“Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
After Saturday night and the talk I gave, I got a bunch of questions on email, twitter and facebook about giving. A couple of days ago I blogged about some of the reasons people give for not giving back to God and why we should give back to God. Throughout this week, I’ve been blogging those questions and some other thoughts about giving back to God.
Here is a question I got the other day (which I have permission to share): If I can’t tithe my money, can I tithe my time or talents instead?
Yes and no.
Tithing is part of a larger discussion of stewardship. In fact, one author makes the case that stewardship is the Christian life. Stewardship is a larger umbrella that tithing falls under.
We are all given money, possessions, talents, resources, stuff, children, jobs, etc. that we are to steward and we will be held accountable for. I will be held accountable for how I raised my kids. I have been entrusted with 3 beautiful kids and I am to raise them in a way that honors God. I am accountable for this.
In the same way I am accountable for how I steward my money, time and talents that God has given me. As a leader and communicator, I am accountable for how I steward those spiritual gifts that God has given me. Am I growing and trying to become better in those areas or am I just mailing it in not trying to get better. I am accountable for those things.
If this is a question you’ve asked or struggled with I would encourage you to check out some of the recommended resources from this series and/or come out on a Saturday night at Revolution for our series How to be Rich. You can also listen to my talk from Saturday night.
- Tim Challies recently publised two free e-books: Sexual Detox: A Guide for the Single Guy and Sexual Detox: A Guide for the Married Guy. After our I Want a New Marriage series and the response we got for the week I preached on porn, I can’t recommend these free books any more. Download them, read them (with your wife, if married). They are great resources.
- Chris Brogan on How to blog almost everyday. If you are a blogger and need ways to be a better blogger/writer, this is a great list on where to find ideas. He also has a list of 100 topics to write about and 20 topics to get unstuck as a blogger.
- John Piper on 9 ways we know the gospel of Jesus is true.
In his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller talks about the idea that all of us are writing a story with our lives and that families write a story as a family. It got me to think about the story I am writing with Katie and the kids.
How do you know what story you are writing? Look at your bank account and calendar. What you spend your time doing is what you find important and what you find important is the story you are writing with your life. We can say that we find something valuable and important, but the truth, if we don’t put our time and money into that, it isn’t important.
I will hear people say, “I wanted to be at church” or “I want to give back to God” or “I wanted to go and serve” but and then they lay out why it didn’t happen. Here is what I know about our schedules. We all put into our schedules what is important. Whether that is work, our kids games, watching our favorite football team, date night with our spouse. We all do what matters to us. The question we have to ask is, “Am I spending my time doing the right stuff? Am I spending my money on what matters?”
As a dad, I’m starting to think about the story my family is writing. What will my kids look back on and remember? 20 years from now, what will Ava, Gavin and Ashton say was important to me, to us as a family? Will they say they were important? Will they say my job was more important than they were?
What about our money? Will they say we were generous or were we a greedy family? Did we have the attitude of servants or did we look for ways to take advantage of people?
What happens as kids grow, they know what story we are living (usually before we do) and they write that story with us. The story we write as a family, affects the story they write as kids and into adulthood.
So right now, what story are you writing? What story are you writing as a family?
I hope that when I’m gone my kids say the story I wrote said this:
- Serving God as a family, not my job
- Katie was more important than everything but God
- I was passionate about being a follower of Jesus
- That they mattered more than everything (3rd to Katie and God)
- My job came 4th
- That they would love God and his bride and still serve Him
- They would be more generous than I ever was
After Saturday night and the talk I gave, I got a bunch of questions on email, twitter and facebook about giving. A couple of days ago I blogged about some of the reasons people give for not giving back to God and why we should give back to God. Throughout this week, I’ve been blogging those questions and some other thoughts about giving back to God.
Here is a question I got (that I have permission to share): I would like to give, but I can’t. We don’t have the money. At the end of the month, there is more month than money and so there is nothing left to give back to God. There is no room in the budget for it.
Now, this question does not say this, but underneath this question reveals where God sits on the priority list. He is not first. He is not even in the top 5. He is at the end. Viewing giving through this lens makes giving into giving God a tip at the end of the month because He “helped” them get through the month with enough money. Completely misses the point.
Giving is something that happens first. When creating a budget, giving back to God is the first thing on the budget. If it isn’t, it will not get the place that God commands for it to get. When you get paid, it is the first thing you do with your paycheck.
Our money does not betray our values. We can say over and over how much we value God, but what we do with our money shows that we often value eating out, buying stuff more than we value God.
