Doing business God’s way

Have you ever noticed that sometimes God’s way doesn’t make sense when you look at it in the natural?

A few months back, I had the honor of personally sitting down with Truett Cathy, the founder of the remarkably successful Chick-Fil-A chain.  We had an incredible thirty minutes or so together, and for those who don’t know, Mr. Cathy is an extremely dedicated Christian who still teaches Sunday School in his church (he has been for over 50 years).

Chick-Fil-A continues to remain closed for business on Sundays because Mr. Cathy chose to honor God’s laws rather than typical business.  He said, “Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and directing our attention to things more important than our business. If it took seven days to make a living with a restaurant, then we needed to be in some other line of work. Through the years, I have never wavered from that position.”

Many “experts” said that the business would never make it when they were just starting out because of that decision.  Many shopping malls refused to let them in back in the late 60’s because of that decision.

However, 40 years later, they have over 1,400 stores and are approaching $3 billion in annual sales.  And to top it off, they’re still a private, family-owned company.

God’s laws or directions do supersede natural laws and what sometimes makes business sense to us. 

There were times that I bought properties because they may have made business sense to do so.  I bought them just because I could, but was it what I was supposed to do?  I found out later that this wasn’t always the case.

It made business sense for me to retire as an architect, and I was proud to be able to say I did.  But what I later realized is that God had a calling on my life as an architect, especially helping pastors build their churches and bringing their God-given visions to reality.  I had neglected and even abandoned that call, and I had to repent for doing so. 

And sometimes it’s just a matter of the right timing.  How many times have we heard a Word from the Lord, and we rush out to make it happen on our own because we automatically think that He means right away?

Did that strike a chord with someone else besides me?

Blessings!

Mark