Hidden Charges

I was just looking at a bill for our trash pickup. We've contracted for a once a month dumpster pickup. The invoice shows the fee for the monthly pickup. Then it shows something they call "Fuel/Environmental Recovery Fee". It's always been there and I've always known it. Today however it irks me. When they set up their business, did they not realize that the trucks would need fuel? Were they unaware that garbage disposal impacted the environment? Isn't that the cost of doing business? Shouldn't it just be part of the fee?

I know why they do it - so they can say they haven't raised the prices. Same reason why muncipalities begin charging more for whatever service they can so they can say they haven't raised taxes. In one city where we lived, yard waste pickup went from free pickup and free can to free pickup but $20 can to free pickup, $20 can, $50 year sticker on the can. But taxes never went up.

Growing up, I heard from folks in the church that salvation and forgiveness of sins were free. All we had to do was accept it. I watched others take advantage of this free offer. Then I watched the folks in the church start to apply "other fees" in the forms of do's and don'ts. And I watched people eventually leave their free gift behind because they got tired of the fees.

On my own faith journey, I've experienced the other fees and rebelled against it. I refused to pay them. But I somehow stayed on my journey. As a faith journey guide, I try to watch myself to not impose hidden, unnecessary fees on others. I may pay the dumpster company every month, but there are restrictions on what I can put in it. No couches, hazardous chemicals, nuclear waste. . . you know, the basic restrictions. My faith journey may be free, but it is not without cost or restrictions.

The problem is that we live in the age of bundle packages and multiple calling plans. Sometimes the church establishes hidden fees and charges in a good willed effort to help people. So, people react by wanting to know the minimum required to keep on the faith journey. We should be focusing on the abundance we could get out of it if we fully exercised every option available to us. People on a faith journey need to know where to find those options.

What options have you discovered? Once discovered, how did they affect your journey? Or, what hidden fees have you experienced so we can help one another avoid the same trap?

Just a thought.