In late November, the Pastor at my church shared his stewardship message just after the offering.  In most churches I’ve been to, this is roughly an annual message delivered by a Pastor to the congregation to encourage giving.  In his message, our Pastor spoke of giving the first fruits of our labors to God and living on what is left over.  After all, everything we have is God’s and we are only looking after and taking care of it while we spend time here on earth.  His message struck a strong chord within me, and I was reminded of the blog post commitment I made in April to give the full 10 percent of my wages to the Lord.  After service that day, I felt compelled (i.e. moved by the Spirit!) to approach Pastor and share my blog post with him, but I didn’t intend to stop there.  I wanted to expand upon Pastor’s stewardship message and start a grass roots campaign to encourage greater giving within our church.  The Spirit had moved me to boldly volunteer to go before the congregation and share my testimony with them.   In Pastor’s office I brought up the post on my smart phone and read as the Pastor and his wife listened.  I could sense their enthusiasm as I spoke aloud and the glances that they exchanged, and when I asked Pastor if I could share my testimony with the congregation, he unhesitatingly agreed.

Two weeks later I was slated to share my blog post on tithing, and as I prepared I was a bit nervous.  While I speak in public settings regularly, it’s one thing to share my thoughts online where there is some anonymity involved, but it’s another thing entirely to bare one’s soul in front of your church family.  I began to feel the weight of my commitment as I began to think of my speech as a public confession, but it was the Pastor’s wife that turned me around as she used the word testimony which put me back into the right frame of mind.  I put my trust in the Lord, said a prayer to ask that the Spirit guide me, and I delivered my message to the congregation.

In addition to the post from April, and to now update all of you on what has happened since, I shared with the congregation that my family has been tithing faithfully, and God has blessed us greatly.  I have trusted in the Lord and he has given me new strength and made my faith even stronger.  Whether it was perseverance in directing the 40 Days of Community campaign at our church, participating on the call committee to add a Lay Minister to the church staff, or the strength and stamina to complete the Chicago Marathon in October, God was there urging me on.  Even in this time of great economic uncertainty, not once has my family run short in our checking account, but instead, every week we cheerfully give the first fruits of our labors to God.  God is truly great!

First, start your day with God’s word.  I’ve found that starting my day with studying scripture helps to put my day and attitude into the proper state.  I’m much more likely to handle the stresses of the day and show patience and Christ’s love to others by starting each day in the right frame of mind.  I like to think of it as my daily attitude adjustment, and  a daily devotional is a great tool to keep you on track.  For years my Dad has been hand delivering a copy of Our Daily Bread to me which is a daily devotional that I find truly inspirational.  The summary from today’s edition of Our Daily Bread seems especially appropriate to this discussion and it states: “If every circumstance finds us abiding in Christ, we will find Christ abiding with us in every circumstance.”  There’s no better way to set the tone for your day and to start abiding in Christ than by starting your day with the study of God’s word.

Second, incorporate God’s word into your training.   As much as I enjoy running, the same 6 mile loop around the neighborhood does tend to get a bit boring.  For this reason many runners have headphones on and their MP3 player churning out their favorite music.  I enjoy listening to Christian Music play lists that I download from music services like Rhapsody when I’m in the mood for music, but I’ve also found pod casts that are available from some very talented Christian pastors that enable me to continue to study God’s word while I run.  Dr. James MacDonald is the pastor of Harvest Bible Church in Chicago, IL and has a daily broadcast called Walk in the Word which can be download for free in MP3 format from their website.  Each message from Dr. MacDonald is about 30 minutes in length, so I’ll often listen to Walk in the Word in the first half of my run and then finish with some music.

Third, dedicate quality time daily to your family and be a great role model.  While multitasking may be a great strategy for getting in a run while also listening to God’s word, multitasking does not work with your family.  Even when there seems to be a million tasks that you have left undone, take the time every day to spend quality time with your family, and make sure that they know that they have your undivided attention.  In our home, even with all of the activities our children have, we make sure we sit down and eat dinner together, always starting with prayer.  Make sure that you spend time reading to them and play games with them and just enjoy spending time with each other.  Ask them questions about their thoughts on God and when they ask you questions, make sure to use these opportunities to express your faith in the Lord.   Establish a bedtime prayer routine.  Our family has a routine of saying prayers together at bedtime where we rotate which family member leads us in prayer each night.  Starting with the common bedtime prayer “Now, I lay me down to sleep…” we add who we would like to see God bless as well as what we are thankful for.  I can see in my children the strong faith that is growing as a result.

