Life Tithe

I heard it suggested recently that Christians give a “life tithe” to God. For example, if you live to be eighty years old, you should spend eight years working only for God (mission work was given as the example). Of however long your life is, you should use ten percent of those years to focus completely on serving the Lord. Now, I think the point was that we should dedicate a good chunk of our lives to serving God without pursuing other things. But I have a couple hangups with a "life tithe."

For one, you can't surrender just ten percent of your life to God and use the other ninety percent as you like. Don't forget we are Christ's bride. Would you want just ten percent of your spouse's devotion? Jesus gave his whole life for us, and we are called to do the same. I think the financial tithe is similar. God doesn't want us to give a tenth of our money to the church and spend the other ninety percent however we want. On the contrary, all of our possessions and all of our time on this earth are gifts from God to be used for His glory. After we give ten percent to the church, we continue to consult Him about the other ninety percent. It's just that His unique plan for each of our lives requires some creative space, and He's got endless possibilities to be glorified through our time and resources. His vision for expanding the Kingdom goes beyond the local church into hospitals, car repair shops, restaurants, beauty salons, you-name-it. Whether it's money or time, one hundred percent comes from God and is due Him. He's just got endless ways of making returns. We don't all have to spend a portion of our life preaching from a pulpit, being a missionary in a foreign land, or even living in an intentional community. (Actually, as I was listening to this sermon, the woman next to me leaned over and said, “You've already got three years done!” I guess she thought that just living here in community counted as a life completely surrendered to God. But that is not at all the case. In fact, I think these church-saturated lifestyles often give a false sense of all-out devotion for God that often results in lukewarm Christians. Maybe more on that later.)

The second point is that even if a “life tithe” were required and ten percent full-out devotion was all that was required of us, how could you measure it in years? No one can predict the span of their life; all that we're guaranteed is today. So let's figure it—ten percent of 24 hours is roughly 2 ½ hours. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to spend that much time in prayer, Bible study, worship, and service each day. It would be awesome, actually! But even so, God has a plan for the other 21 ½ hours, too. Plans for taking a meal to a sick neighbor, plans for loving on your kids, plans for enjoying nature, plans for writing that letter, or even renewing your body with a nap.

Whatever you've been given—in terms of money or of time—it's all intended for the glory of God. Let's not stop at giving ten percent.