Tag: tithing

A year of Tithing: Breaking with Greed

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This month has a special mark in the calendar for me. Not only because it is the month of my birthday, but also because it is marked as the 12th month of consistently paying tithe to my church and to a few good causes of my choice. Once upon a time I began because a pastor in church dared us all to “…test God in this” and challenged me. Now I can’t even remember why. It is something I do, a habit. It is something that physically sort of places my life in Gods hands. I trust him with my finances and with everything that can bring me. Money is sort of the key to life here in this world, and by giving money to church and to the few good causes I support, I am giving to something I believe in. But I also place my trust in God, that he will provide. That he will take care of me in everything that money can give: A home, food on the table, clothes and so forth. I place my trust in the fact that he will lead me and guide me.

I have heard many stories of miracles. Stories of people who trusted God with their finances by tithing and suddenly their prayer was answered in specific areas. I have no such stories. But I do find myself content with what I have. A deep contentment I haven’t felt before. A peaceful feeling of not needing more. Of course a lot of things will be able to develop and happen, once I get a job. I haven’t stopped dreaming of the future, and what it withholds for me: A job and my own place maybe. But I don’t feel envious or greed when I hear about other peoples investing in design furniture or a fancy car. I don’t need fancy, smart or modern. I need God, the rest is just features that may look good in a future apartment.

I still spend too much though and there is a long way to go before I stop overspending. But I overspend on the things that matter to me: Time with my family and friends and traveling. It means that I went all out for New Years eve even though it was only me and my sister. I went all out for my birthday as well. Because I want to. Because I looove cooking and I love doing it for the people I deeply care about. It means that the “hang-over” days are spent on eating left overs and trying to spend as little as possible. I guess that is how I priorities, which means that there are other things that I cannot priorities right now. And I think that is one of my main realisations. That when you are focusing on your economy – it is important to have in mind, what one’s priorities and dreams are. And striving for them means sacrificing on other ends. What is important? What don’t I need?

I was reminded of a verse in the bible. That one where Gods giving “clothe” to the flowers on the meadow and takes care of the birds. The one that reminds me of the fact that if he provides for the flowers, the trees, the birds – why wouldn’t he take care of me? I mean he created man in his image. He gave his only son for us. For me. Why wouldn’t he take care of me. My situation. My finances. I remember times where he did. I remember situations I could only explain in the “God equation”. Then why is it so difficult for me to trust that he will not take care of me now?! I guess there are still things that I need to work on, and as I will be giving in the end of this month I will once more remind myself of how great God is and how I need to place my trust in him. He knows best.

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Breaking with Greed #2: February

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First time reading this blog-series? You can with advantage read the introduction here and the breaking with greed #1: January, here.

25th of January, 2017: This morning, February’s “salary” ticked in. I stuck to my budget. Moved it around according to where I needed them to be. I felt relieved. Life in february does not have to be difficult, just because 10 % of the money is being given away. But, I will have to be careful not to go back to my old habits of thinking with my stomach when it comes to grocery shopping. Because, I mean. I loooove Peanutbutter-chocolate-soya-icecream. I really do.
This morning, I read something interesting though. It was basically about trusting God. The chapter of the book I was reading asked me what was the main thing that kept me from trusting God completely. At first I thought it was about the future. Trusting him to know what I need and provide me with the opportunities in the right time. I guess mainly I was, and sometimes still am, a bit disappointed that all my friends seems to get to experience love and I don’t. But as I thought more and more about it, I realised that, that was not my main concern. My main concern was whether to give money away. I mean, some months the next year is going to be difficult, even if I do not pay tithe. I was having a problem seeing what giving away some of my money to my church was going to help me dealing with that for. And that was when I realised something. The fact that I want to spend this year giving money to my church, and in order to being able to live responsibly in my everyday life – I suddenly have to think about how I spend money given to me. I cannot just spend and think about how to patch things up afterwards. Which is basically what I did, when tithing was not a part of my life as it is going to be this year. Furthermore, I do not have some kind of agreed overdraft in the bank anymore. Because, I thought that with tithing, this was the year I was going to learn how to make by with what I have and not spend beyond what I can.  So there is no “safety-net” – the only safety I have, is the safety God is going to provide me. So, imagine my relief, surprise, and pride, as I realised that January was actually the first month in a very long time I did not use my agreed overdraft and patched things up with next months surplus. I made it through January, and I do not regret not to have bought those clothes that is in my shopping basket at Zalando.com. Not disappointed at all.

27th January 2017: Another thing I think I need to admit to you and myself, is that after the failure of January and the fact that I was reminded of the promise I gave about my 2017 constantly throughout January. I literally sat down and made another budget. This time, I wanted to be sure that I was able to keep my promise and afford living. I honestly see this as a wise way of making oneself aware of what is possible and make room to those things that I want to and give tithe. Because of the fact that money is tight, I actually have to stick to it. Not that I didn’t have to before. I was more spend first, ask questions later. Now, I really need to turn it around. Thus, the budget. And thus, actually sticking to it. We’ll have to see how this goes.

