Some of you work or have worked the night shift.  In the days before electricity and incandescent lights, work ended at sundown.  Life came to a halt.  People wrote or read by oil lamp or candlelight.  They were awakened at dawn by the rooster’s crow.   

Today, there are few places that are not affected by the round-the-clock economic engine that runs the world.  In some highly urbanized regions of the world, nearly all of the night sky may be obscured by artificial light.  This means that we are working 24-7-365.  During my junior and senior years of high school, I worked at Kroger in Anderson, South Carolina.  I started as a courtesy clerk (bagger), then went to produce and then to checker.  Apparently, the management saw something in me because they approached me about working payroll.  A sixteen year old running payroll?  You bet – and it was night shift on weekends. The store had over 300 employees.   

The manager trained me to collect the timecards (yes, timecards) from the departments throughout the store.  I double checked the math on every card and stapled an adding machine tape to each department.  Then, I manually logged in the payroll information for every store employee in a huge dot-matrix spreadsheet (the kind that had perforated edges with holes).  I had to be sure overtime was accounted for as well as vacation pay and other things like holidays. 

I usually went in on Friday nights and ran the third-shift register and helped to stock shelves, clean the store and bag groceries since we were open 24-7.  Then on Saturdays, I went in at about 6:00 p.m. and started to work the payroll.  Often, they needed me on register so most nights, it was after 10:00 before I could get to payroll.  I would work all night and when I finally got everything to balance out, I signed the paperwork and left it for the manager who would send it to be processed.  Attending church was a struggle because I worked the night shift.  

During these years, I met all kinds of interesting people in the middle of the night.  I gained an appreciation for people who work nights.  Plus, I started to drink black coffee, high test, of course!  This was no Starbucks, but rather the kind of coffee that sits on the hotplate for hours on end.  It will keep you awake for sure.   

Think about workers at night or in the early hours: workers in the hotel breakfast bar or housekeeping; bakers; hospital-or nursing home aids; sanitation workers; nurses and trauma unit staff; bus drivers; pilots; chaplains; poultry-plant workers; commercial cleaning agencies; custodial staff in schools; assembly-line workers; law enforcement and firefighters; and workers in grocery and convenience stores.  I could go on.  Lots of people work the night shift. 

In her book, Prayer in the Night, Anglican Priest, Tish Warren, calls us to pray for those who work in the night.  She writes, “[The] youngest, poorest, and least educated are far more likely to work through the dark hours.  Immigrants in particular account for a disproportionate number of night-shift workers.  The Washington Post explains that to be an immigrant in the United States means ‘not only doing the jobs many Americans shun, but also working the hours many Americans won’t.’  When we pray for those who work at night, we are often praying for the poor, the marginalized, and the must vulnerable in our society.” (Warren, pp. 113-114) 

Perhaps the next time you patronize a store late at night, stay in a hospital, or see the cleaning agency leaving the building when you come in for work, you will think differently about what they do.  Perhaps you will intentionally bring cash to tip the person serving “free breakfast” or the housekeeper at your hotel.  What about a gift card and a smile for the people who keep your building or school clean?  Or the ones who sit at night with your loved one in the residential center or hospital?  May we smile, say “Thank You” and add value to who they are.  And may we pray for them and their families, for many of them work two and three jobs to make ends meet.  “Keep watch, dear Lord, for those who work this night.” (Book of Common Prayer) 

In Christ’s care and love,