A friend of mine sent me an article about the owner of a diner in Dallas, North Carolina who removed the prices from her restaurant menus. She maintained that she received a leading from the Lord that she needed to do this – and so she did. The first week under the new program saw her revenue triple. And she quite openly stated that if she really wanted to demonstrate her trust in the Lord then she should trust Him with her finances.
That’s a real leap of faith for sure. In fact, this is the first reported case of a faith based, pay as you can program in a restaurant in the US. While it is true that other places have tried the same thing, most of them have either gone out of business or have not embraced the faith based nature of Dana Parris’s change in her business model.
For many years now I have tried a similar sort of program in my consulting work. It has been an ongoing part of my practice that whenever I accept a new client I ask them to determine my fee for the first three months of our work together. After the initial period of working together, we sit down and discuss the value that has been brought to the company. Then, jointly, we look at ability to pay and value received to determine a fair price for services – fair for both sides. In almost every case, I believe that I have been blessed by using this model and believe me, I have taken quite a bit of flak from other consultants for “devaluing” the work that I do.
The truth is that each of us brings different things to the table and those assets have greater value in some situations than at other times in other situations. Throughout the years I have to say that I have been treated very fairly and it is almost incomprehensible that I would ever determine initial rates for work I would do in the future. Even when I did ministry work and helped people find jobs with my ministry partners, we never had a fee schedule or charged a set rate for the work we did. But there were times that people gave us donations for work we had done in assisting them to find jobs or careers.
God expects us to reach out and serve others – whether it is through consulting, or ministry work or even through serving patrons at a diner. One thing is for sure – God is present and if the work is done consistent with God’s will for His people, the venture can’t help but succeed. I know this sounds scary but I have done this for a number of years and I haven’t been disappointed…
The verse for this evening is from Matthew 25:40, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Christ was quick to let His followers know that they were expected to reach out to help others and that this was the same as reaching out and helping Jesus Himself.
My encouragement this evening is that you will always be blessed when you take care of others. The blessings may not be financial but they will be blessings nonetheless. My prayer is that you will look for ways to reach out and do great deeds for others. Because something may seem simple or easy to you but it may be just the thing some other person was praying for – and it’s a wonderful thing to be the answer to someone’s prayers. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…