It's April 15

This morning, I went to Post Office before I came to work, and I did my civic duty. I paid my taxes. Of course, I pay taxes nearly every day of the year. Sales tax. Property tax. Twice a month, state and federal taxes come out of my paycheck. But Uncle Sam says they didn’t take enough this year. Sure seemed like enough to me, but in the end, I’ll go with what Uncle Sam tells me.

Like most Americans, I seethe a little when I see waste and fraud in the name of our government. I get more than a little irked when we learn some new detail about how our tax dollars are spent. But I’ve got to tell you, as I drove away from the mailbox, I felt a little sense of pride that I was doing my part as a patriot.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t enjoy paying taxes in the same way that I enjoy two scoops of Rock Chocolate Jayhawk at Sylas & Maddie’s. But as I consider the roads I drive on and the police that patrol our streets and the military that keeps me safe, it hurts a little less to pay those taxes. Just as I walked away from the voting booth last week with a sense of pride that I was contributing to democracy (I was voter #68 in the middle of the afternoon), I drove away from that mailbox knowing that the payment of my taxes was a part of the price of living in the United States of America.

Not only do I feel a little more like a patriot, but I also feel a little more spiritual. After all, Jesus said to render to God what is God’s and to Caesar (or Sam) what is Caesar’s (or Sam’s). So when I pay my taxes, I’m doing what Jesus instructed me to do.

It also gave me pause for a little thanksgiving. Thanks, Lord, that I have a job and a salary on which I am taxed. Thank you for my home and the mortgage interest deduction that it provides. Thanks for my wife and my daughter, or as they’re known in the tax world—my little exemptions. Thank you that my health costs didn’t exceed 2% of my adjusted gross income. Thanks that some of Kacie’s college expenses are tax deductible. We’re told to give God thanks in everything, and I guess that means on tax day, too.

I’ll still gripe about high taxes and waste and fraud. I’ll still prefer lower taxes to higher taxes. I’ll still take every deduction and credit I can. But when all is said and done, I hope I remember that even an unpleasant and mundane task like paying my taxes can be an act of worship if my heart is right.