The Mechanic Who Posted His Prices on the Wall

For twenty-three years, Ray Gutierrez ran a one-bay garage on Elm Street in Wichita, Kansas. What made Ray different wasn't his skill with engines — it was the hand-painted sign behind the register: every labor rate, every common repair, listed in plain numbers where anyone could see. He refused to charge a penny more when someone looked desperate.

When the 2008 recession gutted his neighborhood, Ray kept extending credit to single mothers and elderly couples who needed their cars to get to work. His accountant warned him he was heading toward bankruptcy. Ray shrugged and said, "The Lord hasn't run out yet."

He never did go bankrupt. Customers who got back on their feet came back and paid. Others sent friends. A local reporter wrote a story about him, and business doubled overnight. When Ray finally retired in 2019, the line of people at his closing-day cookout stretched around the block. Three former customers named sons after him.

Psalm 112 describes exactly this kind of life — a person whose heart is secure, who lends freely, who is not afraid of bad news. The righteous person doesn't clutch and hoard when trouble comes. They stay generous because their confidence isn't in the market or the economy. It rests in the Almighty. And the psalm's promise holds: "Their righteousness endures forever; their horn is exalted in honor."

Ray Gutierrez posted his prices on the wall because he had nothing to hide — and nothing to fear.