THE STRATEGIC PLANNING professional who was meeting with the Board of the nonprofit organization I was serving on told us kindly but bluntly, "Your organization has a completely unsustainable business model. It's amazing that you've raised this much money each year to support the organization, but this can't be done year after year. You need more 'hard money,' monies attached to a dependable and guaranteed source." Involuntary tears of gratitude began to roll down my face. While his advice was undoubtedly helpful for our organization, I was not thinking about the nonprofit organization at that moment, but about my public practice of Christian Science healing.
I knew that it had been a wonderful thing—those 22 years our family has been able to live largely off the income from my practice. But not until that moment did I realize how much it proved, how possible and even normal it is to put complete trust in God as one's yearly, monthly, and daily source of support and supply. According to common business wisdom, our family has had a "completely unsustainable business model" all along, because we have had so little hard income in the form of guaranteed paychecks or company benefits. Yet, we've always had what we needed.
And I don't mean that we've just barely scraped by. Along with all of the normal things like a protective roof over our heads and good food to eat, the children have been able to attend private schools, go to summer camp, as well as take ballet, horseback riding, and art lessons, and we've had some lovely family vacations. The children all have been able to attend college and even to have opportunities to travel abroad. We've also been able to donate steadily to our church and other organizations that we cherish.
