A couple of weeks ago my appendix decided to stab me in the back and I made the call to have it removed forever. Ok, the surgeon made that call, but either way the sucker is gone and I don’t miss it at all.

During recovery, a lot of friends sent sweet messages, dropped off food, cards, and delivered flowers. My landlord has the gift of “pie baking”, something I know nothing about, and gave me a fresh, warm apple pie. People, I had a hot pie on my counter all for ME! Now if you cut a pie like a normally person, there are 8 slices. And as you can imagine, one pie for one person is a lot of pie… if I gave one slice away it would hardly be missed because I would still have 7 SLICES OF PIE ALL TO MYSELF.

I wish I could think so generously about other fractions in my life. Let’s be honest, 1/8 of a pie sounds easy to let go of, but thinking about giving away 1/10 of my hard earned dollars…not so easy. Honestly, if I was reading this, I would have hit that little red “x” in the top right corner of the screen by now.

This past year has been rough. And I am sure this is uncomfortable to read, believe me, it is more uncomfortable to write, but among the many different changes in my life, one has been an increase of expenses. My amazing roommate decided to get married, and they preferred to move in together, the nerve of wedded bliss. My car moved from the street in front of my house to the car graveyard, and so my expenses literally doubled within weeks. DOUBLED.

In December I felt God challenge me to tithe regularly, something I hadn’t done in years. I didn’t feel burdened, but I felt like He might be asking me to do this to show me more about faith. It was a commitment to believe that He can provide, a commitment to acknowledge that everything I have was given to me by Him, and a commitment to believe that when I have need, I will see God take action and provide. And seriously, who doesn’t want to see God act for good?

So tonight I made my payment towards faith. My investment towards seeing God show that he is on my side. And I’d like to acknowledge that since January 1^st, I have paid all my bills and I have not been hungry. I have also on occasion purchased wine, so as you can see, it isn’t like I’m living in a tent on a street corner. And to acknowledging that in front of other people is a way to help me continue with that commitment and is another way God gets the credit for what happens in my life. I have a lot of hospital bills coming up and you know what? I’m not even stressing, I’m …just living this thing.