81 - Work Heartily: The Blessing of Work Ethic

Whether you're battling Monday blues, feeling stuck in a job you dislike, or struggling to find balance between work and home, this episode offers biblical wisdom to renew your perspective. Work isn't just about earning a paycheck – it's about glorifying God in everything we do, finding contentment in our current season, and remembering that providing for our families means more than just financial support. From Genesis to Colossians 3:23, we see how working “as for the Lord” turns even mundane tasks into meaningful service and guards us from both laziness and workaholism. 

How might viewing your daily work as service to God transform your attitude toward that next deadline or difficult project? Listen now and discover the joy of working "as unto the Lord."

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We want to welcome you to the Exhorter Podcast. You don't know this, but it's taken us about 10 minutes just to record this intro because we don't have a really good work ethic. And I think that's what Nate wants to talk about today, but we are sure glad to see you on the Exhorter Podcast, where it was our aim to stir up love and good works through bite-sized biblical conversation. There you go.

SPEAKER_05 0:20

Well Nate, let's talk about work ethic. Thank you for stealing my thunder. It's discussion as well, not conversation. Yeah. Well, in any case, um, yes, Kyle.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Are we conversing back and forth?

SPEAKER_05 0:32

Now I'm feeling guilty, like maybe I didn't put enough effort into this episode.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

I'm just thinking you never I'll pause. You it's not that hard. It's just an opening. Like it has to be different, John. Every time. Like the the clip on the last one of the last episodes where he literally find a way to uh to ruin my recordings at all times. I uh yeah. I don't know. I think you need a better work ethic.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Oh, back to Nate. Welcome. Hey, phoning it in has worked pretty pretty good for the first 39 years of my life. So very good.

SPEAKER_05 1:08

Yeah, so I wanted to talk about work ethic because I'm a teacher. And uh in June, I do not have to go starting in June, I don't have to go to work. And uh so for June and July, I don't do much work. And um and I realized that I I kind of struggle with uh with laziness, especially in the months of June and July. And uh John, uh when when you texted me the other day and said, Hey, what do you want to uh what do you want to talk about on the podcast? I said, you know, I'm not sure. But then I had this thought because this is something that that I that I struggle with is uh is work ethic.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Um so I don't because I don't try. So it's not a struggle.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Oh, very good. Okay, kicking against the goads there. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:56

So like let's talk a little bit about work. What is work ethic? Um and uh do you guys you know ever struggle with laziness?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Work ethic. Okay, John, you don't. Do I actually have to answer? John, John is like a shark where you know if a shark stops moving moving, it dies.

SPEAKER_05 2:17

Yeah. Yes. Uh that's why I was like, okay, John, this doesn't really die.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

There are a handful of sharks that can be at rest for a period of time, but most sharks need to keep moving or they'll die. And I that's how I've always described John to other people that don't know him. Shark? Really? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

You're always known as working like a shark.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Like a nurse, like a nurse shark, you know, one of the one of the worst. Hello, shark. At least you're not a whale shark. Or you get a lemon shark. You're a nice lemon shark, John. Is that a thing? Yeah. You could buy it, but I wouldn't be afraid to snorkel with it.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

That's what she said.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Okay. Did I read it? I I have moments of laziness. Uh so work ethic is uh one's um it's a belief system, right? It's a it's uh your your thought about work, your perspective about work, right? Yeah. And its value and its importance. And yeah. Yeah.

unknown 3:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Kyle, what about you? Well, I've always understood that if you wait till the last minute, then anything you have to do will only take one minute. Okay, that's a joke, but I have struggled, I have struggled with this my whole life. Just I don't think that's a shock to anybody. I joke about it because it's uh actually a very serious thing in my life that I I struggle. I just struggle to find a good work ethic. Is is every time John gives me homework, um, I'm always like, I'm gonna surprise him this time. And like we're we're planning our our youth forum for November, and I was supposed to talk to Chris Emerson and hammer out the dates. And I literally made a list that morning, and Chris Emerson was like second on that list. I'm like, I'm gonna calm today. And John texts me and it kind of steals my thunder. I'm like, well, now I can't surprise him with it, but also like I told him I'd do this like a month ago, so like he didn't know that I was actually gonna do it that day, but it's because I neglected to do it so long. And every time I get a project like this, where it's like uh I got to speak at the Florida College lectures, so I had to write a manuscript and had it, you know, I had I had uh just PTSD flashbacks to college and like uh writing a paper that that is is properly um oh MLA format, ADA format format and the the right um what do you call it, notations or or uh what do you call citations, proper footnotes and citations, and I was just like panicking and like I'm gonna get this done so early. And yeah, no, I had one of those like uh 52 hour stretches right before it was due. And then they said, Oh, you can turn it, you can turn it late, it's not a big deal. But yeah, no, even the big projects, I'm like, I'm gonna do it early this time, and I just never can summon the willpower. I mean, I've done all right for myself throughout life, yeah, yeah. And I do pretty good, you know, in the when the heat's on, and you know myself, I just need the pressure to get it done. But yeah, I I also know like it's worked for me, but I also know I could be doing better.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Don't don't egg so much because I have a an a different perspective about this topic, which I'll talk about in a little bit when you once we get past the work ethic part. But um it just being busy isn't always a good thing.

SPEAKER_05 5:32

No, well, no, yeah, Paul talks about that. I think it's in one of the letters to the Thessalonians. Yeah, he said some of you guys are busybodies and you're not actually working. Don't do that.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Well, I mean, when I I talked about the the subject to my wife, and I I was meaning about I brought up the the subject, and and then I from my perspective was like I think one can be too busy and not focused on what's important or being too focused on work uh because of the desire to to to provide and be work ethic, you can lose sight of things that are important. And I had a good chunk of my career life where I was focused on something and I was pretty humbled with the the perspective that at the end of the day, um, it didn't really equal up to what I thought it was going to. It didn't, it didn't pay off uh the dividends, um, all that work. And then I kind of looked back and realized there's a lot of my childhood, uh my kids' childhood, that I was pretty distracted and focused. So I do think uh it's important to have a strong work ethic. Uh-huh. I I I don't think that that's not valuable, but I do think there are uh just with anything, there are um there are consequences to um an unbalanced life.

