Money Things

It won't surprise most of my pastor friends or any of my fundagelical friends for me to say that I'm a tither. Ten percent of my after tax income goes in the offering plate each month. I know folks who challenge a 1% increase each year. I know folks who challenge a reverse tithe, living off 10% and giving away 90%. As long as I've been thinking about budgets, the practice of tithing has been a personal expectation. It's on par with paying rent or utilities; it's just what I do with my money. That's all to say that this isn't bragging or a call to better stewardship. This is about what I've always expected for my life and maybe not even knowing there's another way.

About a year into working full-time and the realities of that budget were setting in, I started to wonder how on earth my friends were buying new cars. I looked at my budget and didn't see any wiggle room for even a modest car payment. Did they make that much more money than me? Was their rent that much cheaper than mine?

Because money isn't a taboo subject with most of my friends, I started asking about salaries and rent and their car payment.

Turns out, it wasn't a salary difference at all. My car payment just went in the offering plate. And some money went into savings each month. And I don't carry a balance on my credit card. All those things meant no new car, but also a lot less stress about finances.

It was also one of the first times that I realized this is a way my faith reorients my life in a real, tangible way. And one of the first times I realized I'm glad that it does.

I'm glad there are things that matter more than a new car or concert tickets.

I'm glad that there's something in my household budget that says, "It's not all about me."

I'm glad that I grasp why stewardship of money matters in the life of faith.

But it's also one of those things that places distance between me and people who are loved friends. That distance is one I don't know how to lessen, much less make disappear completely. Unlike so many other institutions that ask for money, money in the offering plate isn't about me particularly liking something or wanting to support it. This isn't an art museum or a college or an animal rescue. This is about God's demands on my life. That's a lot harder to explain.

I think it might be worth a shot, though.