Touching Where the Tithe Has Gone

Due to the fact that my yearly earnings of summer work and school jobs are fairly meager at this point, the issue of paying taxes in order to help the poor is not of great magnitude in my life. They get taken out, we settle up at the end of the year, and that is the end of it. On a similar level, however, I often find myself comtemplating on the form of support that God Himself set up for his children--tithing.

Tithing began as a manner of continuing God's service for the church. The Levites had no inheritence in a physical sense. God was their inheritence, their sustenance, their work. The whole clan lived and worked for the nation of Israel as a community and it was tithe money that funded the work, supported the leaders, and enabled the furthering of Israel's mission.

As a child, I was taught by my parents to dutifully contribute one of my ten envelope-stamping-earned pennies and this trend has continued. I love tithing--putting God to the test, feeling as if I am making an important effort for God's work. For the last couple of years, however, I have begun wondering about this question of service. It is so easy for me to live in my little Vermont town, go to my little Vermont church, pay my tithes and offerings for the work of God and leave it there. Although I mark on my tithe envelope where I want my offering to go, I honestly don't know the exact destination of my tithe. In a rather pathetic sense, I am able to give without really knowing what I am giving for. It is rather easy to look at, say, sponsoring a child in Aftrica, and respond that I have already given what I can to my church and that I have no more money for a contribution, therefore turning down the opportunity to have more connection with those around me who need, more than money, someone to care.

I no longer believe that it is enough for me to be merely a money giver. There is nothing to stop me from being a caring and love and service giver. I am young. I have no assets tying me down. I have good health. I am near the completion of my college education. Most importantly, I know that even if there was something I might use as an excuse, God is the one who makes work for Him possible.

And so I think that this is has been the beginning of my plans to go as a student missionary next semester. I don't want to live in my bubble any more, I want to go. I want to be woken up. I want to see what happens when the money leaves my hands. Isaiah 58 talks about the true fast, the true consecration to God--it is not merely about keeping to ourselves with our happy thoughts of God-connectedness, it is not merely about deciding in our alone moments to give more money for God's cause. Isaiah writes: "Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not hide yourself from your own flesh?" (Is 58:6-7).

I want to be there, I want to reach out my hand, I want to touch.