SPEAKER_05 6:41

Sure, sure. So when I when I um first started doing some research for this episode, um I looked back uh and I thought that work ha was kind of a um a consequence of being kicked out of the garden. Because in Genesis uh three seventeen through nineteen, um, you know, well, let me just read it here. There we go. There we go. Uh God says to Adam, because you've listened to the voice of your wife, and you've eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat. Cursed is the ground, because of you in pain you'll shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread. Um and so I I had initially thought, well, work was the the the punishment uh to Adam for for sin. But actually, if you go back to Genesis 2, work existed before that. Uh Genesis 2, 15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. Um, work was not a curse to them. Work was actually um uh a blessing, if you will, uh in in the garden. But I think I I mean we have that phrase even, you know, work is the uh the other four-letter word. Why do you think we guys we guys, why do you think we have uh maybe a negative outlook, generally speaking, towards towards work?

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Because we're too materialistic.

SPEAKER_05 8:17

Okay. All right. Uh let's go with we're too John John did a good uh monologue for a minute. So nice Kyle. Uh why why do you think it's too we're too materialistic? What do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Well, it just means that the standard of what we're working for, and it's so different in in most throughout most of the history during Bible times, both Old and New Testament, for m the majority of people on earth, I suspect it was work a day, eat a day. Or maybe you worked for a season, stored up your food, but you were basically working for your daily bread. Sure. You know, and there wasn't this idea of maybe you built up flocks or built up some property. Like there was some idea of, but I think for the most part, your work was connected to I'm living doing, yeah, just I'm I'm providing for my daily needs and for my families, and this idea of saving up money to buy big things to buy vacations. I think vacations is a fairly recent from a historical standpoint, a fairly recent, at least for something that isn't just for the elites or royalty. Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

So is retirement. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Retirement.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

I've tried to figure out if I could sell like a reverse retirement, like retire in your 20s. Yes, I I love that idea. I thought of that myself. Then people, I don't know. People find a way around it. But yeah. Where you just give them a loan so they don't have to work in their 20s, they can retire. Enjoy my 20s. And then they can pay it off the rest of their life.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Yeah. Work me, work me until I'm 80. Yeah, work me until I'm 80, but I just want to run around while I still can run. Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

My point is, is our standard of what we think we need is based on just greed and materialism, and we gotta have what everyone else has.

SPEAKER_05 10:00

And of course Stallman says that in Ecclesiastic, you know, that the reason we work is the envy of his neighbor.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Yeah, and and of course, it's it's even more intensified in America. We're a very wealthy nation where uh the poorest of the poor here are on a global standard in better position than the m than they're in the upper half, even the lowest of the low here have more benefit or more They've got a cell phone and a big screen TV. Yeah. And and so even the poverty line here is above the the wealthiest of of some nations. Yeah. So it's just intensified here the materialism. So our idea of work is that we're working for things that won't make us happy, but we're convinced will. So it creates this endless cycle of of work. So we're not we're not seeing the correlation of of work and it's it's providing for me for today. We're we're working for something that we're chasing after that we'll never achieve.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Uh we'll never be satisfied with it. So I think that's one problem why we look at work as a negative thing, because it's it's just all these things, we've almost become a slave to the things we need, and work is just something we have to do to pay all the bills for all the the loans we got for stuff that just won't make us happy.

SPEAKER_05 11:11

So so we selfishly thought that the new car and the big house and the nice clothes and the whatever would would make us happy.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

And we buy we buy things we can't afford.

SPEAKER_05 11:20

And so we worked our tails off to you know be able to have those things, and then they didn't make us happy, but we still have the bill. Yeah, now I'm obligated to pay for it, so I gotta work.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Okay. But your original question was why is work a dirty word? Yeah, why why is it like useful at a word? It's hard. It's hard. So that's the toil. That is the actual aspect of the punishment. There is uh the toil of it. But I think um I guess we over time have gotten used to valuing the the idea of rest and the idea of our time selfishness and and relaxing and and and resting from that work than we do um the the benefits that we get from the work. Like the the you know, there's lots of benefits from work. There's yeah, um it there's uh also pro the providing for our families, but there's also I mean Ecclesiastes uh uh Proverbs talks a lot about the intrinsic value we get from work. Yeah. And so I think that sometimes we end up valuing the uh results of the work, kind of what's Kyle saying, the the outcomes of the work, then we do the uh the the means to the end.

SPEAKER_05 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Um, and or we get our perspective skewed at what the end really is. Yeah. The accumulation of material things. Oh, right. Um, and and Ecclesiastes four uh four says that you know too, he's talking about uh you know, every skillful man is a uh is envied by his neighbor and stuff. It talks about the the vanity um and the uh the that acquisition, that right, the rat race um of acquisition and and looking over your your neighbor's you know fence. Um I you missed. Um I do think work is hard, and that's probably why even we we have a a negative kind of a perspective that we're thinking about the the result of the work. And then in we kind of have that, Kyle, we kind of have that um with work, we kind of feel especially these days, um, like the locus of control is a little off there. We we we think no matter how much we work, we still have less, like because of taxes, because of economics and stuff. So a lot of times we feel like no matter how hard we work for something, I don't know if you guys feel that way. Yeah, you're not moving it too. It's always getting away from you. Yeah, I'm I'm I try if I spend more time and effort and grind, um, there's like this the one, like the minuscule percent of people on media and online and stuff saying, you know, do you know do you know how many side gig jobs and and gimmicks and stuff have popped up in the last 10 years? Like it's it's an nth degree, at least of people trying to do them and being successful because they see popularity.

SPEAKER_05 14:16

So you're setting the goalpost as like monetary success. Like no matter how hard you work, sometimes it always feels like the goalpost of if it's monetary success and and things of this world is always moving as you're uh working towards it.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah, being said, and more problem more money, more problems solved.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Well, you talk about locus of control. That that's sort of like what Robert Kiyosaki talks about in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that you can work for money or you can have money work for you. Yeah. And that idea is if you work for someone, you can work hard and just hope you get recognized and get paid more, but you're always gonna sort of be at the at the mercy of the bottom line of whatever the company's bills are.

SPEAKER_05 14:53

Yeah, yeah. He who has the gold makes the rules. Well, that's a biblical principle too. The the um the poor will be slave to the rich.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:00

But the ones who are gonna have the power. But Colossians three gives us some insight. Would you would you maybe read Colossians three, uh seventeen?

