Tithing Explained via Amdahls Law

I have a pretty busy schedule. It may not be busy from your perspective but I am having trouble completed all the tasks that I assigned for myself. So I am looking for a way to improve the amount of hours I have per day, or at least increase the number of tasks I complete per day. I am trying to increase my effectiveness.

My issue is with time. For problem solving purposes, lets trade my problem of limited time for a problem of limited money. If I had a problem paying my bills, or buying whatever I needed to buy, the first thing I would make sure that I am doing is tithing. If I am not giving at least 10% of my income away, I would up whatever percent I am giving to at least 10. If I am already giving 10%, I would increase that number, and give more to my church, friends, the needy, or a charity.

In increasing my monetary giving, I can expect that I will receive or obtain more money. This is the law (or principle) of tithing.

The Principle of Tithing

The Lord says on many occasions in the scripture that he owns everything. Psalms 24:1 says that "The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." We, humans, were given dominion over the earth, as written in Genesis 1:28. With this said, tithing is the act of giving a portion of your money, animals, or crops away. Able first did this in obedience to God in Genesis 4:4. After giving, God, in turn, says that he will bless what you gave Malachi 3:10 Matt 13:23.

For example, if a farmer decides to plant extra seeds instead of eating or selling the seeds she could reasonably expect to produce a larger crop with a greater amount of total fruit (and more seeds) the next harvest.

I am probably oversimplifying the whole concept, but I have friends who went from living from paycheck-to-paycheck to being able to go on vacations simply because they started tithing. In undergrad, when I was short on money in my last year, I prayed and tithed, and out of no where I got a job that was enough to pay for my rent. Even though I took out loan money I did not have to use it.

I know for sure that God honors tithing.

Now concerning time, what naturally occurring phenomenon can explain that if I give more time to God he will Honor my commitment? I believe the answer is Amdahls Law.

Amdahls Law

Amdahl's Law says that greater 'speed up' (concerning systems) is achieved when the portion of the code that makes the largest impact is improved. This law is associated with the phrase "Make the common case fast." This is represented by the following equations:

Speedup = 1 / ( (1 - f) + (f / n) )

where f is the percentage of the importance that can be enhanced and n is the amount or factor by which the system is enhanced.

For example, if I improve 10% of my activities by a factor of 10 then I would obtain a speed up of 1.1 (f = 0.1, n = 10 -> Speedup = 1.09). If you increase f to 0.5 and make a 10x improvement you would get a speedup of 1.8. When f = 0.1 and n = 20 you get a speedup of only 1.10. This shows that you should work to improve the important task.

Now, imagine that we can measure the tasks in our day by the importance. In order to increase our efficiency during the day, by applying Amdahl's law, we should invest more time in "improving" the most important parts of our day. If spending time with Jesus is the most important part of your day, then an improvement in the time spent with him would allow you to achieve a significant increase throughout the day.

Therefore, investing your time were it matters the most will improve your day as a whole. The speedup, or blessing received by investing time with Jesus is definitely worth the sacrifice it takes to make that improvement.

I hope you followed me on this... I know at the end it got a little blurry, let me know what you think.