I was thinking about getting a job as a delivery person or retail store cashier as a summer job. However, I have a moral dilemma that I hope you could help me with. While it would be nice to have some extra money, I don't really need it right now. In the struggling economy in which we live, would it be morally unjust for me to take a job that may otherwise be occupied by someone who may need the job more? I worry about taking a job and causing someone who is in a more desperate financial situation to remain unemployed and possibly be at a loss (losing their home, not being able to support their children or family, etc). Seeing as how I don't need the money and would do it just for the sake of a useful and hopefully fun occupation of time, would it be morally just?
The Jewish Sages teach that the definition of a “rich person” is someone who is “happy with what he has”. This may sound like a somewhat simplistic formula for happiness and satisfaction, but it is very difficult state to achieve. However, it is the key to a tranquil and contented life.
What are our Jewish Sages trying to convey to us? The message is that whatever we have right now is what God wants us to have. If we could only understand that and internalize its meaning we would not be forever looking over our shoulder at what the next person has. We would not be always gazing in the store windows eating our heart out because of a product there that we didn't even know we wanted until a moment ago.
There is a very famous quote from the late cartoonist Bill Keane that really sums up the way that we are supposed to approach our lives. "Yesterday's the past and tomorrow's the future. Today is a gift — which is why they call it the present."
Perhaps you can use that saying as your motif in your own personal battle against worry about the future.
I wish success much happiness and success in all your endeavors.
