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When most Christians see the word tithe, they immediately are lead to the number 10%. This is how we understand God’s claim on our material goods. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s even biblical. We know, as good Christians, that we are meant to at least return 10% of our earnings to God in thanksgiving and support of His church. But what happens when tithing and stewardship become mingled with individualism and materialism? Well, this is what happens.

Our individualistic society begins to claim that God only has claim on 10%. Without judging the alleged pastor who left that receipt, we know that God deserves much more than just 10% but in his graciousness, he asks us for what we can afford. Even the fifth precept of the Church “(‘You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church’) means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.” (CCC 2043) But, we are not asked to simply give our 10% or however much we can, we are asked to give ourselves.
Now the reason I am talking about this is because I believe that our culture loves percentages. You can call it democracy, socialism, or communism, but everyone loves knowing how much of the pie is going to whom. This isn’t to say that knowing percentages is good or bad but I would like to think about the nature of it. When you say this percentage likes this, while this percentage likes this, you are distinctly dividing two ideas. Is this a good process when it incorporates God? Is it okay to begin partitioning your life leaving only a slice for God?
Let’s do some math, because after all, the title of this blog is a number. A practicing Catholic will go to Mass or an active Christian will go to service once a week. That’s one hour out of 168, which comes to .6% of your week given directly to God. But that’s not fair because during some of that time your sleeping and God intended us to sleep, so it shouldn’t count against you. So subtracting the average hours of sleep which comes out to around 52 hours a week, you get one hour of Mass for 116 waking hours a week, a lovely percentage of .8%. That’s very far from the 10% we all like to think of.
When you begin dividing up and partitioning (or as we call it, managing) your life, God should not be in His own little section. He shouldn’t be a slice of your time, talent, and treasure. He should be your time, talent, and treasure. We need to take every opportunity to honor and glorify God. If we can only go to Mass once a week, then maybe we need to meet God in our rooms or over coffee everyday. If we struggle with tipping a waitress more than 10 or 15%, maybe we need to see Christ in them before we sign the receipt. It’s quite simple, when you enter into judgement, God will not look at you and say “I’ll take your best 10% and the rest is trash.” Rather, He’ll say, “I’ll take it all, because I didn’t create 10% of you. I created all of you.”

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