An Unconventional Tithe

Cassette tapes are quickly going the way of the Dodo and the 8 track, but there is a beloved favorite in the van that will be mourned after it plays for the last time. One of the songs talks of

"All the Sundays the offering plate's gone by,
And as I gave my hard earned dollars,
I felt free to keep my life."

Another favorite tape holds a sermon that I heard during the first week of my college career in which Dr Fred Mortz preached from Isaiah 44:14-17.

He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.
Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it.
Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!"
And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!"

The short version is that this man takes a tree and uses it to build a fire for heat and for food and then with the garbage left over, he makes an idol to worship. The question asked of us by Dr. Mortz was "Are you giving God the garbage?"

These two tapes have been used in my life by God as tools for conviction on numerous occasions. Couple that with the realization of the magnificent amount of time that I have wasted on the computer lately and you have the makings for some radical life changes. Starting today, I am going to attempt to tithe my time. A traditional 10% tithe of a 24 hour day is just under 2 1/2 hours. That seems a bit intimidating to start out with, so I'm going to take my SiL's suggestion and try tithing my waking hours in the beginning, or 1 hours, 36 minutes...give or take a few.

DH and I have set a time for evaluation after a one month trial period. How I continue will be determined by how my family feels about it and how my house looks. I'm trying not to get too excited, but I started this practice today and still had time for school, finishing the taxes, washing windows and (don't tell) folding all the laundry. More importantly, I wonder what my life will look like?

More on this in days to come, I suspect!