Why won't my phone update to Lolli, and can I force it to?
First of all I would suggest ring up your carrier, which in your case would be verizon. I had a similar problem a year or so ago with the Kit Kat update and my carrier pushed the update through. It's worth a try. 

Also, if you're planning on rooting your device i would wait till after you have 5.0 Lollipop as many people can not get the update due to having certain root files stopping the phone from reciving it. On top of that there is no telling whether or not your device will get bricked but 95% of the time there are never any problems with rooting your device aslong as you follow all the appropiate steps. There are multiple step by step guides on the internet to follow aswell as videos. Read up about how to do it and watch a few video's before trying it so you get used to all the steps. Once you have rooted it is really worth it.

Coming back to getting 5.0, have you thought about side loading the update on to your phone?