one response to "Going Beyond Ourselves: In Sacrifice"

I just had to share this email I received this morning from Dawn Walden, one of our newer members at CLC Tinley Park:

I have been meaning to email you for a while now but hearing the message yesterday really put it in my face to let you know some things!

I took the tithe challenge; I think it was back in March. I told myself that I could not consider becoming a member at CLC if I wasn’t tithing regularly first. So I took the challenge and committed to “trying” it for the 3 months. Well, it didn’t really occur to me until yesterday that I have been tithing for 8 months now. At first it seemed like no big deal but then I started to run out of money from my surplus and started to get scared. My family’s advice was to stop giving to the church, and ask about getting my money back. (!!) But what you said this Sunday makes all the difference! I couldn’t just keep buying what ever I want and trust that God will make sure I have money to tithe with.

I actually had to start spending less! I think some people think that God will allow us to spend “our” money on anything we want, and then the tithe money will just supernaturally appear, and that we play no part in all of it. I really have been looking at what I buy and asking if this is what God wants me to do with the money he has entrusted me with.

I really hope that Sunday’s message will help people to understand why giving is so important. Well I could keep going on about how much I enjoyed the message but most importantly I want to thank you so much for your (and Chris’) honesty and for being so genuine. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated your words yesterday. I thank God for you, Chris and CLC all the time.

Dawn Walden

Dawn, you made my day! Anybody else have a 'giving story' that you would share with us? We'd love to hear from you.