7th February 2017: My previous enthusiasm about budgeting have sort of already cleared out. It is still true, but my old self took over for a while and ran the card through the money-machine with my eyes closed shut. I am on top of it again, but a dive like this cannot be a possibility in the future. I refuse to give in to my old self, because that means not being in control of what goes in and out. I guess that is a part of the journey for me right now. Learning to be in control and not make frustrating solutions after something like this has happened.
What I did want to share with you though was the fact that I actually made a full on bible study on tithing in the beginning of this month. I initially thought, I had to explain myself to the friends of mine who do not believe themselves. But it was some of my Christian friends and family that made me go home and check my bible. The church I go to often say “Go home. Read in your bible. And, analyse for yourself”, so that was what I did. Not in order to convince my non-religious as well as my christian friends and family, but in order to find out for myself what I read and understood to be tithing, so that next time I would meet opposition towards my project with an ability to fully lay out what I read in the bible. It also lead me to the conclusion, that my idea as to include the monthly paying I make to the three good causes I support was not far from the original idea. In the bible every third year the tithing was not given to the church, but to the social outcasts and poor people in society. Thus, I am not going to change the rules on how I tithe. I am no matter the circumstances going to give to the different organisations I already have planned to give to as well as my church. I find that as long as most of the ten percent is going to church it is ok. I find it problematic when half of the money is given to something else than the church and its ability to survive. Then I will make changes in how I give.
What did become real to me was how the old testamente explained tithing as the way to learn how to put God first and destroy all other things that took Gods place in our lives. I guess already back then money and wealth could be a problem to people. It could become a god in their lives. And in order to follow the biblical example, I dwelled on what could be a “god” in my life. Luckily, my church is fasting in February, thus a perfect chance for me to fast and clear out the things that cloud my connection with God. Some fast facebook, others food. I fast thought patterns. It is a tad difficult to explain, and I think it may require a blog in it self. But, shortly outlined, I have unnecessary and unhealthy thought patterns I have been fighting my entire life. God created me with a huge variety of fairy tales and stories in my head, that I sometimes have a tendency to rely on them than on my living God. Thus, I no longer listen to music and I make an effort to read instead. Oh, I really hope you are still with me.
All in all, this tithing was a journey I began with God. I had an idea as to where this was going and somehow he dragged me down a road, I did not foresee myself. How mysterious God works! How wonderful.

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Breaking With Greed #1: Tithing in January

kat.marlyMål i 2017: Tiende

I know I am lucky. I live in a country that helps me financially so that I can take the time to find a job that is appropriate to my educational level and what I want. Thus, I get financial support from the a-kasse, as we call them and I search for jobs and go to activities every now and again that might help networking and eventually lead me to a job. I needed to underline that to myself before writing my first status on tithing in 2017.

December 21st, 2016: Tithing is going to be different this first month. As I write this we are in december, 2016. I have just received my support from the state and taxes alone have taken so much of the support, that tithing is impossible. It made me so disappointed with myself as I had made this commitment. But I prayed about this to God. Cause truthfully this month is going to be tight. So is the whole year going to be – so it is a good start to begin learning to live with what I have and not spend more than that. I was reminded of what a friend once told me that tithing can be so much more than money. You can also give away your time and resources. So January for me is going to be me giving my time and resources into my relations, the different projects I am involved in and wherever I see a need. This is not going to be an excuse for me to go around my tithing. It is going to be an exception!

January 2nd, 2017: The reaction among friends and family to my project have been different. Different in the sense that I had to evaluate and think through what I actually expect and why I am doing this. It was explained to me from different sources, that Pentacostle’s find (who are very determined about that whole tithing thing), that one is expected to have a sort of overly natural experience with God. That tithing was to be a part of that experience with the Holy Spirit. I must admit that I don’t see Pentecostal’s, Lutherans and whatever all the different trends are called. I see Christians. Christians thinking, experiencing and meeting God differently. Who am I to judge who is right. I only know what I experience to be the right thing and I still believe that God will speak truth into our lives, the more time we spend with him. Regarding tithing, I was challenged this morning in my morning devotion to see things from a different perspective. I don’t think that tithing necessarily has to be a part of life as a Christian. I think it is a beautiful way of acknowledging God as my Saviour – and the fact that I believe God gave me every possibility and every penny that I have gained on this earth. I find it a beautiful way to praise God – giving back some of the things he is giving me. It is important to me to underline that I don’t expect something overtly unnatural to happen. It is important to me to do this – not out of the expectation that something will happen: That you reader will read about miracles. But that I personally will go through a transformation. I want to break with the greed I feel deep inside me – and I see this as an opportunity. An opportunity to learn that money is not everything. In my devotion this morning I was reminded of that God meets the individual differently. Some through blazing, unnatural meetings, some through a small whispering voice, others through something completely different. I am convinced that God will meet me in this. Actually he already has. And I am excited to see where he will strike next and how. But the things I do and the ways I praise God is not ultimately what everyone should be doing as Christians. That is for themselves to decide. Not me. And I will not be judgemental towards those who choose to act differently. Because in the end I believe that we cannot make ourselves deserved of Gods salvation. We only have to believe and let him lead. And I guess in some way, this is where God led me.

