What Would You Do with $1 Million?
Everyone's had a half joking conversation about what we'd do if we won the lottery (even though we don't play) or got a big inheritance (from a great uncle we don't know exists). But Jeff and I were dead serious a few years ago when we decided we would buy a field and make a tiny house community. There's a major housing shortage and many people who can't afford housing. More than that, we are all desperate for community. People are isolated and depressed (this was before COVID). Houses are getting bigger with less people living in them, though that is starting to change out of necessity.
So we would make a big building with a community room and a big kitchen and garden with lots of tiny houses for people to have their own space. Perhaps it would be a nonprofit, but it would be self-sustaining, not a charity. People would pay rent, but we aren't looking to make lots of money, just make it fiscally sound. People living there could donate to the community kitchen so people who don't have much food could always find some rice and beans to eat. And prayerfully there would always be someone to talk to when we need it most.
We aren't there yet. We don't have a million dollars. As of June 4, we will be homeless ourselves. But our vision gives us a goal and reminds us that our money is a tool to be used for God's glory, not a possession for our own enjoyment.
Raoul Wallenberg is a famous Swedish aristocrat who saved 100,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. He hid some people in a bank vault one time and showed another what he was doing, saying, "here we have something more precious than money: people!" Do we live like people are more important to us than our money, our stuff, our time? What would you do with $1,000,000?