I didn’t grow up in church. So when I graduated college and started chasing after God with passion, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard about the “tithing 10% gig.”

TEN PERCENT?!?! That was like, a lot of money, especially for a recent college grad who was learning how to manage her money (and wasn’t very good at it yet.) While I  managed to pay my bills each month, sometimes it was pretty close and involved a lot of stressed out tears.

So the whole idea of following God and giving Him back MY money in what seemed to be quite a big chunk was a turn off for me. I figured that there must be some loophole or disclaimer for recent college grads with credit card debt who really liked to eat sushi.

But now that I fully understand what it means to truly follow Jesus, I realize it wasn’t a nickel and dime issue… It was a heart issue. [Read more…]