Bells and Whistles

Disclaimer: This post is about tithing, but not really about tithing. It's not about 10% or the Church or money at all really. It's about putting my trust in God (not financial security) and seeing that He will bless my leap of faith.

My husband and I were both moved by a sermon our pastor gave a few weeks ago on tithing. Tithing, you ask??? Yes, tithing. Generally speaking, when I come to the realization that I'm about to hear preaching on this topic I get the "oh great" feeling that a lot of people probably do. But this sermon was different for me somehow. I'm not sure if it's because I was in a different place in my life when I heard it or if it was that the perspective the pastor gave was more pressing, but it stirred something in me. In the nearly five years Jeff and I have been married we have never agreed on how much we should give (to the church, missions, the poor, etc). I never mind giving for causes I feel strongly about or in amounts I deem "affordable" for our budget. My husband is a really generous guy and has always wanted to give more to the Lord, but I’ve been dragging my heels wanting to hold on to our finances for security sake, telling myself that we didn’t have enough to give more. We’re a one income household after all. I must admit that although I know in my head God will provide for us, I haven’t really been trusting Him with our finances. I want to be in control. I want to give as long as it feels easy-ish, not like a sacrifice. Anyway, after hearing the sermon on tithing both of our hearts were stirred and in the car on the way home we decided to join in giving sacrificially. I think we both felt good just in the fact that we were finally on the same page with regards to the issue of tithing and I think Jeff was surprised that I was suddenly ready to jump on board. After making a commitment to give sacrificially I didn’t expect God to do anything out of the ordinary…no bells or whistles.

Yesterday was payday and the deposit was quite a bit more than we were anticipating. My husband had worked a couple of extra shifts last month so I thought alright, Lord, thanks for providing those extra shifts. Not totally out of the ordinary, but definitely a blessing. Today, however, something most definitely out of the ordinary happened.

The kids and I were running various errands. One of our stops was Walmart (sigh). As I was bundling the kids up to get ready to go out to the car, a random lady walked up to me, asked me if I believe in God (to which I responded yes), and said to me that God told her to give "this" to me (money). Yeah. I was totally caught off guard and was not sure what to do. My Scandinavian roots kicked in and I told her no, that I couldn’t possibly take it. She insisted, saying that she had walked by me as she was leaving, that God prompted her to give me some money, that she continued to leave and then simply had to come back into the store to find me and give me the cash. Huh??? Why would God tell her to give me money? I mean we're not rolling in the dough by any stretch of the imagination, but we can manage alright, even with our new commitment to give more generously to the work of God's kingdom. Then it struck me. I told her about our recent commitment to give sacrificially and how I thought this must be God, doing something out of the ordinary, showing up with bells and whistles, just to let me know that He indeed will bless our decision. I could tell that she was moved by hearing this and knowing that she had a hand in something God has been doing in my life. I think the exchange (even though I wasn’t quite sure what to do!) increased both of our faiths…mine in realizing that God does do extraordinary things (sometimes he even uses bells and whistles to get our attention) and hers in knowing that she did hear God, was obedient, and ended up playing a part in the spiritual journey of a complete stranger. We gave each other a hug, knowing that something really special had just happened.

Of course when I got to the car, still trying to wrap my head around what had just transpired, I was curious to see how much money I was holding in my hand. How interesting that in each of the three errands we ran that morning (Walmart, Sam's Club, and filling the car with gas) our bill came to just under the very same amount of money that was gifted to us. Hmm.

I write all of this not to try to guilt anybody into anything or to push my "religion". I simply feel blessed by the whole experience and thought maybe reading about it might bless somebody else too.

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." - Malachi 3:10