It was the first year I started getting automatic deposits for my paychecks. Before then, I’d always received paper checks, and I had a rhythm: go to the bank, deposit the check, and immediately write out my tithing.
Then I moved to Utah, and when my system changed, my pattern did too. Being surrounded by family and recently returned missionary friends, I often attended church with them. Slowly, without realizing it, my once-consistent practice became scattered.
At the end of that year, I sat across from my bishop for tithing declaration. He handed me the slip of paper showing what I had paid. The number surprised me. It wasn’t even close to representing ten percent of what I had earned. I was devastated! Just a few years prior, I had been preaching tithing (among other things) as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All that time, I had professed and sincerely believed that I was keeping the law of tithing.
As I processed that moment, I began to realize that despite what I had professed, my habits were no longer reinforcing that belief. What I had once thought was a strong ring of faith was, in truth, thin. I felt cut down.
It’s not until closely inspected that we can tell how thick or thin a ring really is. The outside of the tree may look strong, but once it is chopped down, the rings tell the truth. While a tree must be cut down for the truth of its rings to be revealed, we are granted something gentler: the chance to examine our own spiritual cross-section without destruction.
It may not always feel painless, but this is where growth begins; in the honest recognition of what’s missing and the decision to nourish what remains.
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