Some time ago an old friend we’ll call “George” called me late at night. I could feel his hesitation and I braced myself for the worst. He described to me how the settlement of a work-related injury had allowed him to go to graduate school for retraining. Although he and his wife tried to be frugal, they saw that they would run out of money two semesters before graduation. He said he was quick to get the rest of the money from another source.
When he paused, I knew the background was over. “Steve, I thought of a way out,” George said. “I used to bet on sporting events. Not much, it wasn’t a big deal. But it made me aware of some companies that make scoring predictions for players. They didn’t seem much different from stock market advisers. Now I investigated them, I did I tracked their success / failure rate for a few weeks, and then I picked one and jumped on it. “
Unbeknownst to his wife, George took cash advances from credit cards and began gambling on basketball, hockey, boxing, ponies, and stock cars through an illegal bookmaker. George knew it was wrong, but he was desperate. He became obsessed and stayed up late watching ESPN in horror as the games got lost on the doorbell and the horses took second place in the photomontages. In just two weeks he had lost $ 10,000. And it was $ 10,000 that he didn’t have, $ 10,000 that he had to pay back.
George finally received spiritual advice and revealed everything to his wife. Unsurprisingly, Sharon exploded. For her, this was the latest entry in a long list of crimes. Now they are separated. Since they are both still active Christians, there is some hope for reconciliation. But her future and that of her teenager are teetering on a tightrope.
The Holy Spirit warns: “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap … some people, greedy for money, have … pierced themselves with many complaints” (1 Tim. 6: 9-10).
George is pierced. If I knew you, I would tell you that his game was not worth it. When he lost, it brought an avalanche of trouble on his head. But it could have been a lot worse. I could have won and hooked for life. With gambling, Satan wins heads, loses tails.
