It is usually true that someone who builds a successful new business sacrifices and works their entire life to make it profitable. There are very few people that are willing to obligate themselves to that type of commitment.

Most of us live in the fast lane and we want life to be like fast food service. There are very few times that people have instant success. When they do it usually vanishes as fast as it came. If you study the statistics of those people that have won the lottery, you will find that in just a few years they are once again broke. In the case of a business, the statistics show that the first generation builds the business to be a success. They then leave their business to the second generation and they enjoy the labor and effort that their parents put into it, but they do not build on it. When the second generation leaves the business to the third generation it is usually lost.

In both of these cases there is a common thread. The lottery winner and the third generation do not know what it took to build the instant fortune they have received. I am reminded of a saying that I was taught in my youth; “easy come, easy go.” It seems that we must accomplish some things for ourselves in order to be able to keep them. Another thing that I have heard my entire life is; “A sense of accomplishment.” It is that feeling of a job well done; the knowledge of what it took to build that fortune and what it takes to keep it.

Can there be an exception to; “easy come, easy go?” Is there anything that we can acquire without working for it? If so, can we have a sense of accomplishment by just receiving? Can we experience a life that someone else has paid for without losing it? If there is such a thing, where do we get it?

These and other life questions will be addressed Sunday morning as “The Gathering Place Family” meets in the Washington Junior High School Library for Bible Study at 9:30 and in the gymnasium at 10 a.m. for our Pre-Service Connection where we enjoy coffee, juice and donuts. Our Worship Service and Children’s Church then begins at 10:30. Come at 7 p.m. and be part of our Wednesday night Bible Study and Children’s Ministry on the third floor above Trends at 120 W. Court St. in Washington Court House.