What is the secret to happiness?
Ask this question to a hundred people and you’ll get a hundred different answers. Marketing executives want us to believe that buying a certain product will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams, or make us more desirable to the opposite sex, or transform us from an overweight couch potato into lean, mean fitness machine. It’s part of the message we get from our culture telling us that happiness comes from our status, accomplishments, relationships and possessions.[1] We are always looking out for the next big, better thing coming down the pike that we are confident will make us happy. We watch and wait for the newest version of the iPad and iPhone, the newest video game system, and the new car designs for the next model year. We look for the perfect mate. Once we’ve found the perfect mate, we strive for the perfect house. Once we have the perfect house, we want a bigger, more perfect one or a new, bigger car or more money in the bank. We work to find the perfect job. Once we have it, we keep an eye out for the next promotion or look forward to retirement or a new, even better job. We seem to be on a constant and futile chase after the promised land of everlasting happiness.
According to Dr. Emma Seppala, the Associate Director at Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, life experience as well as research data suggests that the secret to lasting happiness does not lie in any goods, relationships or achievements, but rather in what we can give: not just material gifts, but gifts of time, gifts of love, gifts of ourselves. Things like compassion and service don't just make us happy but they also have a host of other associated benefits and may even contribute to a longer life.
Giving to others even increases our well-being above and beyond spending money on ourselves. In a revealing experiment led by Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton, participants received a sum of money. Half of the participants were instructed to spend the money on themselves and the other half were told to spend the money on others. At the end of the study, participants that had spent money on others felt significantly happier than those that had spent money on themselves. This is true even for toddlers and young children! A recent study by Elizabeth Dunn and colleagues at the University of British Columbia shows that, even in children as young as two years old, giving treats to others increases their happiness more than receiving treats themselves.[2]
The text from Deuteronomy is an ancient thanksgiving liturgy that tells the story of faith. It recounts the story of Israel from the Exodus to God leading his people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land.[3] When we read the text carefully, it becomes pretty clear that God establishes tithing as the foundation of the social network of his people -- a social network that extends all the way back to their ancestor, a "wandering Aramean" (Jacob), an "alien" in a strange land who was dependent on God for everything (v. 5).
The community of his descendants became the nation that God rescued from slavery and to whom God gave a homeland (vv. 6-10). Because of God's provision for the social network that is his people, his people are to bring together the first fruits of their produce and labor to celebrate with everyone, including the Levites and the aliens among them, "all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house" (v. 11). The giving of the tithe extended the social network to the most vulnerable people in the land, including the aliens, orphans and widows, who "may eat their fill within your towns" (v. 12).[4]
What can we as God’s stewards learn from this act of thanksgiving and praise in Deuteronomy?[5] There are three. They are:
1) True happiness doesn’t come from selfishness. Happiness does not rise to the top of the heap when it is weighed down by grudges and anger. Turn on the Bravo channel and watch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, featuring some of the richest people in the world and you’ll see what I mean. True happiness comes when we give ourselves away; when we give life away. But most of us have a difficult time with this.
A 2005 study by the Barna Research Group found five reasons why Christians do not give more to their churches. In the words of the study's director, George Barna: "Some people lack the motivation to give away their hard-earned money because the church has failed to provide a compelling vision for how the money will make a difference in the world.... The second group are those who see their giving as leverage on the future. They withhold money from the church because they do not see a sufficient return on their investment. The third segment is comprised of people who do not realize the church needs their money to be effective. Their church has done an inadequate job of asking.... The fourth group is composed of those who are ignorant of what the Bible teaches about our responsibility to apply God's resources in ways that affect lives. The final category contains those who are just selfish. They figure they worked hard for their money and it's theirs to use as they please." Some people may fit into more than one of these categories.
Barna continues. "It helps when church leaders recognize the underlying issue related to each of these barriers, the absence of a compelling vision to motivate generosity is a leadership issue. The perception that donations do not produce significant outcomes is usually an efficiency or productivity issue, sometimes compounded by poor communications. Churches that struggle because they do not ask strategically have a process issue. When the problem is people's ignorance of scriptural principles regarding stewardship, there is a theological or educational issue. And cases where people focus on themselves rather than other people reflect a heart issue. The reality is that Americans are willing to give more generously than they typically do, but it takes a purposeful and well-executed approach to facilitate that generosity." [6]
2) As a spiritual discipline, what if, instead of talking about the obligation to God, we talked about the blessing that God has built into the discipline of tithing? Tithing is a spiritual issue; maybe even the most basic spiritual issue. Dave Ramsey gets asked all kinds of questions on financial issues on TV, the radio and in his books. On his website, he offers advice on tithing and giving. The question posed to him was “Is it acceptable to pause tithing in tough financial times?”
“The Bible does not mention anything about "pausing" tithing. Neither does it say that we will go to hell if we do not tithe. The tithe, which is a scriptural mandate, was not instituted for God's benefit because he already has all the money he needs. God does not need our money.
So why does God ask us to give 10%? Tithing was created for our benefit. It is to teach us how to keep God first in our lives and how to be unselfish people. Unselfish people make better husbands, wives, friends, relatives, employees and employers. God is trying to teach us how to prosper over time....
If you cannot live off 90% of your income, then you cannot live off 100%. It does not require a miracle for you to get through the month. I think that if you sit down and look at your budget, you will see that you can make it while giving at least 10%. Read the Bible and take from it what you will, and if you tithe, do it out of love for God, not guilt.”
This is a text that challenges our Western worldview that assumes that spiritual things are superior to material things and that one usually has little to do with the other. A biblical worldview, on the other hand, recognizes that how we handle material things is the basic indicator of how we're going to handle spiritual things as well. One has everything to do with the other.[7]
3) The ritual of tithing in today’s text reminds us that we are not born generous. This ritual is a teaching tool to illustrate to us that through giving we will find happiness. It is vital for our faith as God’s stewards. It helps us live out our faith as it did for God’s people in biblical times. When we follow the ritual of tithing, we model a life of thanksgiving and happiness for our children and new believers to the faith.
Tithing doesn't guarantee us that, someday, Publishers Clearing House is going to show up on our doorstep with an oversized check. What it does guarantee, however, is that we can experience great happiness in knowing that we are participating in God's great social network called the church -- a network that is called to expand into every corner of the world. Tithing is not about giving until it hurts, but rather, giving until it feels really good.
It's not a coincidence that when Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7, "God loves a cheerful giver" the root word for "cheerful" is the Greek word "hilario" (from which we get the word "hilarious"). That's not "give 'til it hurts" but instead "give 'til you giggle!" Tithing is a discipline that brings us joy because it brings joy to others, making our whole social network hum with possibility.[8]
[3] The Stewardship Companion. David N.
Mosser (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007) p.186-187.
[5] The Stewardship Companion. David N.
Mosser (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007) p.186-187
[6] Barna Research Group, "Americans
donate billions to charity, but giving to churches has declined," April
25, 2005,
barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/180-americans-donate-billions-to-charity-but-giving-to-churches-has-declined.
Retrieved August 8, 2012.
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