'The Vital Sign Nobody Checks'

The nurse never asks how you feel about your blood pressure. She wraps the cuff, waits, writes down a number, and moves to the next one. Then the doctor walks in and does the most important thing she will do all day. She looks at today’s numbers next to last year’s. One reading tells her very little. A trend tells her almost everything. We know she is helping us stay well. There is one number most of us have never let anyone take, and it may say more about our health than any of those: the share of what comes in each month that we give away.

Moses understood why that number matters. He was speaking to Israel at the edge of the Promised Land, about to inherit houses they hadn’t built and herds they hadn’t raised. His worry was their success. “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me’” (Deuteronomy 8:17). Then he answers: “But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18). Success whispers that we did this alone and every dollar is ours to decide. Centuries later, Jesus told religious leaders who tithed even their mint, dill, and cumin to practice justice, mercy, and faithfulness “without neglecting the former” (Matthew 23:23). The former was the tithe, a tenth of what you earn, set apart first for God. It was the healthy range on the chart all along.

So take the reading. Work out what percent of your monthly income you give. If you bring home $4,000 and give $120, you are at three percent. Don’t grade it. Then aim the trend in a healthy direction: up one percent, toward the tithe. That is $160, forty dollars more a month. Each gift is a quiet way of saying you trust God with your care and no longer need to be your own source. That trust is the real vital sign. Many of us have carried the weight of being responsible for everything so long we’ve stopped noticing how heavy it is. One step toward the tithe sets a little of it down.

Which way has your giving been trending lately?