The reason I get so passionate about this is because I used to say this all the time. It wasn’t until I began to understand the joy of giving back to God and the freedom and peace that comes with it that I began to fully follow Jesus. I said it Saturday night, it is impossible become a fully devoted follower of Jesus without honoring God with our finances.
Giving back to God is proportional. God does not give us a standard amount that everyone gives. He doesn’t say, “Every pay period you have to give $100.” He says, “Bring the tithe (10%).” So what is that for you? It is different for everyone. That is the floor we are told to start from, now the goal or finish line, but the starting line.
For us, after we put our tithe first in the budget, it meant that some things needed to get out of our budget so we could give back to God. It is a sacrifice and that is part of giving. But, it is a good thing. It all boils down to what you want to do with the money God has entrusted to you. That is how my view of money changed. If I have been entrusted by God with this money and it is his money, instead of asking “how much should I give back to Him?” Maybe we should ask questions like, “How much should I keep” and “Will buying this or doing that honor God?” It changes how you view things and for many of us, that is the biggest problem is our view of money.
If this is a question you’ve asked or struggled with I would encourage you to check out some of the recommended resources from this series and/or come out on a Saturday night at Revolution for our series How to be Rich. You can also listen to my talk from Saturday night.
After Saturday night and the talk I gave, I got a bunch of questions on email, twitter and facebook about giving. A couple of days ago I blogged about some of the reasons people give for not giving back to God and why we should give back to God. Throughout this week, I’ve been blogging those questions and some other thoughts about giving back to God.
Here is a question I got (that I have permission to share): I understand that 10% is the full tithe and that is the starting point, but should I give more than that?
One of the things I pointed out in another question is that giving is always proportional and sacrificial.
Now, in the New Testament, when giving is talked about, especially in 2 Corinthians 8 – 9, not only is proportion brought out, but also sacrificial. Giving should cost us something, it should hurt.
This means, for some of us, 10% is a huge sacrifice. For others, 10% is not a sacrifice. For some, for tithing to be a sacrifice, it might be 20% or higher. I know people who tithe 80 or 90% of what they make.
I think what is important to keep in mind is that we have been entrusted with what we have for a reason. It is not an accident why we make what we make or why we have what we have, and we are accountable for how we use those things.
The question I ask when this is brought up is, “Are you sacrificing?”
If this is a question you’ve asked or struggled with I would encourage you to check out some of the recommended resources from this series and/or come out on a Saturday night at Revolution for our series How to be Rich. You can also listen to my talk from Saturday night.
“We tend to think of sin as we see it in rags and in the gutters of life. We look at a drunkard, poor fellow, and we say, there is sin. But that is not the essence of sin. To have a real picture and a true understanding of sin, you must look at some great saint, some unusually devout and devoted man, look at him there on his knees in the very presence of God. Even there self is intruding itself, and the temptation is for him to think about himself, to think pleasantly and pleasurably about himself and to really be worshiping himself rather than God. That, not the other, is the true picture of sin. The other is sin, of course, but there you do not see it at its acme, you do not see it in its essence.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones
- Scott Thomas on Is your church a religious cushion?
- Mark Driscoll answers the question “Why bad people do good things.”
- 18 things leaders need to do more and less of. Scott nails this post and so do all of his followers. Great thoughts for leaders.
- Ron Edmonson on 10 lessons it took me years to understand. This is a great list for all leaders. Wow.
- Love Paul’s thoughts on what God did through HalloWiin Revolution 2009.
- Perry Noble on 10 signs of a secure leader.
- Love this series on the Resurgence about the preacher and his voice. Really insightful if you are a communicator or someone who attends church about what your pastor goes through each week.
Just finished A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing my Life by Donald Miller and I have to say right off the bat. This might be the best book I have read all year. Seriously, this book is that good and grabbed me that much. I couldn’t put it down.
Donald Miller writes from the perspective of turning his book Blue Like Jazz which is a memoir into a movie. What comes in this book is a different look at purpose and meaning in life through the lens of a story.
Miller points out that all of us are living a story, the question is whether or not we are living a worthwhile story.
If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home nad put a record on to think about the story you’d seen. The truth is, you wouldn’t remember that movie a week later, except you’d feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo. But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either.
What follows in the book is a look at life as a story and asks the question, “Are you living a meaningful life? If your life was made into a movie, would people care, would you care?”
This book is entertaining but I also found myself reflecting on my life and thinking through the story that I have been writing and the story that I am writing with my family and asking the question, “Is it meaninful? Is it interesting?” Miller says you can tell at a funeral if someone has lived a meaningful life, if you have then people say “that person died too soon, but if you haven’t, people just say you died.”
I want to be in the died too soon category.
