nickels and pennies, so to speak. Like Jesus said, “To whom much is given, much is required.”

The reason I’m sharing this with you is because I realized that there’s something I love about that foolish lottery: even if you’re an atheist depending on your luck, your odds of hitting the powerball are still much much better than the odds of life spontaneously generating from inorganic material. Now I’m no probability mathematician but, remembering the movie “Expelled”, that would be like winning a lottery where you had to get 200 numbers right just to arrive at a simple protein. So there’s the silver lining in a little state organized gambling: the opportunity to tell gas station workers about the staggering foolishness of evolution.

Praise the Lord Jesus for the astounding obviousness of His handprint over all of creation!

And I want to tell you about one thing more that comes often into my remembrance in a circumstance such as this. Several months ago **** said something to me that I think I will always remember, even though I have forgotten the rest of the conversation. With his half-shy grin, his head lowered, and his hands in his pockets, he looked up at me and said, “I have everything the Good Lord wants me to have.” This has seemed to me to be a very beautiful expression of completely trusting everything to Jesus. The effect those words had on me was even increased by the perception that he seemed like a man who realized he was so blessed that he was a little embarrassed about it because he didn’t know what to do with it all.

And this glory that he gave to God compounds in my mind another realization: that though oftentimes we may feel too small and helpless to be of much service to God, those few words of glory or encouragement that we speak may be small things, but God is faithful to use them, and He can make our small labor into something great. *** may not remember saying that to me, but it has already blessed me many times. If we could always remember to edify the church and frustrate the enemy among the heathen with such small words of grace, what great things might be accomplished with the Holy Spirit?

God bless you, brother.