I’ve been reading Truett Cathy’s autobiography, “Eat Mor Chikin…Inspire More People.” Among other things, Chick-fil-A is known for not being open on Sundays. An experience Cathy had in his original restaurant, the Dwarf House, provides insight into the man and how he makes decisions.
It was the late 1940s when he found a teenage boy who worked at his restaurant smoking a cigarette in the kitchen (remember this was more than 60 years ago). Cathy was disturbed to see this young man developing such a terrible habit, so he gave the teen a homework assignment…prepare two written lists, one showing the advantages of smoking and the other showing the disadvantages.
Cathy expected the teen to come back with a long list of disadvantages, such as cancer and wasted money, and no advantages. Instead the teen listed three advantages. “First, he got to take a smoke break. Second, smoking kept him from doing something even more detrimental. Third, he was buying cigarettes from my machine, so I was making a profit.”
The final point got Cathy thinking. He made more profit from the square foot of space the cigarette machine occupied than any other square foot in the restaurant. He didn’t have to do anything. The cigarette company did everything and gave Cathy a portion of the profit.
Cathy describes his response this way: “it had led this teenage boy, and perhaps others, to take up a deadly habit. It was a difficult decision, but I finally had the guts to get rid of it. I called the cigarette company and asked them to remove the machine.”
Profit matters in business…in any business. But there are some things that matter more.
The often repeated justification “it’s just business” does not remove the moral responsibility that Christian business leaders carry to honor God in all things…even if it requires a tough choice and a financial sacrifice. Honoring God always pays off in the long run.
This truth goes beyond the business world however. It applies to all of us and our everyday life. We often face a choice between what is easy and what is right, what we want and what we need, what is good for me and what is good for someone else, what helps now and what helps more later, what is sinful and what is righteous…on and on I could go.
In the long run, making decisions on the basis of honoring God and obeying Biblical principles always leads to a better life than doing otherwise. It also leads to a better world.
Pastor Steve Hogg
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