Finances: Who is my Lord?

Last week I completed that dreadful task that comes around once a year like a re-occurring plague: taxes.  Generally speaking, I have either not had to pay taxes because my income was so low (like when working a part-time job as a GA in seminary)  or my taxes have always been removed from my pay check as I am paid (secular work environments using a traditional W-2).  When using the traditional W-2 form with taxes being removed as I go, I never bothered to notice just how much is taken out.  I looked at my gross income for tithing purposes, but other than that simply worried about budgeting based on the net income.  Why didn't I worry about how much the government took?  I was nearly guaranteed a generous check at the end of tax season as a rebate.  It would all more or less even out in the end, right?

However, this year I had to save part of my income each pay check to go towards taxes.  I saved the amount I was told to my people smarter than me, and really didn't think much about it until it was time to write the check to send to the government.  Then I noticed: while I send off somewhere between 25%-28% of my paycheck to the government, I only give X % to the church, the place where I am supposed to give my "heart, my soul, my all." 

This struck me as backwards, as a telling sign of who retains lordship over me in a profound way: the government demands of me far more than I am willing to give to God.  It seems ironic to me (and disturbing) that the very nation I attempt to distinguish myself from by saying, "I am a Christian following Jesus and a citizen not of this world" calls me out silently every year by stretching out a hand to take taxes.

I know taxes are simply a part of life that we deal with while living under Caesar.  This is not a complaint (outside of how much money goes to warmongering) about how much is asked for or what is done with it.  Instead, it's a challenge: can I live in such a way to give as much to God as I do the government?  Can I surpass this and declare with my finances who I give lordship to in my life?  I wonder what can be done for God...