Good Cop

This is the Good Cop counterpart to my diatribe on tithing. To the extent you thing that post was harsh (and it was, but that's me), here is my salve.

My biggest pet peeve on the issue of tithing is not that people don't tithe (although I stand by my assertion that they should). It's that people, and Catholics in particular, deny that they are supposed to tithe. If someone says to me, "I know what the Bible says, but I just am not willing to do it," I give them kudos for honesty. That's always the first step. That was certainly my first step-accepting what Scripture says and that it applies to me. Or maybe some people will tell me "I just can't do it." I can't get into their hearts or their bank accounts to know if that is true. But there is an honesty to people's acceptance that they should do it and that the Bible is authoratative. 

Tithing is hard. I could lie and say it's not hard, but it is. And I really fought, intellectually, that I needed to do it. Someone told me to read a book by Randy Alcorn called Money, Possessions and Eternity. This book is a treasure trove about what the Bible says about money and, well, eternity.  One central premise is that the tithe is law.

And I so didn't want it to be true. I'm a lawyer, and I attempted to argue the position of the devil's advocate on the issue.  But I determined that it was true, that tithing was something people of God are called to do. And I started doing it. It was very scary. I still had student loans, and car payments, and of course a mortgage, and a family that needed food and had come to expect a certain level of entertainment. 

A bizarre thing happened, though. I had more money after I started to tithe. No, I did not win the lottery. I did not inherit money from a rich relative. I did not get a raise. I just became more responsible with money, and somehow, we didn't even really feel it. We didn't go without.

It's still not easy. Last December, I was an equity partner in a law firm pulling in a very comfortable six figure income. Now I'm on leave from that job, and I try not to think about the money I'm not making anymore because it makes my palms sweat. Now I work for a church, and suffice it say that "six figure" and "church" are not terms used in the same sentence. 

With this transition, I was very tempted to stop tithing. I realized that it is easy to tell people they should tithe when you've got plenty to do it with. I am sure God, in His infinite wisdom and sense of humor, wants me to take something profound away from this experience. I'm not sure, but I think "now you know the pain" is something He is thinking. 

It hurts to tithe right now. I feel it. My family feels it. Yes, they still have food and a roof over their heads and even some entertainment. But life has changed.

For the better. Really. Don't ask me how. Ask God.