Recently, I laid across my bed after work one evening and pondered what I would do if I inherited or won $1 million.
I, like most people, had done the math and I knew that $1 million is the equivalent of a $50,000 per year salary over 20 years. That’s not much, considering the fact that many Americans make that and more during their day jobs.
But, I only need a million, I thought to myself.
To have that amount of money in one lump sum would be the break of a lifetime for me!
As I lie there, in my fantastic reverie, I heard the voice of the Lord.
“What would you do if you did have $1 million?” He asked me.
I thought silently for a few moments. While contemplating, I noticed the evening’s golden sun-rays pierce the spaces between the wooden blinds in my bedroom, and my mind began to wander back to the times when I had been the happiest.
What was I doing? Where was I living? Who was I around?
I then started putting my list together of what I would do. Here’s what I came up with:
The List
- I would jog daily outside in a park or on a trail that I absolutely loved. Or I would jog most days on the beach.
- I would move closer to my extended family and enjoy large dinners together with them at least once per week.
- I would change my entire wardrobe — morphing it into something that suited my personality and personal statement better.
- I would travel again, both domestically and abroad.
Before I could come up with much of anything else, the Lord spoke again.
“It seems like everything on your list is something that wouldn’t take $1 million to do,” he responded.
That’s when I realized it. Most of us have everything that we need to enjoy a richer and fuller life right now. The atrocity is that many of us don’t live that way. Our needs typically met, we still find reasons why it’s just not enough. We work ourselves silly for more money, and we are disillusioned when we discover that we are no happier than we were when we had less . When what we need is more purpose and more meaning, not more money.
I immediately made a decision that day to live like I had $1 million in the bank. Sure, a more vibrant, fuller lifestyle looks different for each one of us. However, we can live more meaningful lives if we stop thinking about what we don’t have, and get excited about what we actually do!
Matthew 6:25: Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Nicole Major, Co-Creator of Shades Of Goodness, has written professionally for more than 15 years for a variety of publications including the Jacksonville Business Journal, Women in Aviation Magazine and The Herald. She’s written internationally for PC World Egypt, the Middle East Times, and Am Cham Egypt’s Business Monthly Magazine. She is currently a fulltime staff writer for the Fairfield Ledger in Fairfield, Iowa where she has written under the name Nicole Hester-Williams. In 1997, the Arthritis Foundation nominated her for a profile story she wrote highlighting a young woman’s struggle with Rheumatoid Arthritis; she was subsequently awarded a Celebrate Independence Medal. Nicole has authored three books including “Amina, Princess of Zaria,” which was a brief Amazon bestseller for books in African literature in 2007. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in interdisciplinary studies with concentrations in both journalism and social science. She currently lives in Fairfield, Iowa with her husband Jason and their two daughters, Danielle and Gabrielle.
