Giving to Caesar

19Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. 20Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ 21They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ ~Matt 22:19-21

I'm usually freakishly on top of our personal finances, but since going back to school, I've let some things slip. No, I still hold my four decades and holding track record of no bounced checks, but I didn't take Thanksgiving weekend to start doing pre-work for our taxes. I didn't even do it on New Years Eve. Nope, here it is January and I haven't even started to organize tax-related stuff. Well, that's not entirely true -- I did have a minor meltdown on my birthday and ran a quick report from Microsoft Money to see where we were standing in terms of charitable giving. To be sure, with two of us in seminary, the number was low, but I just couldn't stand the thought of 2008 go by without "throwing more money away" to charity.

My 40th birthday present to myself was to give a not-so-insignificant chunk of change to the local food shelf. This was our second gift this year. We were absolutely sickened at the thought of taking that cash rebate late this spring and gave half of it to the food shelf. Selfishly, we took the other half and used it to pay for part of another class for Bob. Yeah, we're THAT kind of liberal couple. We actually pay our taxes and wonder why it is we're not paying more.

Okay, here's a little confession about the above statement. When I say we pay our taxes without much of a fight, it's because we have this sort of Disney-esque vision of what happens with our tax dollars. Ours don't go to one of the zillions of government-backed activities that we don't agree with. Nope, our tax dollars are magically carried by little bluebirds to things like roads, schools and health care. We have the magic electronic funds transfer in which our money goes only to things we back.

I know our thoughts on taxes puts us WAY far out there. Heck, even my wonderfully socialist mother, who I've used without much irony the phrase "good for the collective," started having issues with taxes in the past two presidential terms, saying she could understand sheltering some money so "Bush couldn't get it to buy more bombs." But, lest you think we wouldn't funnel money to the military, our little bluebirds made sure that at least a portion went to things like sufficient equipment to protect the soldiers and sailors who were ordered to put themselves in harm's way for reasons we disagree (and if you asked them, I suspect at least a few of those service folks would also have their doubts).

So, when I finally start doing my preliminary work tomorrow to get our financial house in order, I'll remember the reason I have a Monday in January off in the first place. MLK Day marks a day of remembrance for not just one individual but for the actions of many who sacrificed to further the cause of equality to ALL people. If at the end of the day, I find I'm going to give a little something back to Caesar, I'll give a quick prayer for the leadership, who will be overseeing the gigantic ledger of funds coming in from the millions of bluebirds across this nation, to have the wisdom to spend it wisely. I'm hopeful that my annual exercise in paying my share will shift from wishful thinking to doing real good. I'll see your Caesar and raise you another.