January 10th, 2017: This month have truly been a month of reflexion already. I’ve been challenged. Confused. And lastly, reminded of what I want to do this year! This morning during my reflexion time, I was again reminded of the importance of tithing. I was reminded of the initial reasons as to do this (speaking from a personal perspective). I want to be dependent on God. To some that might seem weird. A friend of mine said: “You can do it when you have the means to”. But, truthfully, that is exactly the time for it. Like having kids, there will always be excuses not to have them. There will never really be a “right time”. There will always be some part of me that will say “next month” when it comes to money. Tithing for me has so many levels. So many different reasons. But mainly, this is me, admitting, that I believe God gave me everything I own. And all I can do is give something back. Give him my time. My life. My money. This is me tithing.

January 25th, 2017: So, to conclude January’s tithing goal. This month was a time of being reminded. God has been kindly reminding me of the promise I have made to him. Somewhere in the Bible it said, not to make promises that one could not keep, because one will be held responsible for them. I guess that is my January experience. God has in so many ways held me responsible for the goal I have for 2017 when it comes to my relationship with money. So many times, that I rolled my eyes at God saying: “yes. I know”. Despite of me not tithing this month, he still made things possible for me. Like, money ticking into my bank account. Friends helping me out. With my stubbornness to actually being able to make things go around without a minus at the end of the month. He always did this. Not because I was tithing – actually for some time I haven’t. He has always been there, helping me out. I guess, I only first realised this, because my focus is on money this year. So to sum up, I don’t need tithing as a payment for him to act in my life. Tithing is a way for me to say thank you for him being there with me, despite the fact that I cannot – and never will be able to – give back what he gave me. Tithing is not a reaction to expect a counteraction. To me, you could say it is a counteraction to the reaction God already has given towards me. To the fact that he meets me right where I am. With no expectations what so ever. And praise the Lord for that.

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My 2017 To-Do #1: Breaking With Greed.

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2017 is going to be the beginning of something I’ve been eager to try out. But in need of the final push and stop all the bad excuses, I am making a commitment to you, dear reader. But in order for you to understand or at least make an attempt to understand, I guess I need to explain further. Because, I know when you realise what I’m about to do, you might shake your head in disbelieve and find me weird.

I am a Christian. Not the cultural kind where you go to church during Christmas, maybe also easter and when someone’s kids are being baptised or reconfirming their faith. I go to church all the sundays I can. I listen to Timothy Keller’s preaching’s, read in my bible and other books of christian context. I fill my life with Christian values, because they make sense to me. And the ones that does not make sense in my teen years I have come to realise the true meaning behind them as I grew older and got more life-experience.

I’ve always liked the notion that you give some of your money away to a good cause. But the bible often talks about giving tithes. Now, that I’ve found rather radical before meeting a priest that gave me a challenge. I don’t even think he knows that he did so, but I became so fascinated by his position regarding paying tithes, that I decided to do it. His view on it was that when saying one is a believer in Christ it is a part of it to pay and support the church one connects to. It makes sense to me, that I need to give and support the church that has given so much to me.

So on to the “rules”! In all of 2017 I am going to pay 10 percent of my income before taxes to my church and other good causes. I am unemployed at the moment and therefore, I have made the rule that, until I find my job paying tithe to me means paying the different organisations I support (I support the Danish Hospital Clowns, Israels Missionens Unge and from february also Mellemfolkelig Samvirke). If I is to find a job, I will tithe only to my church and the other good causes I support, I will pay above my tithes. I’ve always thought that giving tithe was something you could consider when you got an “adult job” but truth is, there is never a good time to begin tithing.

During 2017 I will give you a close up and personal insight as to how things are going, what I am thinking and my experience because of this drastic move in my life. It will be a series of blogs that might challenge your view on religion, radical moves and so forth. But also might give you an explanatory insight in the mind of a Christian.

I have to admit that just writing this, challenges my inner greediness. Because what if …. Truth is when I make an overview of my economy, I see that it will be tight and I will have to change some of my moves (buying too much cake and coffee outside of my home and so forth). But it is in theory possible. And now is the time for me to find out if all they say is true (don’t worry I will blog about this). So here goes. 2017, here I come.

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