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Well, you know what? Let's let's hold that. Let's hold that. I know, you're going out of order here, I'm sure. Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_05 15:15

I've I'm prepared. That's right. That's okay. That's okay. I stopped you in time. Um, so so okay. So we talked about um work's not always enjoyable, it's difficult. Um Kyle, you brought up the uh kind of the materialistic um motivations for for work and how those are are empty.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

And for all my criticisms of you know, just in general, of Gen Z and Millennial and and that those age groups, uh that is one thing I do appreciate is I have noticed a desire to have less. And so like, yes, you're chasing after something that isn't as material but it's still worldly. You get the the van lifers.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

So yeah, you're still chasing after something that that you know probably still won't satisfy you the same as uh fearing God and keeping his commandments and seeking a relationship with your creator and glorifying him. But I do appreciate at least that there is uh a sort of a push for, or even just the jokes um on social media about how cluttered uh our our boomer parents' houses are. And if you've ever had to help your parents downsize uh from the house you grew up in to one half the size, sorry, I know my dad listens to this. I'll call me when you when you hear this podcast, dad. Yeah. Uh but you know, so I do appreciate that. Is one thing I do appreciate is this trend of we're okay with less stuff.

SPEAKER_05 16:40

Sure. Yeah, yeah. Um the old the old bumper sticker, he who dies with the most toys wins, is not actually true.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

But I wonder if that's then the the spin on the back side of this. That uh I didn't think we had an issue with laziness in as far as statistically out in the world. Like I think most people, it's probably overworking that we have more of a problem with than with laziness. But then again, um in in like the world of the welfare climate, I think that's still a good small, super small percentage as far as that goes. And our unemployment rates are actually pretty, pretty low of people who are actually out there or not able to find work. Um, but I do say that in that sense of like the van lifers in that sense, is there is that kind of feeling, a sense that we should uh, because I've heard about it in the workplace, is um the ideals of like European nations and stuff that work less hours in the day and less days in a week and have more vacation time. And just there's this a little sense of entitlement out there that I should, because I want to have a lot of vacation and because I want to relax and I want to enjoy life, and that's what life is for. Because I desire those things, I should have those things.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Yeah, and that's where I almost feel like the van life maybe is an overcorrection. I appreciate that that there's this move away from material possession, yeah, but now it becomes sort of this aimless pursuit of experience that that also won't satisfy the soul. Social media highlighting that's what you're living for.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

And that you should actually like that that shouldn't just be given to you by people. Like a company should that shouldn't be the perks of a company to employ people at a certain age. Um, there are, yes, there are people who who have to work hard for many years to get to something.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

A really good example is is is my friends Mark and Cindy Dunnegan. You can uh check out nomads you and I um I think it's dot com, but you can check out their their webpage. They they retired. He was the preacher I grew up with. They retired and they traveled in a van. Uh it was like a Winnebago for like two or three years, and now they live part of the year in Florida, and then you know, four or five months out of the year they travel, but otherwise they stay residents in Florida. And and and so they worked hard, they earned it in a financial sense, but they were seeing things, experiencing things, having fun, but along the way, they were very devoted to doing online blogs and um podcasts and going and visiting churches purposefully and blogging about their experiences. They wrote a great book called 100 Churches, where they visited 100 churches of Christ across the country and wrote about their experiences in great detail. Um and you check out their their Facebook page and they're they're always chatting up people at the RV parks they're staying at. So they they're they're they have a purpose. They're they're not just aimlessly wandering and searching for something, they're glorifying God. They're having fun and enjoying all the things to see and do in this country, but they have a purpose in what they're doing too. I think they're a really good model to find some balance. So even though they're retired, they're working harder than ever. Yeah, they're still working.

SPEAKER_05 19:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. So, like I know for me, there are some things that prevent me from um from working hard. So I'm just gonna share some of these and you can tell me if you guys, you know, struggle with these two. Um number one, it maybe the work I'm doing, I don't like it. Um, I fear failing. Like if I try really hard and it doesn't work, like I'm afraid of that. Um that that I'm not good at whatever it is I'm doing. So then I I don't really work all that hard because I think like, well, I'm not very good at this. Um I I don't respect who I'm working with or for. Like uh I don't really respect my boss. So it's like, well, I'm just gonna, you know, put half effort into this. Um or or this is one that I really struggle with. Or I don't see how how if I put in full effort, it's really truly going to benefit me. Like uh, you know, I'm gonna get the same paycheck at the end of the month uh if I put in a 100% as if I put in 50%. So why am I gonna work harder?

SPEAKER_00 20:49

I panicked when I got into high school, that transition into high school about how so much bigger, like the building's so much bigger, and there's so many more classes to take, and it's I'm gonna have so much more homework, and I was just so panicked about it. In my first semester, I I think I got like all A's and maybe one B or straight A's or something like 3.8, 3.9, something like that. And I was like, that wasn't so hard.

SPEAKER_06 21:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

And the rest of high school was was just me giving less and less effort, and I still graduated on the honorable with a 3.5 GPA. Yeah. And and so it was just that that was that was something I struggled with early on, was that that exact thing right there is like I'm still gonna graduate and I'm still gonna get good grades. And but why why do I want to overachieve when just achieving is is working out. Yes. I'm still I'm still you know in this upper half of my, you know, I'm I'm I'm in the upper quarter of of my my class, sure, you know, grade wise. So like why why bust bust myself working harder?

SPEAKER_05 21:47

Yeah. Well, that I know that that's something that I that I struggle with. John of that list that I shared, uh do any of those um are you are you challenged with any of those?

SPEAKER_01 21:55

No, not really. No, I when I really think Nate that it's this really kind of a funny thing because uh I I look at you and I think you're working two jobs most of the time. And I I mean, that's all I wish I had the bandwidth to work as much as I think you work in in some cases. So I don't I don't really see maybe what you see in yourself as much often. I think that that's kind of one of those things is um we we judge ourselves and think you're normally a lot. Um you cap with you.

