On Stewardship

Over the last month it has been refreshing for me to hear the various testimonies that were given in faith regarding Stewardship. I take this moment to thank publicly our testimony givers, and to offer a portion of my stewardship walk.

 

Stewardship for me started with reading the bible as a young teenager.  Many times in junior high and high school I would sit down and try to read the bible from cover to cover.  Each time I'd get bogged down in the dense reading of Numbers, Leviticus or Deuteronomy.  And as I bogged down some "convenient" distraction would cause me to put the good book down.  

Almost any distraction seemed easier to me than reading through Numbers.  While I really enjoyed reading the stories of the patriarchs in Genesis and of God's delivering hand out of Exodus, the former three books (at the time) seemed to have little for me to learn.  But I do recall reading about the tithe, that 10% of my produce was to go to God.

Well, when you're in school and you don't make any money 10% of zero is pretty easy.  Coupled with the fact that we weren't strong church goers we certainly hadn't reached that level of faithful stewardship.  But I do remember the first time I tithed.  

One Christmas break (my freshman year in college) I came home and worked at the plumbing and showroom company my mother worked for. I was hired as Christmas help to close out the year-end inventory.  I think I was paid minimum wage (about 4 and-a-quarter in 1991) and I worked 12-13 hour days.  

Each day I drove myself to work went out to the warehouse and started counting things.  At first the work was simple.  Toilets and bathtubs are big and easy to count.  I could just look at a shower stall and mark it down on my clip board.  But as the items got smaller and smaller, sink fixtures of different styles and materials became tedious to count.  Each had their own identification numbers which had to be recorded.  It was somewhat mindless work but still stressful.  

The worst items to count were screws and shelving ledges. These were tiny little plastic plugs that you place in the side of bookshelves to support the shelves.  There were open boxes and boxes of these do-dads that went on forever.  They had never been counted or sorted by color (brown, blond, and clear).  After counting a thousand of these I finally wised up and counted a cup's worth.  I'd fill up my cup and then just count cups.  That seemed to be a more efficient use of my time. 

A few weeks before I had started the job I had been reading my bible again.  And once again I read in the Old Testament about the tithe.  Since my job was a Christmas job, I only saw one pay check.  I may have made just over $400 for all those hours.  After I had received my pay check I went to the bank to cash it.  The teller separated $45 and some change for me. (10% of what I made).  I went home; I sat at my desk, and from the drawer I pulled out an old white business envelope, the privacy kind.  And I wrote the word "Tithe" on the outside.  I stuffed the money in, licked the peppermint flavored adhesive, and sealed the envelope.  And then a funny thing happened.

I didn't know what to do with the money.  (Who to give it to?) We hadn't really attended church in a long time.  I didn't have pledge cards or giving envelopes. I didn't really even feel comfortable calling the church to say, "I've got this measly $45 for you." And I would never give my money to a televangelist.

So, one afternoon, New Years Day, the sky was as clear blue as I had ever seen.  And the air was cool and a pleasure to breath, I drove by the church. "Holy Comforter" was the church I occasionally attended while in high school.  I parked as close to the entrance as I could and with tithe-in-hand I climbed out of the car. 

I had hoped to simply drop the letter through the mail slot.  But as I approached the door, muscle memory caused me to reach for the handle and pull.  It was open.  So I went in hoping that I could just anonymously hand it to an anonymous church secretary.  But the office was devoid of any people.  I placed the envelope on a credenza with the word "Tithe" facing down.  I was in and out of the building in less than 60 seconds.

I haven't shared this story before with anyone.  I think it's about something to do with showing God our devotion, maybe obedience, maybe faithfulness...