Dear SCNC Folk,

When I was a young stay-home Mom with two kids and a police officer husband who worked a second job to help ends meet, I rarely had cash in my purse.  We were far from 'poor' but keeping our little house from leaking, keeping the kids in special shoes and all of that life stuff was a constant challenge.  My main life beyond home was in my church home where I began to serve on the church council and I considered my time my gift to the church.   During one council meeting discussion of church finances and stewardship, a quiet member, a librarian, casually mentioned 'our tithe'.  The word smacked into my being like a lightening bolt and inside voices began to ask things like: "You mean real people actually do that, that old Bible thing of giving 10% to God?"   Yes, honestly, I never knew!  My parents had never spoken about what they gave to the church and I had no idea how they made those decisions or what they were-though I suspect that if they were tithers it would have been more part of our family culture.  So when Warren spoke of his tithing, I was literally shocked.  If I had thought about tithing at all, it probably was that maybe only rich people did so.  But I had been to Warren's home and knew they lived modestly like us.

 

With that one mention of 'our tithe', Warren unknowingly began to lead Milt and me on a life transforming path.  We actually sat down and began to ask ourselves what we gave to our church (precious little) and how we might move in the direction of a tithe.  The 'why' was never a question-we were both plain and simple people of faith and committed to our church.  But the 'if' and the 'how' were big questions.  Somewhere along the way we picked up the tip that 'how' could be by increasing our giving one percentage point of our income per year.  It was some time before we even found our way to do that.  But gradually, once the seed and the longing were planted, we found ourselves easily and painlessly a tithing family.  I remember once our kids heard us discussing the continuously challenged family finances and asking 'so why do you do this tithe thing?'  and after thinking about it we said something like:  "it's who we are and it is a joy in our lives".

 

And here's the really, REALLY odd, strange, surprising thing:  no matter what financial challenges we have faced (and there have definitely been some), tithing is absolutely painless and thoroughly joyful.  When we more-or-less plan our budget for each year, it's the first thing we build in.  (In fact, since being again smacked powerfully by Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, we have chosen to move to 11-12% intentionally to help keep our consumerist life style down and our giving up...). 
Perhaps tithing skeptics may read this and think well, that's just a clergy-church-junky thing.  But one of my favorite people was Elsie, a frowzled haired older lady who lived on a very modest fixed income and was a dedicated tither.  In fact, giving studies show that those on the lowest incomes are more likely to give a higher proportion of their income than those with higher incomes.  Interesting...

 

If you are a tither and didn't skip this, please tell your own tithing joy story.  It isn't bragging---you might be like Warren and help give greater joy to someone else's life.  If you're not yet a tither, I pray that you may become, as we were, a 'wantabe' tither and that you will find joy in every step along the way.  And if you've never thought about it, there is no time like the present to take the leap and claim the joy. 

Joyful Blessings in this Stewardship Season, Friends,

Jane