A true story about growing abundance where that appears impossible: I was invited to be interim minister of a Spiritual Community that had been reduced to twenty people and was over $50,000 in debt. In six month’s we had grown and were completely out of debt. What was our strategy? We started tithing. Immediately on Monday morning we gave away 10 percent of every Sunday’s offering. Every week! Within a year I had helped them hire a full-time minister. She served for almost three years, but when she left, the community again numbered twenty people and was $30,000 in debt. Once again I was asked to be the interim minister, and once again we started tithing, every week. We were out of debt in four months.
The kabbalists of Tzfat connect the primal urgings toward abundance with the date of tithing fruit because they saw that God’s shefa, abundance, would keep flowing only if a portion of it were returned to God, the Owner of all land and all abundance. Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow
Tithing is the training wheels we put on to grow our abundance. Tithing teaches us to use the Law of Circulation. It reminds us that all of life is in the form of cycles and circulation—whether it’s the weather, water, eco-systems, or the seasons. Everything moves in circles, even our breath. Spirit is forever showering us with Life, with abundance. We have to move with the circulation to keep it flowing and growing. “Give and it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together, and running over!”
Spiritual Contemplation: Where in your life do you effortless participate in the flow of circulation? In what areas do you cling or hoard?
Affirmation: Everything is sourced from the One and belongs to the whole. I am a good steward of the abundance in my possession. I neither hoard nor cling. I allow it to freely circulate!