SPEAKER_05 22:29

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh that I don't like the work, that I fear failing at it, that I'm not good at it, uh, that I don't respect who I'm working with or for, or that I don't see how full effort is going to benefit me.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Yeah, I I've had many opportunities where I I procrastinate Kyle, I am a procrastinator too. Where I will I will have like a long list of things I know I need to do, like edit a podcast. And it takes me like three, four days to do it because I'm I'm dragging my feet and I look at the shiny thing that I can do it. I need to do it. Maybe the one thing that I want to do or or that thing that seems a little easier to do. Um and I push that long harder thing to the to the end. Um but also, yeah, it's really hard to um hard to give everything I've got to something that uh I don't want, I don't think I'm being appreciated, or um I don't feel like I'm getting something back at um, which I think it gets I think it's anyone even listen to our podcast? Like what's there's we have we have a few fans. Um I feel like though at the end of the day that's what work ethic is about. It it's it's it's it's it's approaching all work with this with a with a um with a goal that is is I or a rule um that it's not for me, it's for something else or someone else. Um and it's uh it's like you know, giving glory to God as service in all that we're doing. Uh work is a service and uh we we have uh a duty to do. I think in some ways it's not always about the it's not always about what you get from it.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

So so uh go ahead, I think in some ways that's why I might have gravitated towards being a preacher is I sort of invalidate in most of those excuses and and that I know my work is important. I like the boss I work for, uh and I I just I know me, so I I I think that's part of why a part, there's a lot of reasons why I I chose the path I'm on. Um and and but that might I think that's part of it is is I wanted to put myself in an environment where I sort of remove some of my my my biggest hurdles in in work ethic. Sure. And so I still struggle with it, but I think I do better than high school Kyle did because there's I feel the the importance of the work I do, and I know. So 1 Corinthians 15, 58. Do you have that one in your notes? Uh I have that one memorized, but okay. I always love it when I guess a scripture from one of y'all's outlines that you didn't use, but fits. So try this one on. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. And so I read that one often when I'm struggling or feeling like I I need some motivation. What I do, no matter how much effort I put, if if I don't see the visible results, it was not wasted time. If it was done to glorify God, and if it's if it's not hundreds of people being brought to the Lord from one effort, well, if one person listens and benefits, it was hugely successful. But does that even apply to like secular work?

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Like, what if I'm a software engineer? That's my struggle. And I'll I'll be really honest with you guys. Like, one of the hardest things to deal with is for me, is my grandpa was a preacher and he worked for a No, that's my sales pitch for you to become a preacher. Yeah, so no, seriously, so uh for like 50, 60 years, and I I I would I hope I have wished that I could have an eloquence of a preacher. I have different talents, but I have wanted to be a preacher so many times. Uh, one of the struggles there is I have friends with so many preachers, so I would never actually worship with them. Like that's one thing I noticed is really kind of stinks about uh preaching. But um anytime I'm able to like sit here at the building and work on something for the building, I sit there and be like, I sit there and I think, man, why am I working so hard outside of this building for things that don't matter to anything? I would much rather take my time work on these things, which is probably why it looks like I'm doing a whole lot, but it's only because I have this like strong sense of FOMO. Like I would rather be preaching or doing something like, you know, you guys going out there and preaching stuff. Like I'd rather be doing something like that. But without that kind of skill set, I have a different skill set. And so then I work on that way. But it's just because I I don't like working for other people and for the the vain things that those those things bring. I would much rather be working in service for God. And uh I just maybe one day I'll figure out how to make money on it. But um, you know, in to that extent, like Paul, well, unlike Paul. Um, but I I that that's my own FOMO, right? That's my own kind of issue.

SPEAKER_05 27:38

You're you're you're struggling with uh Ecclesiastes. I have seen the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Right. And I would much rather emulate and focus on first Corinthians first Corinthians and focus on that and doing work for the church. So I think that that's um I have that issue about the value of the work outside of the building. But um I mean, you can't knock that though, right? Like that's a good thing. It's a good problem to have, sure, that you want to work more for the kingdom.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Well, and your work matters because you're providing for your family.

SPEAKER_05 28:12

Well, and you're also being an example to those outside the the church. You know, I think that um, at least in our society and culture, um, working hard is is well respected. Like among secular non-religious people, like even uh if you work hard, that's respected. And if you don't work hard, that's not that's not respected. And uh I I don't know if that was necessarily true in in the first century. Um I I kind of think that it was, but but Paul in um First Thessalonians 4, 11 and 12, he says, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, attend to your own business, and work with your hands, just as we have commanded you, so that you'll behave properly toward outsiders and not be uh in any need. Um I think that the um Paul was giving those Christians an admonition to to work because that was going to be an example to those outside the church, and I think that they respect hard work. I I think that that is a biblical um 100% biblical thing.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

There's like so many reasons. It keeps us from sin. That's Second Thessalonians three uh ten through twelve. You know, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For the I hear some among you, you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. There's so many great reasons to have that kind of work ethic. Um have we have we read uh Colossians three?

SPEAKER_05 29:36

No, we haven't. John, we're supposed to read that either. Yeah, because okay, so John, I'm gonna let you know. Um read Colossians three, seventeen, and then like uh twenty three and twenty four.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Yeah, so and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

SPEAKER_05 29:56

And then twenty three and twenty four. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Servants, sorry, and whatever you Do do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.

SPEAKER_05 30:11

So, like Paul's saying, no matter what we're doing, uh secular or not secular, you know, religious, um, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, whatever we're doing, work as though we're working for the Lord rather than for men, because we're gonna get our our reward from from the Lord. How often do you think of that? Uh, I think I'm not working for men, I'm working for people.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

I think of that when I think about how every day, that's not true.

SPEAKER_05 30:42

You can't be a part of this conversation right now, Kyle.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

I think about it a lot in the last few years, um not really enjoying my work sometimes. Yeah. And I think that um it means it's a great providing for my family.

SPEAKER_06 30:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Um, it's it's just not, it doesn't bring me the sense of gratification and and passion that other work has in the past.

SPEAKER_06 31:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

And so I have to remind myself of this scripture. I have to remind myself it's not for my own vanity and desire to to enjoy and and be able to share that I do something that's amazing and important here on earth. Yeah. Um, I I I it it it fulfills its need completely.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

There's a value to what you do.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

But also I I I kick against it too, that honestly, how many times have I been unemployed? I've had a lot of jobs, guys. Uh have I been unemployed and how I I don't want to look ungrateful for that work. I don't want to be ungracious for that job, even though I maybe not like the job and I'll maybe look for something else that I I enjoy more.

SPEAKER_06 31:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

Um for the amount of time, I I'm I would encourage people who who do not and maybe enjoy their work to really understand that um uh you can kind of there was a time probably when you're praying for that job and you're asking God for that job. And now you're now in the mouth, right? You're looking at that and now you're saying You have a bird in your hand.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

And it's well, you know, I wanted it, God, but uh didn't turn out to be what I really wanted and thought I wanted. So give me something better. Um I try to, I tried, that's what I try to think about.

