What it Takes

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Years ago, after I left graduate school, it was difficult to get a job in my field. For some reason, I found it difficult to get any job, but I eventually obtained one doing manual labor for about $10/hour starting pay. I remember when I went in for the interview the person asked me why, with a graduate degree in biochemistry, I would want to work there. I told them that I was unemployed and they were hiring, and that sounded like a win-win to me.

While working for that organization, I met a lot of very interesting people who changed my perspective on people who work in other fields. Although they were not people I would likely have befriended otherwise, I found them to be good people, wholesome people, and people with whom I was glad to be associated. Many of them were people who did their duty and worked multiple jobs to pay the bills.

I still remember Shawn, who was my trainer. Shawn was this very typical grungy-looking guy whose appearance screamed at my eyes every justification for being judgmental towards people in this type of work. He had several tatoos and piercings and wore his hair long and matted like a rock band member. Later I discovered that he had indeed started a rock band, which was his passion, but that he worked both for us as well as at a paint warehouse for a total of 70 hour weeks. He had two kids, and he told me he had realized he needed to man up and be a father.

Sometimes I wonder about the people who work at fast food joints, supermarkets, and other places I have occassion to visit. I know from personal experience with former coworkers that many of them are doing what they love. I also know that some of them are doing what duty requires. They have obligations and responsibilities. Just last night, there was a woman in line behind me at Wal-mart who told her daughter they couldn't buy checkout candy because she needed the money to pay rent. I could have hugged her. What a great lesson she's teaching her daughter! Some of these people work very hard at low-paying jobs to make the rent, buy food, and keep their cars from being repossessed.

I respect those who are willing to do what it takes to provide for themselves. Some of them have dirty jobs. Some of them have menial jobs. However, we have far too many people who are unwilling to take a job they view as 'beneath them'. Maybe that's why we are importing so many workers, that or maybe because when some Americans take the jobs, they are surly to customers because they resent having to take a job they don't like at a wage less than they think they 'deserve'.

Responsible people do what it takes. Sometimes, they scrape by and sacrifice now so they can reap bigger benefits later. Disciplining ourselves to delay gratification helps us better weather the storm. A few years back when they announced an official 2.5% pay cut, I remember dozens of complaints via email about how they weren't going to be able to pay the bills. Obviously, these people's expenditures expand in step with their incomes. I wasn't happy, but all it did was reduce the amount of money I saved every month.

One fundamental precept of Christianity is to care for one's own. With great power to create life comes the great responsibility to care for those one sires. Paul wrote to Timothy: “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim 5:8). I have been thinking about Elijah and the widow for years now and telling people that God can only multiply your oil and meal if you have some in the first place. As such, when I moved in last year, I endeavored to lay up in store what I could as a sign to God that I was willing to comply with preparedness, even if they were things I could not easily use or did not usually eat, and that He would give me wisdom or opportunities in how to use them wisely.

Over the last few years, we have seen the economy of the western world flounder. Led largely by the housing boom, people got caught up in flipping houses for money to become easy millionaires. A close acquaintence of mine was actually caught with three houses at the height and ended up working as a radiologist at two firms to pay the bills (I have no idea what eventually happened to him or the houses). As he looked at the plight of the people, Thomas S. Monson spoke of how “Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their year’s supply of food … and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year’s supply of debt and are food-free.” Like those who work at McDonalds or Del Taco or whatever, if we do small things and gradually build to something more reasonable and comprehensive, things will be manageable.

I testify that God helps those who help themselves. I testify that preparedness brings courage and faith. As a missionary in Austria in 1998, one month, I worried because of external viccisitudes too lengthy to mention here that I would run out of money. On my bookshelf at home to this day there is a single Austrian Shilling (about US $0.08 at the time) that constitutes all that remained after everything else I paid. I keep it as a reminder that God has multiplied my oil and meal many times over and enabled me to reach out to those who, like the widow and her son, are hungry, destitute and cold and granted me wisdom sufficient as a consequence that enabled me to live comfortably within my means. God will do what it takes as you do your duty. Wrote the poet: Do your duty; that is best; leave unto the Lord the rest.