#truestory #money #loveofmoney #lottery
September 22nd 2023
True story of a lottery winner in Canada – Something to think about in the light of scriptures below:
I Won $37 Million in the Lottery. The Money Wrecked My Relationship With My Mom and I Got Scammed By My Best Friend + Questions for reflection and meditation
“I hardly slept for two years because of the adrenaline — and all the phone calls.”
BY SOPHIA ANKEL • SEP 22, 2023
Key Takeaways
Randy Rush, from Alberta, Canada, won $37 million in the lottery in 2015.
He immediately quit his job and started investing his money in different assets.
But his win damaged close relationships, including with his best friend, who scammed him.
This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Randy Rush, a Canadian lottery winner who won $37 million in 2015. It has been edited for length and clarity.
The story
I always had a gut feeling that I would come into a large sum of money one day.
But when I found out I had won $37 million ($50 million Canadian) in the lottery in Alberta, Canada, on a cold February morning in 2015, it still felt like I was taking off in a spaceship.
I had popped to the corner store to buy some cat food and just grabbed my lottery tickets on the way out. It was the very last ticket in the stack.
When you win the lottery in Canada, you get sent the full amount straight to your bank account. You don’t get any advice on what to do with it.
The moment I saw the money come in, I quit my job as a salesman for a large international company. I diversified and invested in charity projects, real estate, and hedge funds. I learned very early on in life to get the best financial people around me so that’s what I did.
I also left Alberta straight away.
I lived in a small town and had some people knocking on the door, demanding money from me, including my neighbor. So I didn’t want to be around to deal with that.
I hardly slept for two years because of the adrenaline — and all the phone calls.
Having this kind of money shows what people are really made of. I lost a 43-year friendship over it. My mother demanded half of my winnings and wouldn’t talk to me ever again because I didn’t give it to her. It was a little traumatic at the time, but now I’m over it.
But worst of all was my experience with my best friend, whom I had known since school.
His son pitched an investment opportunity, a company that he said would be the next Facebook. It felt like the perfect chance at the time: I wanted to help a friend and diversify my assets.
But it turned out the company, in which I had invested $3.4 million ($4.6 million Canadian), was surrounded by lies, and the money I put in was gone — taken by my best friend and his wife, who had bought luxury cars and an ocean-side property in California.
The experience was gutting, especially because it involved someone I had cared about deeply.
After a month-long battle played out in courts in Alberta and Arizona, everything was resolved in my favor and I ended up getting my money back.
But still, it took me many years — and writing a book— to get over it. It’s history now and I’ve learned my lesson. I call it the Judas experience.
Winning the lottery has changed my life for the better, but I think that is because it happened at the right stage of my life.
However, it did really show me the true colors of the people around me. If there are any cracks in any relationship, money will burst that open.
I still buy lottery tickets today. They say the chances of winning a second time are extraordinarily high.
Sophia Ankel
*Question for you: We placed below some scriptures to meditate upon and reflect on as you think over this story- How do you place Randy Rush action relative to playing lottery and also his attitude towards others? What lesson have you picked up today for life application from this story and from the scriptures below?*
Introduction:
Money can be a stressful part of life, the anxiety of providing for your family by having enough to pay the bills. It is important that we remember to first seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all will be added that is needed. Additionally, it is wise to not have a greedy obsession with money, putting a love of money before your love for God.
Hebrews 13:5 tells us, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
*Ecclesiastes 5:10 Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.*
*Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also*
Psalms 37:16 Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked
Proverbs 13:11Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow
Matthew 19:21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
*Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money*
*1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.*
*Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.*
*13 “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”*
1 Timothy 6:17-19
1 Timothy 6:17
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Mark 12:41-44
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.
42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Shalom
Ambassador Monday O. Ogbe
God’s Eagle Ministries
Https://www.otakada.org
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