SPEAKER_05 32:28

The the benefit and the blessing that your work is, not necessarily the drudgery that it might be on some days. It's a gift from God.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

And the the work and the what I can do with it and providing, um, which is it makes me feel a little closer to the those boomers. Uh, and people who just did work because it was work. I mean, it the the idea of it were doing a job that you love and enjoy and as a passion was something my mom shifted to. She said, do something you'll enjoy. Yeah. But that's not with the advice that everyone gave her and them before. No one ever gave that advice before. It just shifted in the 80s and and 90s when there were lots of good economy and stuff. Well, find why is you gonna do something you enjoy?

SPEAKER_05 33:07

Yeah. Um Solomon Solomon gives that uh admonition in Ecclesiastes. He says, you know, find find joy in in your work. I gotta find that that passage. Yeah. Um, but but one of the blessings uh of work is to find there it is, Ecclesiastes 5, 18 through 20. Find some satisfaction in the work that you're doing in your toil under the sun.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

But I always had this sense that I needed to do something meaningful.

SPEAKER_05 33:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

And if I'm gonna spend 40% of my entire life, 150,000 hours of something, which I think that's what it is, um, then I might as well do something that's worthwhile of it, right? And do something that's that's valuable.

SPEAKER_05 33:42

How do you know what you're doing is not worthwhile?

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Well, that's the thing is it is yeah, yeah. I'm providing for my family. I'm showing them a good work ethic. Sure. I'm raising my kids, I'm able to work for the weekend, I'm able to um, I'm able to worship God on Sundays because I have that nine to five. Yeah. You know, I there's lots of different values. I am. It's just the perspective shifts over time, and we let ourselves look over the fence, and we let ourselves think about we let ourselves uh convince ourselves it's not. But uh they are gifts from God. And I think I think as we look at an employment, um, we should adapt a stronger um mindset of being um content.

SPEAKER_05 34:24

Do does God bless us in the here and now for the hard work we do here and now? Sometimes I guess I shouldn't have said that as a closed-ended question.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

Uh I think sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 34:36

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

Some sometimes some people always struggle.

SPEAKER_05 34:41

What do you mean? Sometimes I think people just struggle and they work harder and still and still they don't have material success here on earth.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Yeah. Um and maybe it just never happens, but that's not the point. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I do think that's one of the reasons why it's good for people not to start their lives so early and get married. I mean, there's a benefit, right? There's Kyle, we've talked about the benefit of getting married early in some some cases, uh, and starting your life and having kids and stuff. But there's also a benefit of not, you know, of um Yeah, you get to have sex right away. That's that's not a bad thing. There's also there's the benefit of um being a little bit more stable and it and work not being the struggle in the life and financial financial means. Yeah. I mean, like everyone thinks about that. It's like, what if money was not an object? Well, that means usually what we mean by that is I had a lot. But money could not be an object because you're content with living a different type of life. Sure. You know, beans and rice kind of kind of life. Yeah. That could be a contented life with with with what you have. Yeah. Um, but we hardly mean that. We usually mean when I have more money that I know what to do with. Oh, right. Right. Sorry, that was a lot. No, I don't know if we're really even going along on your on your outline there. Cause there's so much when it comes to work.

SPEAKER_05 36:04

We talk about Yeah, you're you're right. I I'm just uh trying to mesh here, like working for for God with with doing doing secular work. And, you know, regardless of what kind of work we are doing, um, you know, as long as it's you know moral, uh, we can be an example and a light to others. In fact, um, you know, in Philippians 2, I I hear this a lot at work, complaining about the work. I'm guilty of of complaining about my work and being asked to do certain jobs, and I have certain coworkers who I know, like I can think of them and be like, oh, well, that person is a complainer. And uh in Philippians 2, um verse 14 and 15, Paul, Paul reminds us, don't complain, don't grumble. And when we do that, we're gonna we're gonna stand out, we're gonna shine as as lights if we don't complain um and uh and grumble about those things.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

First Peter two uh eighteen through nineteen talks about servants be submissive to your masters with all fear, and not only to the good, but the gentle, um, but also to the harsh. So I mean, I we should Christians should submit to their employers and benefactors.

SPEAKER_06 37:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

And um a part of that is yeah, we might not enjoy the work. We you know, it might not be easy. Um and maybe we don't need we shouldn't be complaining about it because after all, we're working. Not everyone does.

SPEAKER_05 37:28

Yeah, yeah. Um, I gotta call my wife here real fast.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

I look at this when we did the Christian attitude um towards things. Uh when the men when we did Wednesday and I got a handful of us. The one I did was unemployment, so I have like a whole lot like attitude towards labor and employment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:02

Yeah, just just keep them home.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

Getting out to work. But my I think the word I want to lean into is getting work out of I think it's good to have a word ethic. I do think we have to.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

And then text me with whatever you plan on doing. It could mean I in my mind. Combine it with contentment. It brings the balance. Are we talking about this?

SPEAKER_01 38:27

Well, so I was just saying that I did this in the there was a series where we were teaching um the adult class on Wednesday night, the heart of the matter. And mine was Christian's attitude towards employment. So I have my outline here, and it's like, why do we work? Um, getting work out of focus and attitude towards work and labor employment. And that's the one I just pulled up there. It's um as I think as long as we we both say it's like so you're we're focusing on there's a value of doing this work to God and to our lives and not be complaining about it. And then, but I do think we should hit on that side of but don't let work get out of focus where you're so focused on providing that you neglect all the other types of providing you need to do on your being a workaholic is a real thing, right?

SPEAKER_05 39:14

Where you use work to escape from your family or to escape from some other problems. We define ourselves, we're or like Kyle said, we use work to uh help us make gains materially at the expense of more important things, family. But let's bring it spiritual.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Let's not waste it. Let's bring it into the thing. So we just talked about like I we didn't intro into that very smoothly. So you just ended before your phone call about you're asking about um uh oh don't complain. No, don't complain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:44

So let's let's stay on to your like point about working is good, you know, and then yeah, working is good and we shouldn't complain. Um and and when we and when we uh when we do the work hard uh and we don't complain about that work whilst everybody else is complaining, I just use the word whilst in a sentence. I like it. Very good. Bring it back. I'm getting older. Um when we when we do that, we uh Paul tells us we're gonna we're gonna shine out, we're gonna stand out as as different. And in that way, you know, we can be an example um to other people of of of Jesus and and of God and and perhaps you know, maybe make an opening there for um for you know, why are you why don't you complain?

