The Numbers Game

In common with many models, if not all, my mobile phone has in its display an indicator that shows how ‘full’ the battery is.  I feel uneasy if this falls below 50% and each evening, when I return from work (or nearer bedtime, if I’ve forgotten), I plug it in to recharge.  In addition to the numerical display, mine also has a light that shines yellow while the phone is charging.  This changes to green when the charge level reaches 90%, so if I’m in a hurry I know that I can unplug it and go, confident that I shan’t be out of contact.

It’s strange how the difference between 90% and 100% seems far less than that between 10% and zero, while, arithmetically, they are the same.  I remember, many years ago, how I agonised over that brave step to begin tithing.  On the one hand, my conscience was telling me it was the right thing to do, that this was a Biblical precedent that I should follow, and so on; on the other, I felt that my income was so low that I would never manage if I were to give away a whole tenth of it.

One day, however, I looked one last time at a verse that had long been part of my dilemma, “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my temple.  Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all.” (Malachi 3:10), and took the plunge.  As I look back now, over good times and bad, I realise that the effect - and indeed the effort! - of managing on 90% was quite small, and I just can’t think of anything that actually suffered.  I certainly never went hungry!  Today, with the financial constraints of a economic crisis, many people are having such a reduction of income – and far worse – forced upon them, and some have suffered so greatly that they do go hungry, if only so that their children can eat.  It’s not to them that this article is addressed, but to others.

One way in which these folks, and people in far worse conditions in the third world, can be helped is through Christian charity.  There are about 163,000 registered charities in this country, and many more that aren’t registered.  Some are Christian, some are not; most are genuine in their desire to help other people in one way or another; some are not – caveat donor!  At this time of year generosity is at its height, wearing a red coat with white fur trimmings.  It’s also the time of year when Resolutions are made.  May I suggest that, if you aren’t already tithing your income, it might be a good time to start, with some of that 10% going to the church, and the rest to a selection of worthy charities.

Believe me, it is possible to live – and to live well – on only 90%.  To someone else, that might be the difference between 10% and zero!