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Income Tax Time

Published Date: April 29, 2015

by J. Ellsworth Kalas

 

I am writing you during income tax week, though you won’t receive my greeting until several weeks later.  You may wonder what income tax has to do with a column for Asbury alumni.

My feelings go back well over 50 years to one of God’s beautiful people, the late Carsten Paulsen, for whom I was leading a three day preaching mission at his church in Racine, Wisconsin. At the time, our breakfasts were unhurried affairs, especially since he was one of those people God put in the world to bless the coffee industry. Our conversations were wide-ranging, casual, unguided, but never superficial. They were always faith-woven, but never consciously so. I confess that I am prejudiced that way, particularly when the humor also slips in without effort.

It was spring and Carsten had just paid his taxes. He felt good about it.

“You know,” he said, “I realized something wonderful about my taxes this year: my income taxes were more than my total income was ten years ago. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Wonderful, indeed! I agreed with him a hearty “Amen!” I have looked at April 15 differently ever since.

The figures themselves can hardily be compared. Both our income and taxes are almost absurd in comparison with our times. But the principle remains. We can look at how much we have received or how much we have paid, at how much more affluently we have been living or at how much we’ve been able -if we choose to do so- to give away. And as believers we can be impressed by the size of our tithes or troubled that our desires have been inflated more than our generosity.

It’s a happy day when our faith gives us pleasure in paying our taxes. I thank Carsten Paulsen for this.

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3 responses to “Income Tax Time”

  1. Kent E. Kroehler says:

    Thanks for this great comment. It can/should be our joy to pay our taxes and fulfill Jesus’ teaching to render what is Caesar’s. After my retirement from active ministry, my wife Joy was in a “clean-out mode.” She asked, “Why are you keeping that box of file folders with 50+ years of tax returns. It was a good question because it made me think. I decided I was interested in the record of our income, our taxes, and our giving. So I compiled those figures on an Excel spreadsheet. When I totaled the items, I discovered our total taxes was close to our total giving. I/we decided that our goal in retirement would be to make the giving column always exceed the tax column. And, by planning a legacy gift, we can exceed our wildest expectations in giving! Out of Joy’s persistent question came a new life goal. We see taxes and giving as two forms of joyous generosity.

  2. Mike Manning says:

    I love reading your column. A similar thing happened to us as we went to college and seminary. When we got a the bit of money ahead, I felt like I wanted to use it for something special but always seemed that something was coming along that caused us to lose the extra like a doctor bill or some other expense. But much later in life as I matured I began seeing that I was truly blessed to have had the funds to cover the unexpected. Thanks again for your article.

  3. Don Demaray says:

    So constructive, Ellsworth. Shalom, Don D.

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