In Luke 21:1-4 Jesus points out a poor widow to His followers and talks about what is often called “the widow’s mite.”
We learn a few things from His words and actions. We realize, for example, that God sees every sacrifice made by those who give even when it hurts not only their “bottom line,” but directly, negatively impacts something in their life.
That might be simple, such as giving a homeless person the money we were planning to use for a much-needed cup of coffee. Or it might be bigger, even much bigger like the man a few years ago who paid for an unemployed stranger’s heart surgery with money he had planned to use to buy a vacation condo. The article about that good Samaritan said he responded with a shrug and a statement that the stranger’s life was more important than his leisure plans.
Another person — a woman with a 20-year-old car — won a lot of money and gave it all away to a charity that worked to meet some of the needs of her city’s impoverished people. She shrugged also and said her car was running fine.
It is good to realize that there are some people — mostly anonymous — who do not follow our society’s less-generous trends. We don’t usually hear about those sacrifices made. But God knows.
God pays attention to the love — or perhaps the lack of love — that motivates our giving. He knows each person’s resources and honors our efforts to contribute what we think we can — especially honoring those who go beyond their means just because of the needs of others.
Giving spontaneously might be unnerving to us, since many of us are far from having an abundance of resources at our disposal. One attraction of the concept of tithing is that it is a measured way of giving. We commit to giving a set amount and either decide to whom or to what organization it will go that year, or we can choose various causes to receive our tithe as each pay period rolls around.
Ten percent off the top is not a magic amount, and we certainly can start smaller and revisit our goal each year. But 10% does seem to be the point where God’s response and help become clearer. We also experience what might be called a spiritual awakening, and Father, Son and Holy Spirit take on a greater role in our lives.
Tithing can give our faith a super-charged boost. It even — rather amazingly — can lead us to worry less, probably because as we do it, we see better how kind God is to us. We appreciate and trust Him more fully.
Although a God-centered approach to
money eludes most people today, there
still are testimonies from those who have
taken this particular leap of faith that God
provides in various ways when we make
such commitments.
Those ways can vary, but often what is noticed is that important items (cars, roofs, etc.) last longer than expected. Little windfalls may come along that often are exactly the amount needed at that moment. Or “circumstances” kind of flow together to create a protective buffer against new difficulties that threaten a tithing person’s stability of life.
Tithing is a true “God thing” that can only be known as being true once we make and live that commitment. God is bigger than
all our needs, and each of us needs to find that out for ourselves to make that knowledge meaningful.
One thing is for certain: God will notice, just like he noticed the widow and her generous “mite.” He will honor our efforts with His love and His help.