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Why are you a little bit different? And and explain why. Yeah. And your type of work ethic and where that's grounded in the word. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 40:34

Um the last thing that I wanted to go over, uh it's maybe it's a little bit of a rough transition here, but I I don't I don't know if I was ever really taught how to to work hard. Like it was just kind of like, well, you just go to work, right? Like, you know, go get the job done or or whatever that is. Uh and so um I I was thinking of, you know, how do you work hard? Uh and I think to to work hard, um, it takes some thinking. There's that um parable that that Jesus uses, or maybe I don't know if it's a parable, but he uh he asks the question, which of you you know builds a tower without first counting the cost? And if you don't count the cost, uh then you're gonna end up, you know, you know, you're not gonna be able to build the tower. So there are some principles I think in there that uh teach us a little bit about work. Number one is having a goal, having an aim in mind. Why am I doing what I'm doing? What am I truly aiming for, shooting at? Um number two is what resources do I have? How much time do I have? What what materials do I have? What other things will I need in order to accomplish this work? And then to put those things together uh in a in a stepwise fashion, step A, step B, the um these things logically follow one from another until you until you get to the goal or don't get to the goal. And if you don't, then you think about okay, why didn't I get there? And you change course. Um and uh if you did get there, great, and you move on to the next thing. Um so I guess working hard is not um rocket science, but I do think that it takes thought. We have to think about what am I doing, where am I going, and how is this gonna help me get there?

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Um I think you just do it. We can think of a dozen reasons every single second of the day not to do it. Oh working hard is just ignoring all the reasons why you shouldn't or couldn't, or why it's gonna be harder and just do it. I mean uh we've been talking to Phil Knight lately. Yeah. I I I I don't know that it's there's yeah, I don't think it's that hard. I think I think we intuitively know um we just avoid our that's one of the things is all most of our lives in the humanistic kind of perspective is avoiding pain. And we find ways to avoid pain. Boredom is pain, so we pick up our phone. Um we do we we try to remove pain at all times. And so work that seems hard. I would rather sit on this couch and click that TV button. And I think just we have to kind of realize what we're doing, um, acknowledge what we're doing, and be honest with ourselves. If we we are being lazy, I mean we're all lazy at some point in time. We'd all want a rest, and I don't think rest is bad, but that's the whole point of like Ecclesiastes and all the other verses is when's the rest happen? After good hard work. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's the 10%, not the 90%. Yeah, everyone deserves a good rest after hard work. Um, and just you know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 43:38

God worked for six days and rested for one, right?

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Yeah, that's so it's to be a percentage.

SPEAKER_05 43:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Um Kyle, you want to say something?

SPEAKER_00 43:48

I'm I'm just not sure that rest is the same since we think of rest. Cessation of work. Means his work was done, but not not a recuperating.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Yeah, no, I don't think he I mean I think we you conflate the two.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Yeah. That's kind of beside the point.

SPEAKER_05 44:07

Oh, okay. You're saying that God didn't need rest like he ran out of energy, uh more of like uh basking in what he had created. Like when I go look at the lawn after.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Well rest rest just literally, I think, means not working. Yeah, the o not working anymore. Understood. But it doesn't yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:24

Understood.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

That that really doesn't apply. Sorry, I that's okay. That's okay. I'm nodding off.

SPEAKER_05 44:31

That's okay. You had your 200 milligrams of caffeine. I know. It did nothing. Did nothing. That's okay. I'll get you a battery.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

Is there melatonin?

SPEAKER_05 44:45

Just kidding. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

Was that the end of your point? Um Yeah, I didn't have I don't know. Can I just say though, I I think I do think there's some times when we're lazy. Like we're all lazy. But statistically, if you look at it, I think more people have a problem with overworking than they have working not enough. Underworking. Um, and I mean, I can show you the I can show you the empirical evidence. Um I I I sent my voice is a little off right now because I I I stayed up super late two nights getting a a work project. Working hard.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

Working too hard. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

There's consequences of working too hard. I think generally we do that, and uh um it's there's so many more um aspects of work we could talk about. There's so many more uh dangers sometimes of being a workaholic and overworking than I think there are um I think there's a balance. So this this episode is talking about having a good work ethic and thinking about work in a positive way, yeah, and spurring one to work hard and to do it for the Lord.

SPEAKER_05 45:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

Got it.

SPEAKER_05 45:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:55

But I do think on the other side of that one is sometimes work can be an escapism. Oh. Sometimes it's a way to define ourselves outside of God. Sure. Um, we can uh work in career achievements, take precedence in our lives, um at the detriment of our family and our our uh relationships uh with uh you know other Christians and God.

SPEAKER_05 46:18

Um where we focus our efforts matters. It's not just you know our our secular work to earn earn a paycheck, like that's not the only work there is. In fact, it's not the most important work, it's necessary. Certainly it's necessary, but it may not be the most important work there is. It's not.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

And I think that when sometimes the the the trouble is we look at someone and we we look at the value of work ethic, and we we we can't overweight that with the idea that in uh as Solomon said, do not toil to acquire wealth, be discerning enough to desist. Yeah. And Proverbs uh 23, 4. Um, in this case, we need to understand when to stop working for the uh acquisition of wealth.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

Well, do not lay up Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. So if if we get to a point where and I don't know how someone outside can tell you when that's happened, but it's more for you to make that uh internal decision and acknowledgement that I'm no longer I'm no longer working to provide, I'm working to store up treasure on earth instead of in heaven. So I don't know exactly what that looks like, but on self-reflection, if that's what you see in your life, you need to make some changes.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

Yeah, and I I want to go to 1 Timothy 5 8. I think for my my point in this, is it says, but if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household, he is denied faith and is worse than an unbeliever. We look at that, and I think sometimes we conflate the idea that our goal, our goal is to provide and bring in money and put a roof overheads and support the family. And if we don't, we're as worse as an unbeliever. But I maybe maybe the Greek is different here, but the way I think about provide is providing the needs of the family. There are times where you can look at it.

SPEAKER_00 48:16

You have to have a third car and at least a 2,500 square foot house.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

Yeah. Well, what think about it this way. Let's look in reverse. How do you know if you're working too hard and you're not providing for the other needs of your family? Well, I think what other needs would there be for the family?

