Be Still...?

Just me and my.... no, it's not my camera... I sure hope I have one like it... so I can really start a photography business venture with my friend agnes and make a model out of my girlfriend...

Presumptuous Me

May of last year, I and my girlfriend attended the first death anniversary celebration of my Lolo Roger. We drove south (on my motorcycle) from Cebu City to the southern tip of Cebu Island and took the barge going to Negros Oriental. Lolo Roger is buried in Dumaguete City.

A few months after, in a proud, almost boastful, voice, I told a good friend of mine about our summer escapade.

It was then that I learned that this friend of mine drove from Mindanao to Manila during the same time I drove from Cebu to Dumaguete. Then he told me that when they were driving to the capital, they met on the road a foreigner walking. The man has been to different countries on a mission: to walk around the world.

I went to my friend so proud about my adventure only to find out that he's been to a greater adventure and that other people are on or have been to much greater ones.

There is nothing wrong about being proud of the things that you have done but bragging and thinking no one's ever done the things you did probably is. And it just might make you lose your face...

In Luke 14:8-10, Jesus said:

When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests.

Tithe and Bribe

One of the many things I know I should do but somehow fail to do several times is tithing. I know how it works (or I think I do). I know I ought to do it. But somehow, I can’t.

There are a lot of things that I can identify that would very much qualify as alibis or as I would call them: self-justified reasons, for not tithing. But I am not going to write about them here. I’m going to write about tithing and the awkward feelings that surround it.

I may well be speaking for myself here. I may be the only one going through this. But it’s our own personal experiences that teach us life lessons. And this is one of those experiences.

Have you ever tried giving more than ten percent of your income because you have so much to thank for? I have and it feels so good.

How about giving more, hoping to somehow negate something that you have done wrong? Or maybe you don’t admit it, not even to yourself, but at the back of your mind the idea clings on like stain on fabric – that you have brought tithing down to a derogatory status of a bribe?

This is crazy. I know. Tithing is not, and should never be, for all intent and purposes, a bribe. Tithing is returning to God what is rightfully His. Tithing is part of the natural order of the universe. It is us humans, and all our weaknesses and inadequacies, that stain the essence of the tithe.

I am sure many of us have heard about employers holding their own employees hostage with their (employees) salaries as the weapon of choice. These employers threaten not to release the salaries or wages of their workers if they (employees) do not let them (employers) have their ways of doing things. And I’m pretty sure also that upon hearing this kind of stories, we would, as if in chorus, scream “That’s not fair!”

Indeed, it is not fair. It is not fair to those who have worked so hard not to receive the fruits of their labor – something that rightfully belongs to them. It’s stealing from them.

It is also not fair to God if we don’t give Him what’s His. It’s stealing from Him.

Moreover, it is equally not fair to Him if we give our tithe and expect a little extra favor from Him because we have something in us that needs serious corrections.

Malachi 3:10 says “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me on this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it…”

We should give our tithe because it’s the right thing to do – so “that there may be food in God’s house,” and not because we are after the blessing God promised. It’s just like we don’t steal or kill because it’s the right thing to do and not because we don’t want the consequences of doing it.

So whenever tithing becomes more like bribing, change the things you have the power over – yourself and your unrighteousness. Ask God to take away that guilt. And when it is gone, giving will feel so much better.

I have yet to do this myself. Help me God...