Chatting to Pete Burnham after football last night (good result for the vaders!) about the idea of tithing our time. It came up for me when I was preparing this talk on generosity. It is often said of people working in London that they are cash rich/time poor. I don’t know about the cash rich bit at all, but the time poor bit I think we can relate to. As much as the answer should be that we do less, that may be very hard. A different approach might be to discipline ourselves to use our time better.
How about the idea of tithing 10% of our time – (that would look like 4 hours a week, or two days a month) – to do something for no financial gain, but using our talents for the sake of others. I have a feeling that some big companies even encourage this sort of activity. 4 hours a week of volunteering, either at church, or in the community or for a project or campaign that you are passionate about. What do you think?
Just to add I think ‘busyness’ is one of the key enemies of our age and location here in London. “Sorry too busy” to carry on…
I find the idea of tithing time very helpful and Mark, I found that homegroup audio thing you did AMAZING!!! I know it seriously made me think about things all week and has had ongoing implication plus a load of gags between Jon O and I. It was great to be homegroup and to be considering being more generous in spirit also. A good path to explore in the mind and in action. Very healthy. Thanks James