Article September 2, 2013 Issue

Breaking the lottery habit

Tracy V. Black

This originally appeared as a blog on JSH-Online.

When the California lottery began in 1986, I started buying lottery tickets every week, hoping for a big win. For the next 25 years, I never missed a week of playing the lotto.

Then, in 2011, I met a woman who gave me a book called Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I had never heard of Christian Science before, but, as I read the book, I found that its message was everything I had always believed. I started going to church twice a week with my new friend, and a year later she became my wife. 

I was still playing the lottery, even buying lottery tickets in advance. When I took a trip to Alaska, I knew I couldn’t buy tickets where I was heading, so I purchased two weeks’ worth of tickets beforehand. But after reading Science and Health, I kept having the thought that God is my supply, and I should rely on Him. Later I realized that was an angel message. Mrs. Eddy defines angels as, “God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality” (Science and Health, p. 581).