| Are You a Tiny Tipper? - article by Joel Hempel Some time ago, at a restaurant I want to forget, we received terrible service on top of mediocre food. When the bill came, I was faced with a dilemma. Do I leave a tip? If so, how much? I’m embarrassed to tell you how little it was, but it was tiny.
Recently, when I thought about that experience I wondered, what if God tiny-tipped us? What if he studied our quality of service and concluded: That’s worth a tiny tip, a small expression of my gratitude? Maybe you’ll learn your lesson.
Are we being good stewards when we tiny tip? Maybe we think of ourselves as fiscally conservative, economically savvy, or perhaps a less flattering term comes to mind. What about tithing? Are you a tiny tither, too? I know. A tithe is ten percent. But those of us who tithe, do we fudge, maybe give nine or eight percent, and pretend in our minds we are tithing? Or perhaps we don’t feel like we can afford to tithe. That’s understandable. But does it occur to us to tithe our time along with our gifts and talents, or a combination of a financial and talent tithe? Or maybe we have convinced ourselves that a 10% tithe is all we have to give as a faithful Christian, and that our non-essential money is ours to spend on luxury desires as we choose. Is this article too much in your face? If so, it’s only to make this point: Grace! God’s grace! What’s it worth to you? We know there is nothing cheap about God’s grace. The question is, how cheap or generous is our response? In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer states grace is not cheap. It cost God everything. Our salvation cost Himself, His Son’s death on the cross, and suffering beyond our comprehension. There was nothing cheap about what God sacrificed for us. So, does God expect our Jesus-following lives to pinch – more than a little? You tell me: Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”1 Losing one’s life and denying oneself is more than believing the Gospel and giving up our sin-soaked past. It is also living our lives in response to God’s grace, giving ourselves into God’s service,2 and loosening our grip on everything we think belongs to us.3 You say dedicating your life in its entirety is too much to expect. That’s what most people thought when Jesus said, Follow me. But those who were called, did! They invested their lives – not perfectly, but faithfully. And it cost them! By the empowering grace of God and with the aid of the Holy Spirit, they carried the cross of Christian service and modeled for us the expensive life to which we have been called. But be assured; God would never tiny tip us. Our Lord is 100% invested in us.4 The grace and Spirt that empowered and equipped the early church is the same grace and Spirit within each of us and within our congregation. God patiently helps, counsels, and leads us to a way of living that puts the Kingdom of God first.5
1. Matthew 16:24-25; also see Luke 14:26-27, 33; 1 John 2:15-17. 2. Matthew 20:25-28; John 13:12-17; Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, 27-28; 1 Peter 4:10-11. 3. Psalm 24:1; Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 12:13-15; Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-35; 1 John 3:16-18; 1 Timothy 6:17-18. 4. John 3:16; Romans 8:31-39; Philippians 4:19; Hebrews 13:5-6. 5. Matthew 6:25-33 | 