SPEAKER_05 48:32

Well, I think we see that. Like when you look at the qualifications of an elder uh that you know he manages his family well. You cannot manage your family well if you are not there. Uh or or if the only thing you are ever doing is is working in a in a secular sense. Um so I think that yeah, there's there's more to um being a provider than than simply you know bringing in a patron.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

Well, we see this when we look into the um look into the community and we you listen to the news, and when people talk about uh homes without fathers, and and we're talking here, we are fathers, so that's the context that I'll put this in. But um, a home without a father, like uh people are more likely to end up in jail and a life of crime, all these other statistics, right? Yeah. Um so I just I would leave it with this. The other bookend of this is if you find yourself in constant fatigue, skipping rest, uh guilt when not working, strained relationships, um, missing family time, defining your identity or worth through your productivity, neglecting spiritual, physical, or emotional health, you're probably working too much. And you're probably looking at this work ethic and valuing it more than everything else. And it's a balance. We have to maintain a balance because your kids need you emotionally. They need you physically there. They need these things just as much as they need the food in their bellies and the roof over their head.

SPEAKER_05 50:05

I think what you're talking about is um what Paul references in Ephesians uh 5, 15. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of your time. Of the time because the days are evil. Is is there is there a time that you should use to earn, to provide the physical things for your family? Yes. Is that all you should be doing? Absolutely not. There's much more to um providing. Or regardless of your um state in life, whether you're a mom or a dad or or a young person who's single, um, there's more to life than just work.

SPEAKER_01 50:43

Yeah. Well, and we get into that race of thinking we end up having to work. We got to pick up that shift, we got to do those things. Why? Because we have the bills. But we also acquire a lot of those bills through unwise ways. Yeah, and sometimes we don't need them. Yeah. And so I just think it's important. Uh we have to look introspectively around ourselves. We have to listen to our kids, our wives, uh, our husbands, our, you know, uh spouses and everyone. We have to listen to our friends and our family members. We kind of have to be really open to understanding how they see us and they view us. Because that's one thing I did ask my kids. I said, you know, uh, I would actually kind of probe and ask them, um uh, you know, what does daddy do at this time of day or something? Are they thinking that all I do is work or all I'm doing something else? Am I not, am I saying no to playing with Legos? Am I you know, like where is my mind, my focus? And that can just be as Kyle, we talked about this with preachers and stuff too. That we can also put the perspective of working for the Lord, we think as high importance in the same, in the same work ethic, in the same focus, and neglect our families and neglect our time at home and and other things. Sometimes we can put that on a pedestal and say it's for that, but we've talked about so many preachers that look back and then realize that they they they ministered to 200 people, but not to their family, but not the the ones that they had at home. And so that's a constant focus we all need to work on. And I don't mean to bring it down as far as I do appreciate this whole we got to have a strong work ethic, but I do understand from life decisions I've made.

SPEAKER_05 52:28

Um Well, I think there's a there's a difference too between quantity of work and quality of work. Yeah. Right. Like you're harder, not smarter. Yeah. Smarter, not harder. Yeah. That's why that's why I did it wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we we all we all learned there, right? Um but um that that's that's what I wanted to share about uh about work ethic. It's important to to work very hard when we have the opportunity to work hard, but that work is not the only thing. And to remember that that and this is something that I really need to work on um is that we're not just working for you know in our job, for the man or or for another person, but we're working for God. He well, the all-seeing eye. He sees what we are doing and he'll reward it, uh, whether it be here on on this uh earth and in this life, and he does bless us, um, or or if it's gonna be in in eternity. But um working hard is is certainly something we should be doing without complaining, um, but it's not the only thing we should be doing, like you said, John. There's much more to life than just work.

SPEAKER_04 53:37

Ta-da.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

Did you introduce it?

SPEAKER_00 53:42

I think I did.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

Yep. Thanks, Nate. Really appreciate this conversation. Uh obviously we had a lot to say about it, probably a little longer episode, but um just want to encourage you to uh to take this information into your own lives. Have these conversations with your friends and family members about your own work. Um talk, you know, ask if you uh what do they think about your work ethic? Um, you know, talk, you know, share these kinds of things. We're we're here modeling uh Christian conversations uh for you. We all haven't figured everything out Christian discussions. Discussions. Okay, you're right. Bite-side discussions, uh Christian discussions. And so have these conversations with your friends and family and loved ones um and do some self-reflection. Are you do you have a good work ethic? Maybe you're working too much. Maybe you need to align the priorities. Um, but uh, forever, whatever you do in word or D, do all in the name of the Lord and uh focus on that. And I think you'll be in the right shape. Thanks for listening. Um, as always, uh share this if you found it valuable to someone who's working too much. Uh or not in the if you didn't find it. Or someone who's lazy. Please. If you're listening at work, get back to work. Yeah, get back to work. Or just listen. Um is this your way of procrastinating? But maybe. Thanks again. Listen to us next time. Yeah, yeah. See you next time.

SPEAKER_05 55:02

Even if you're at work, you should listen to us too. By the way, your your thing like um if it takes one or if I wait to the last minute, it only takes a minute. That's a that's a law called Parkinson's Law. Work expands to fill the time allotted for it. Uh-huh. So I stopped giving my students a week to do an essay. I started giving them one hour.

unknown 55:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:21

They'll get it done. Well, next time I do an intro, I'll say, Welcome to the Exorder Podcast, where it is our aim to stir up loving good work through bite-sized biblical intercourse. So that's that's what it literally means. But it's I'm reading a book, I'm reading a it's about a hundred-year-old book by a Church of Christ preacher. And he talks about our intercourse with one another and our intercourse with God.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

And I was just like, Yeah, it's that's okay. Don't think you know, it reminds me of uh Princess Bride.

SPEAKER_05 55:51

I don't think you that word means what do you think it means? We we have a running joke in our family. Um, when someone says something that could be misconstrued, uh, there's gotta be a better way to say that.

SPEAKER_03 56:02

Yeah. Like when like when Tobias paints himself blue on rest and development, but I just blew myself.

SPEAKER_01 56:08

But I've got to be a bit I always do the off the uh no the the psych one. I've heard it both ways. Yeah. Uh I don't think that's like I've heard it both ways. Yeah. Um, by the way, our our uh our royalty uh has has uh expired for our audible track, so I'm just gonna do boom boom boom boom. I'm just gonna do audio of our how much is uh I'm just joking. I just wanted to try to do while you guys were talking and doing the the outtake type thing.

