Five-hundred-and-forty million dollars.

What could I possibly do with $540 million? With the Mega Millions Jackpot now at a record high, for the first time in my life, I decided to purchase a lottery ticket.

I could do all the cliché things and purchase a yacht and sail to the Caribbean and never come back. I could buy a BMW for all my friends, a house for everyone in my family or a private island for my parents. If we’re getting serious, winning the lottery will be an amazing experience, but why me?

If 11, 20, 30, 44 and 47 with a Mega Ball of 10 is called Friday evening, you can find me on a beach Sunday, but that would be just the beginning of an amazing life of helping others.

I’m not about to spell out everything I’m going to do with the money if I win it, but you can bet that a large portion of it will be donated to various charities and groups invested in helping others.

One of my passions in life is volunteering, serving others and using the resources I have been fortunate enough to have to help others. If my numbers are called, I’ll be excited for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a difference on a worldwide level.

I have been on mission trips to disaster areas, third-world countries and even local relief trips, and those were some of the best times of my life, spent serving others.

It would be nice not having to worry about finances for the rest of my life. It would be nice to be able to buy nice things for the people that I love. But it will be even better to buy the necessities for those who really need it. In my experiences, I have seen poverty, hunger, turmoil and despair and it broke my heart.

I don’t expect those numbers to be called on Friday, I am a realist about it, but chances are within the next couple weeks someone will hit the record jackpot. My plea to them is to be a human about it. Take a look around. There are people in need everywhere, and with your fortune comes a rare opportunity to really make a difference in many, many lives.

It’s incredible to think about the opportunity a $2 piece of paper has. How many lives can be changed from a ticket someone bought from a gas station?

$540 million. That’s a game changer.