Lastly, love your spouse!  Remind yourself every day of the commitment that you made on your wedding day.  In good times and bad, if your marital relationship and faith are strong, your marriage will serve as a solid foundation for your family and your life.

Life itself is a marathon and we face challenges daily in finishing the race, but as Paul states in Philippians 2:16 “Hold firmly to the word of life; then on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain…” Start your day with scripture.  Incorporate God’s word into your running.  Focus on your family, and always keep Jesus at the center of it all.  Your race will not be in vain.

I wasn’t a “runner” yet when I turned thirty.  I had dabbled over the years with a few laps around a track followed by immense knee pain and swelling, mainly due to the 50 extra pounds I had put on during college, so my focus around this time in my life was on the exercise bike I kept in front of the small TV in the unfinished basement of my first home.  While I certainly had grand plans to exercise faithfully, I had fallen into a pattern of a month of intense exercise followed by three to four months of burn out and attempting to get back into a routine.

I had managed to shed the weight I had put on after college; however my weight was still fluctuating over a twenty pound range depending on whether I was exercising or not.   Every time that I found the motivation to get back on the bike, the cycle would begin anew, with my legs pumping furiously and my over trained body never being allowed to recover.  When I received the heart rate monitor, and maybe more importantly the little instruction booklet that came with it, I learned that I had been spending way too much time in the vigorous training zone.  I could go on now about VO2 Max and what percentage of maximum heart rate you should train at, but I’ve found a much easier way to express the intensity level at which you should spend most of your aerobic training like cycling, running, and using the elliptical machine.  What it all boils down to is this basic premise: 90% of cardiovascular exercise should be completed at a conversational pace. What this means is that if you’re out of breath and can’t have a conversation without halting and/or gasping for breath, you’re working too hard.  It seems simple enough, but countless people have injured or burned themselves out by trying to do too much too soon.  This is not unlike someone in a church, who having found some inspiration to become more active and participate, heads out full steam only to become disenfranchised and discouraged when their efforts don’t immediately produced results.

Paul says in 1st Corinthians 9:25 – “All athletes are disciplined in their training.  They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.”

Discipline is what I was missing in my training until I received that birthday present.  It was at that point that I started to transform into an athlete and kept to a regular training regimen.  And what I found was that I enjoyed it!  Daily job stress stopped taking a toll on me mentally as I found this consistent outlet.  In fact, on many a run I’ve found solutions to a problem I faced at work or home.  Also, I think it’s no coincidence that as I found discipline with my physical training, my spiritual training began to take on a whole new shape just a short time later.  Just as the heart rate monitor had changed my physical well being, an invitation to a small group Bible study at the home of some members of my church transformed my faith and spiritual well being, but I’ll save that story for another post.

“But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.  They will soar high on wings like eagles.  They will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint.” – Isaiah 40:31.

The first sentence says it all.  If you want to find new strength, like running a marathon without growing weary, then trust in the Lord!  This is easy enough to say, but in today’s world think about the implications.  I’m like most people in America, and I’m constantly barraged with advertisements that appeal to my materialistic nature.  I enjoy having the latest technology at my fingertips, and a nice home and the furnishings to go with it.  Would I have been just as happy in a smaller home and a cell phone that just handles voice calls?  Probably, but I made the decisions to spend the money that I did, and I signed the paperwork for the big mortgage to afford the home and lifestyle that I wanted.  Was I trusting in the Lord and giving the first fruits of my labors to Him?  Unfortunately, the answer is no, and it all started with how I spent my money.

What people spend their money on says a lot about what their values are.  Even now, as I fall short of tithing weekly by giving ten percent of my earning to the Glory of God, I find ways to justify myself.  One way is the thought that I have a family now, and I need to make sure they’re taken care of.  Another justification that I tell myself is that I am giving ten percent.  Well at least I am on what’s left over after paying taxes.  I know these lines of thought have to stop.  While there are countless ways to trust in the Lord other than money, I’m going to start there.  Money is something I hold onto strongly and the best way I can show my trust is by truly tithing.  So I’m going to increase my giving to ten percent of my total salary (bonuses included), stop making excuses, and cut out some of the extras that are not important.  For example, do I really need those mail order sunglasses that I’ve been receiving every month for the last 5 years or would one pair suffice?  What about my cable bill?  Do I really need all of those channels or can I make do with the basic package?  Are you ready to give to God first and then live on what’s left over?

I’m feeling a little anxious as I think about living on less and donating more, but I’m also excited at the prospect of really placing my trust in the Lord and experiencing the fulfillment of his promise that I will find new strength.  I’ll report back on my progress in giving and the ways in which God fulfills his promise.