SPEAKER_06 56:43

I was gonna go what is that from?

SPEAKER_01 56:48

You don't listen to the outtakes on the we had this like little song thing. Well I know the Diddy, but it that just didn't sound like the Diddy. Isn't it? Is that not it?

SPEAKER_05 56:55

No, that's I don't think that's it. Something like that. It's it's I know when outtakes are coming because I hear the the like that. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 57:03

I don't know what diddy sounds like because I don't listen to rap.

SPEAKER_05 57:05

Oh. That was a good that was a good dad dad joke, dad joke. I just started season two of Breaking Bad. Oh my goodness, the show is so good. It gets even better. Oh, it's so good. It's fantastic. Wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_02 57:20

I'm not gonna spoil it. I'm not gonna spoil it because it's so great.

SPEAKER_01 57:22

You're not supposed to watch like this is art, yo. I just like taking a higher road and saying, I'm watching on a vid angel, so I'm better than you.

SPEAKER_05 57:33

You actually can't watch that show on Vid Angel. It's just a black screen.

SPEAKER_01 57:36

It's little things on Vid Angel, it shows you this is what you based upon what your settings are, this is how much of the movie you'll see, and this is how much of the movie you'll hear. And it just puts like these little blank spots in there. And sometimes it's like you just like all these little lines like this, like crazy of all the F words. No, okay. Kyle, you gonna lead us in if you own it in. You can lead us in if you know the right words.

SPEAKER_03 58:19

I know words. I know lots of big words. Words is good.

SPEAKER_01 58:22

You can't do Trump because I'm going to include it.

SPEAKER_05 58:25

You kind of sounded like fat Albert there, not Trump.

SPEAKER_01 58:31

I know words. We can't use that either. It's totally racially insensitive, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_05 58:36

It's okay to be racially insensitive, isn't it? That's a good thing. Didn't they just quote something on statistics about how 52% of all murders are committed by 13% of the population?

SPEAKER_00 58:46

See, and that's if I'm understanding the sermon from last week, 1962 was like prime time to be alive.

SPEAKER_01 58:54

Well, and honestly, I'm I'm actually honorary black now, so nothing I say is racist. Ginger gingers. What? Gingers are honorary blacks. Oh because ginger is an anagram for No, no, didn't you ever hear the uh oh man, I I got it.

SPEAKER_04 59:16

But no, that's Pontiac.

SPEAKER_01 59:18

No, but that's that that's a thing out there that what like a bunch of black people have said that gingers we're accepting of gingers now because you were also can never this can never be published.

SPEAKER_05 59:31

Turn it off. I said turn it on a minute ago. Turn it off now.

SPEAKER_01 59:34

We have been uh bigoted towards us just as much as uh kids.

SPEAKER_05 59:40

I don't see color. I don't see color.

SPEAKER_01 59:41

Maybe not as much, but uh as well. And you legitimately don't see color.

SPEAKER_00 59:46

I legitimately don't see color. I'm not a full ginger, I'm just a light skinned ginger. I have red in my beard.

SPEAKER_01 59:52

You're a daywalker. I have red in my beard. It doesn't count. It what? Because have you ever been um accused of bullied? Because of your hair color?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:01

I'm part black. See, I've got black spots.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:03

No, I have so many moles.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:04

Have you ever been bullied because of your hair color?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:06

My daughters asked me about it actually. They're like, Daddy, what is that? It's a mole.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

Yeah, unless you've been bullied because of it, it doesn't count.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:13

I've been bullied because of my large widow's peak.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

Have you ever been called carrot top?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

That fool is ripped. Anyone have you ever seen him with his shirt off? When you're watching the red, uh when you're reading the book where the red fern grows, does everyone you know? Oh my gosh, they used everything. Like everything all the time. Josh the red fern down.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:38

I don't even want to.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:39

You know what they called me in in high school?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:45

We're rolling. Okay. Okay, we're recording. Welcome to this.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:49

No, what did they call you? You can't leave yourself in. I can't too. No. I can leave myself to water, but they can't make me drink. We're doing a solo uh session here. We're gonna do what what did they call you? Firecrotch.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:02

Firecrotch. What did they call me?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:05

Well, how did they know? Because we used to rip you often. Oh my goodness, Kyle. Did you show them your belt buckle?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:12

This is archive gold. The belt buckle?

unknown 1:01:16

No.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:16

Okay. This is going. Don't ever archive. Yeah. It's where you take one testicle and you put it on top of your belt buckle and you say, hey, did you see my new belt buckle? Oh my goodness. All I have to say is if I ever, if I ever heard.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:37

If no, I'd say sleepovers, you never left your pillow alone. Did you come back?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:42

Oh dude, that's absolutely going to refer to uh is that new belt buckle? Why are you looking? Why are you looking? Yeah, yeah. Hey uh Tristan, that's a bang belt buckle we got there, buddy.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:56

You wish.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:58

Okay. Uh yeah, I can't use any of that stuff. Kyle, lead us in. You can probably clip it up, cut it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:07

Your testicles? You could. The pubes? Just ask Lance.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:13

All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:16

Um bring out my Vietnamese side. Welcome to it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:25

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:27

Oh, welcome to the Exotic Podcast.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:31

All right. John is like, you are wasting space on my card here.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:36

Yeah. Imagine if it was actually tape. What waste? Okay. Like film.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:45

You can tape over it though, right?

unknown 1:02:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:49

I'm doing my Nicolas Cage here.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:52

Saw him in Vegas one time.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:56

Let's go steal cars.

Episode Conclusion

SPEAKER_01 1:02:57

No, he's like, that's right. He's gone in sixty seconds when he does this. It's a great movie. I put that in my list, my top movies list. Gone in 60 seconds? Really? It's alright. I don't think it's an amazing movie. I just like it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:11

Just a good car horn.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:12

Oh. Oh. Well, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:14

That's a term. It's not dirty.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:16

Well, it's not going in the episode now, John. Angeli Jolizen is, so I think he just made it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:21

With dreadlocks.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:22

With dreadlocks. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:25

Now that is not uh Paul Walker's movies. What are those? Fast and the Furious. Okay. But that was that same era. The first one. Before the one. I think it was before. What's there more of Fast and the Furious or Land Before Time?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:43

Fast and the Furious. There's like fifteen. I only saw the first or second Land Before Time.