Samoa Joe's tithe: faith after two layoffs
The wrestler told Grace Family Church that, four hours after his second layoff, a friend asked him to audition for a series.
Samoa Joe's tithe was the focus of his testimony at Grace Family Church, according to Rapzilla. The wrestler, with three decades in TNA, WWE and AEW, went from suspecting the church's finances to giving his first 10%.
It started in a class nobody wanted
Joe didn't dream of the ring. He grew up practicing judo and trained at a local jiu-jitsu studio. The owner of that studio needed to fill his wrestling class, so he invited him to try it. Joe accepted, and the training caught him immediately.
On television he plays a 310-pound giant, but he maintains he would never hurt someone on purpose.
«Grace doesn't negotiate with your pocketbook.»
Two decades of skepticism
Twenty years ago Joe sat at Grace Family Church as a skeptic. The prosperity doctrine had hit his family before: his parents, he said, were led astray by that teaching. Since then he looked at every offering with suspicion, convinced there was a trick in everything.
He told pastor Craig Altman that he, his wife and his family have been members for 18 years.
His wife grew up giving the tithe as a discipline and she was the one who insisted until he gave in. The change came when he stopped seeing money as his own and started seeing himself as a manager of what God entrusted to him. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein." (Psalm 24:1, ESV)
He doesn't tell it as a tax or a monthly bill. He tells it as the response of someone who recognizes a faithfulness he didn't deserve. Grace doesn't negotiate with your pocketbook.
Two layoffs and a call
A concussion ended his in-ring career and led him to the commentary desk. Shortly after, he was laid off. They rehired him and he moved to a corporate position, but the company structure changed and, two months later, he was laid off again.
He got home and told his wife he had been laid off. She looked up and said: "God has this. We're going to be fine. We already prayed about this. It's going to work out." (Sígueme translation)
Four hours later, a friend he hadn't spoken to in 15 years called him. He was putting together a new series for Peacock and asked him for an audition tape. Joe got the role of Sweet Tooth in Twisted Metal and walked back into his house telling his wife he was now starring in a TV series.
He also studied with her Financial Peace University, a personal finance program. That's why he insists on budgeting, getting out of consumer debt and putting God first. He doesn't promise a reward for giving: his testimony is that he learned to trust while the floor was moving.
If you're managing little —a paycheck that doesn't stretch, a scholarship, a part-time job—, write down this week what comes in and what goes out. Faithfulness is learned there, not when the raise comes. How do you decide what to give and what to keep when money is tight?
