Saturday, October 2, 2010

Working on Sundays?

So, I have a problem. I can't stop thinking about it, and it has been growing in my mind the last week. I recently applied and got a job at McDonald's, which is fine, the hours have been long, stressful and strenuous, which is also fine, but I have a problem that just keeps bothering me. When in the interview, I was asked about Sundays. I told the lady interviewing me that I had church on Sundays, and that it was against my religion to work on Sundays, but if it was absolutely necessary, I could make exception. By the end of the interview, she had offered the job, and I, without giving it much thought, accepted. My first day of work, she poked her head outside of her office and asked when I was off church on Sundays. While it didn't completely register at the moment, I have since realized that the reason she was asking is because she wanted to know when she could schedule me for Sunday work.
I guess at this point, a little background is in order.
Yes, I have worked Sundays in the past. I worked for the MTC Cafeteria; and the missionaries still have to eat on Sunday, so, thus, I worked Sundays. But for goodness sake, it was the Missionary Training Center... A dedicated building of learning of the Spirit where the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve make regular apperances, not to mention all the bishops, branch presidents and other ecclesiastical leaders who were there daily. You almost may as well have been at church any day of the week working there. To me, that job barely counts, especially since I was always able to go to all my meetings, they even had an option to attend Sacrament Meeting at the MTC if your schedule conflicted with your ward.
Job #2 which required Sunday work was working as a CNA in a nursing home. That one was obvious, you can't just not assist people who can't even get out of bed on their own because it's the Sabbath. I had NO qualms about Sunday work there, because God loves ALL of His children, especially those who are infirm or irreperably injured and in the final years of their lives on this earth, and it was absolutely essential that people work there 24/7 to care for these people.

Job #3 which required Sabbath work only required it once, but that was only because my schedule just happened to work out that way. That was being a Drill Rig Helper. Thing about this though is that we lived basically on-site, and you couldn't just go home for the weekend because you had qualms about working Sundays, if we didn't meet deadlines, literally people could die. The dams we were working on needed the excavation work so that they didn't fall apart and kill thousands if not tens of thousands of people.

Those are the jobs I've had in the past which asked me to work on Sunday. I have not been asked to work on Sundays yet, but another part of the interview is sticking out in my mind very strongly. She told me that she could not guarantee that I do not work Sundays, and now that I think about it, I'm not even 100% sure she promised she'd try to keep me off Sundays. The fact that the first day I worked, she asked when she could schedule me for Sundays tells me that she is respecting my wishes to the minimum degree.
This had been bothering me, among other things with this job, like whether it was going to work with school in January or not. (If I work a week like this past one? No. Not going to work; I worked every day this week, 8.5-10 hours a day starting at 6am)
I missed the first session of Conference today because I had to work. Not a biggie, I can just download it later and listen to the MP3. I did notice however, that when a LDS co-worked mentioned that our business may be affected by General Conference, my boss got a little hostile and almost said something that she stopped herself from saying. Later tonight, I attended the Priesthood session, which was very very good, and I still had the thoughts about my job weighing heavily on my mind. By the end of the session, I had decided that I was going to pray very hard about my job, and I felt like I still had no answer, but it seemed like a decision I could make by myself and either direction would be good. Then President Monson got up and gave his powerful talk about choices and consequences. Nearing the end of his talk, I was starting to feel a little more confident that this job wouldn't have eternal consequences, but then he got to his story about, you guessed it, a person who had made commitments and worked hard, but had also decided before hand that he would not play his sport on Sunday. The team was in the championship, and there was immense pressure for him to play both from his unsympathetic coach, and the fact that his back-up for his starting position, wasn't able to play because of an injury. He did not play, and the team was fine without him as they won the championship. 30 years down the road, the player recounted that seemingly insignificant decision had made eternally good consequences in his life. He said that it was easier to follow the Lord 100% of the time, rather than 98% of the time.
How this relates to me?
Well, I can't claim to follow the Lord 100% of the time. Not even 80%. But I certainly do try and make an effort for it.
I do not need this job. Certainly it will make life easier, and make it so we are far more financially stable in the future. Yes, it's a hard job, but so what? I can get over that and deal... I've had hard jobs before, you just throw yourself into them and they get easier. But my biggest thing is that they do not need to be open on Sundays. This would be my first time working on Sundays for a place that was non-essential. Now, were Kimberly to not have a job, then this would be a different thing entirely, as I would have to stay there in order to support my family. But Kimberly does have a good job, which pays all the bills and then some. Were I to quit, I am quite sure it would infuriate my boss, as she has ordered pants and a manager shirt for me, but in the eternal realm? That doesn't really matter.... I'd rather tick off someone I've known for less than a week than God Himself...

I guess the other half of this equation is that I may never work a Sunday while working at McDonalds... but the chances of that never happening in the next 3-4 years don't seem that great to me... I don't know. I'm not asking for an answer, or really even advice (but feel free to post that too!) and I am going to have to make this decision for myself, I'm just thinking out loud a little... and hoping that as I get my thoughts down on paper that they will reveal an answer or at least clarify a little.

On a bit of a side note however, I do wonder that if I quit this job for this reason, if it would help how I view the Sabbath as a Holy Day. I wonder if it would help my worship be more full, as I had to sacrifice something important to me in order to follow God more fully. I don't know. again, just thinking out loud...

Thank You, Come Again!
- Brian

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