The Honor Box and Real Life
Sunday, October 14, 2007 at 07:41PM Yoda said it best to Luke: "Do, or do not. There is no try."
When I decided to "do" the Honor Box back in 2001, Yoda's wisdom was at the forefront of my mind. I knew that I had to be committed to the Honor Box concept. If I was to merely "try" it and see how it worked out, I would surely fail. I knew that whether it drove me to bankruptcy or made me out to be the laughing stock of the Hawaii business community, I was going to run my practice this way and not give it up. Regardless. No matter what.
There's been hard times. Times when I would open the box, count the money and worry about how in the world the bills would ever get paid. There have been frustrating moments, like the time someone left me a Subway Club Card as payment.
But for the most part, I have come to believe that it is not from the pockets of my patients that the Box gets filled, but rather, from the windows of heaven. God fills the box.
What gets filled into the Box is in direct correlation and proportion to the level of my faith. The more I am humble, diligent and worthy, the more God bestows.
So the Honor Box is a measure and a test of my faith and I have come to accept it as such...
But how can such spiritual perspectives find congruence in the cold, hard merciless world of business? Because when all is said and done, my practice is a business. Not a ministry. Not a charity. Not a non-profit.
A business.
Real life, baby.
And when my faith falters, those times when I think how easy it would be to charge the full price to each and every patient and make what I'm "really worth"-- when my mind computes the bank I would be making if I charged full price, I find that I immediately must call on myself to repentance. Because any prolonged examinations of "what could be" in terms of my finances in a life without the Honor Box, would quickly lead me down a road to a hell of greedy thoughts, selfishness and ultimately, deep regret.
And to regret the implementation of the Honor Box would be a prideful, scornful rejection of what is not at all a burden, but in fact, a blessing.
How many others have this blessing where the spiritual can blend so simply (not necessarily always so easily) with the daily transactions of a business? For whatever reason, I have been given stewardship over this Honor Box and I must guard it well always.
For this is, for me, real life.