Party Tithe

Posted by Luke | 0 comments

The Bible on Stewardship

“I don’t care if ‘the cattle on a thousand hills’ are the Lord’s (Psalm 50:10), because He isn’t giving them to me.”

“I need to be good steward of what I have or else it will fly away (Proverbs 6:10-11). That’s stewardship.”

“I wish I could buy this or that, but I can’t. I have to serve God with my money, what little of it I have.”

“I can’t just buy whatever I want. Certainly not with the way my finances are right now!”

Right?

Actually, no.

While we need to be good stewards of our money, God has a slightly different perspective on what stewardship means.

See, I used to rather despise God’s provision for me. “Sure, God,” I’d say. “You give me enough to live on, but that’s it. My life is miserable because I’m just barely making ends meet.” And all the while I knew that I was just being ungrateful, because He really was blessing me more than just to get by… though not by much. So I was just ungrateful, wasn’t I?

I was poor and ungrateful. And did I mention miserable?

*****

In January of 2007 I had had enough. It was right after another really horrible Christmas: you know, the time when it is better to give than to receive? I couldn’t bear to give because I didn’t have any money in the budget for presents. I couldn’t believe how much we had spent, and was convinced that Brittany and I were going to lose our house or something for our irresponsible spending during the holiday season. I was at a breaking point.

I finally decided to try a thing I’d heard about many times before that my dad called “The Party Tithe.” This concept comes from Deuteronomy 14:22-26. I’ll quote you the KJV because that is often considered the strictest translation, but feel free to look this up in your favorite version. Here’s verse 25:

And thou shalt bestow that [tithe] for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household.

We are told by God to take a tenth of our income–on top of the tenth we’ve already tithed for His Kingdom purposes–and spend it on whatever we want as a way of rejoicing before Him.

Brittany and I agreed to put a tenth of what I make into a Party bank account. This account, then, would pay for gifts, eating out, games, movies, splurge items, vacations, and anything else I feel like slipping in there.

Parties and Stewardship

I cannot express how incredibly freeing this has been.

My guess is that it feels as good, if not better, than being debt free. Why? Because I am no longer indebted to my “stewardship” to scrimp and save every penny. I can rest in the joy and peace found in trusting God to take care of the rest. And He has. Because, just like regular tithing, this is about resting in God rather than trying to make ends meet on our own. He provides, and He also gives us rest. That’s the point of taking a Sabbath, of tithing, and the Party Tithe. When you start doing it, life gets better.

Imagine that: The Bible suggesting a way of life that leads to greater freedom, more joy, and even more partying.

That’s exactly how God works. But when I was trusting in the god of money, I wasn’t free, I didn’t experience joy, and I never really partied. I felt poor, beaten down, and constantly enslaved to a budget. Now, I have an entire “spend without guilt” fund that is God ordained. God has commanded that we spend a tenth of our money on rejoicing before Him.

It has been over a year and a half since we started the Party Tithe, and life is so much better. I’m still learning to let go of money and spend it with joy because of God’s goodness to us, but we go out to eat once a week, we can purchase gifts (even for ourselves), and we flew out to California last Christmas to spend time with Brittany’s folks.

And the Party Fund has never been larger.

Luke Holzmann is the son of John and Sarita Holzmann, founders of Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd., in Littleton, CO, where he is the Media Relations Specialist. He attended Biola University, in La Mirada, CA, and earned the BA in Motion Picture Production. You can find his work at http://www.sonlightblog.com/, production-now.com, and lukeholzmann.blogspot.com.