10% feels like a large amount of money to give away. No matter who you are, I think it’s definitely uncomfortable. 10% on a $50,000 income is $5000. 10% of $100,000 is $10,000.
I know a lot of people in the $100,000+ range for whom writing a $10,000 check to a charity or church or individual in need would be really uncomfortable. Heck, even $5000 would be uncomfortable for most of them.
Yet most religions recommend some form of tithing. Why is this?
I know what my grandfather would say. “It’s so the priests can have their drinking money.” He didn’t have a high opinion of religion, nor spirituality.
Frankly, I think my grandfather’s take is a little juvenile. I have a hard time thinking that all the world’s religions are so corrupt and greedy as to all include a commandment which exists solely so that they can exploit the faith of their followers. People can be selfish, sure. But that’s not what this journey is about.
Surely there is a benefit for the giver as well as the receiver.
This is what I have experienced in my own life, anyway.
I get paid quarterly, so most of my in-flow comes in large lump sums, rather than smaller sums spread across three months. This means I have to budget out my cash flow fairly far in advance, and account for the possibility of expenses 3-6 months out, including setting aside a provision for taxes.
It’s easy to get rather scarcity-minded in the process. Which is another way of saying my world shrinks and I get pre-occupied with my own situation. My finances take up more of my headspace, and everything else fades into the edges of my focus. Essentially, my thoughts become about me. How I can get more money. How I can save more money. How I can be secure.
Some amount of this is responsible, but only up to a point lest I forget what my real purpose on earth is. Or ought to be.
My real purpose isn’t to enrich Nicholas. Nor is it to accumulate a lot of consumptive experiences. I think the only thing you’re really remembered for when you die is what you gave away during your lifetime. Not just financially, but what you gave others in terms of your time, your love, the acts of service you performed. Were you a good, reliable guy? Or were you selfish?
What I look for from religion and spirituality is something to pull me out of myself, out of my own self-absorption, and into the world around me. I ask God to help me want what is good, and to let go of what is not. This process helps reveal to me where I could be less selfish, and guides me to embrace inconvenience rather than linger in my own comfort zone.
Was I about me? Or was I about others? The guests at my funeral will have an answer. I hope to live in such a way that I can feel good about what they say.
So when it comes to giving, here’s what I like about giving 10% off the top. Or giving any money off the top. It reminds me who I’m here for. Am I here for me? Or am I here to help and be of service to others? When the first line-item in the budget is giving, it reminds me of what is most important.
What am I, first and foremost? A tax-payer? A mortgagee? A retirement saver? A car-loan payer? A consumer? I hope not. I hope none of those are the identity that people talk about at my funeral.
I’d rather have it said, “he gave his life to others.” He remembered why he was here.
More subjectively, when the money comes in, I like how it feels to have my first thoughts be about giving. The money coming in was not won away or cheated off others. It flowed to me in response to works of service. It came out of the universe and into my bank account. I did not create it.
Maybe this is how it is for a lot of small business owners, but I marvel at where my clients come from. Did I control when and how they came to me? No. In fact, their arrival has mostly come out of the blue. They’re a blessing to me.
There seems to be something beyond myself that I am participating in. Giving keeps me engaged with that flow. Things do flow to me, but they also flow through me. I don’t want to be just a taker. There’s this relationship between me and the world, or me and God, that is nourished when I turn more and more of my attention outward, rather than inward. That’s the perceived experience.
Putting giving as “line item number 1” is proper because it reminds me that my number one priority is to be of service. When I go out and try to find more clients, it helps me to have giving on my mind. I want to win new clients so that I can give a little extra to good causes and good people. Everything flows so much easier this way, without fear.