Men At Work

This is the Truth Network. The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.

So how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now. Welcome to Masculine Journey. We're glad that you're with us today, and we have just a topic that I think most people can relate to, but especially our guy listeners, right?

Because this is one, I mean, yes, it is a masculine journey, so you would think that we're going to have topics that appeal to guys. That's really our thing. But, you know, we do have a lot of female listeners, and we do appreciate those listeners as well. But I think most men struggle around this topic at some point in their life, don't you think, Andy? Yeah, for sure.

Definitely me at this point in my life. But yeah, we're going to talk about. Um men at work, um how we aside from our ministry, aside from our role in our family, what it play I mean, how it plays out in our life, whether we try to get our validation from it, which we talk a lot about in the masculine journey. But, you know, where you know, sometimes you hit roadblocks in your, um your career, your work, sometimes You're just, you're interested in other things. You're tired of doing the same thing, and you need to change up.

Ten years ago, nine years ago, I made a change, and it revolutionized my life. It did tell me. It was revolutionary. Yeah, it did tell me. It was good.

It was good for me. It was good. It was what my heart needed at the time, and it kind of coincided with me coming to ministry. And a lot of the same things I was learning in both ways. I mean, it really helped me, you know, public speaking being one of them, but just being more confident in.

In both roles.

So, but what we're going to do is talk about some of those things.

So, I had this on my heart that because of what I was going through, but just kind of I felt like God gave it to me. And then I was in a Early morning Bible study with the guys in Ohio that we call Revelli. And we're going through the book of Acts, and we talked about the missional. Your job is a mission. And Paul was a tent maker, and how he used that to provide for himself and for the kingdom, but also, you know, there was a holy aspect to it.

And that's how our job is. It's probably pretty bad if it's holy and defense. Just think. Maybe. Probably went out of business after a while.

Well, you are Robby. Y'all are the pun artist there. But no, I mean, it's really, we don't look sometimes at our work as being sacred or holy. It's just a secular thing to do. It's providing our family.

Sometimes we consider it the smaller story than the largest story. It says in Colossians 3:23, whatever you do, work heartily is for the Lord and not for men. And I'm not always. I don't always live up to that. I'm guilty of doing the other.

Not because I'm not interested. I have a lot of interest, and sometimes my time is sliced all over the place, and I don't find myself being as effective. In my current job situation, it's changing to where I was just killing it for years, and it's not. Is it's not coming. And I'm asking, God, is this time for a change?

Or is this time I need to step up my game? Or do I just need to go another avenue?

So I'm praying into that stuff. But I want to hear everybody's stories. This is selfish. I wanted to hear everybody's stories because everybody on this team has a great story. And I want to hear those.

And I think maybe it'll help everybody if you're struggling where you're at in your career. They put a lot of pressure on us. And we got great stories. That was a mediocre story. And you have great clips, too.

So this is going to be an awesome show. Oh, there you go. Way to be positive. Yeah, absolutely. All right.

Well, the first clip is yours, Robby. Yeah, well, it's a little different. It could happen, though. It can. It can.

I think. I think there was some lobbying. The moon's aligned and other things. I'll give you my Vimo number later. Yeah, that's good.

So this is from a movie called Here Comes the Boom, and it stars Kevin. Is the guy's name Kevin? Kevin James. Kevin James, he's awesome. And it's.

About work on all sorts of different levels, because essentially what's happened is he's a teacher. But he's lost heart. Um he kind of You know, got old hat, and you know, he isn't stepping up his game. And as he. begins to try to help out another teacher who's the band teacher to raise money, etcetera, and start actually Cage matching.

It's interesting. He starts to get his heart back, and when he does, he really comes alive because at one point in time he had been the teacher of the year. And so, as you listen to him, as he has his heart back, listen to him get his students' hearts back and what happens actually when you bring a whole organism back to life, i.e., the school, i.e., your career, etc., it's really cool. Anyone know what happens to a stagnant cell? What's he doing on the table?

I don't know, something about cells. Malia. It's not good. Did you hear that? It ain't good.

People, a cell that is not in motion is not a productive member of the system. It ends up assuming all the other cells are gonna pick up the slack somewhere, but they don't. In fact, they imitate the stray cell until basically the whole organism begins. To die. Yeah, but you know what?

Biology is an amazing thing. And here's the good news: all that decays. can be restored. It's just hitting anybody. Like how a cut heals.

Like how it cut heels, Brian, my man. Oh, yeah, you got one. And once that cell is back on track, it creates energy amongst the other cells. That's what happens. It starts getting a little movement going.

It gets a little rumble. Can I get a little rumble from everybody? Everybody, just rumble in your seats right now for me. Just rumble a little bit.

Okay, no rumble. That's fine. I'll be the dull rumble. That's what I am. I'm a lone rumbler.

But then the cell starts banging into the other cells. And the cells push back and go, hey, what are you doing to me? They hit into another one: hey, don't do that to me. That's my friend. You don't even know him.

You don't know me either. I know you, we work together, because then they hit a rhythm. They all hit a rhythm, and this is the beginning of the restorative process.

So now, even if the entire system is close to dead, what happens? Martinez, come on. Give me something. Oh no. Not today.

Oh no, that's my house. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, here we come. Don't look up my pant leg, Derek. You're better than that.

I'm right over you. Come on, man. What do you say? If all the cells work together, What will happen? The entire system was healed.

Exactly. That is a sick direct. Yeah, the entire You know, the thing is healed, and so it's a beautiful thing when you think about it that. Here he obviously is gifting in his calling and this is clearly he comes alive when he's teaching. And you can hear him as he comes alive, you know, start to realize, wow, as I get my rumble back, the students get their rumble back, right?

And the cool thing is you can't see it, but he's standing on his desk when he starts to get their attention, right? And he's moving and all this stuff just to get things going. And you know, when you work hardly as to the Lord, I don't care if you are cleaning toilets, Jim, if you're doing it with a rumble, if you're doing it in a groove, like this is, man, I'm glorifying God with it, you will get everybody. You know, in a better place.

So, fascinatingly, I have an older story most people have never heard, but a At one point in time, I had been a really successful or you know, I certainly had sold a lot of cars as a general sales manager and Crown, the organization I worked at at the time many years ago, they promoted me to general manager. They promoted me to general manager of Crown Dodge in 1991, about the time the Gulf War started.

So a little history lesson there. The economy went in the ditch and immediately the dealership I was working at it was just doing horrible. Just horrible. I had seen general managers for years. I never one of them saw, I never once saw a general manager in all my years in the car business, which at this point in time had probably been 25.

I'd never seen one out there on the sales floor. They always sat back in their office and delegated, delegated, delegated, right? That was the way they did things. And so we weren't selling any cars. We weren't selling any cars.

And I called, you know, somewhat my mentor, the guy who promoted me, and I said, Ron, man, dude, we're not selling any cars. And he goes, Are you sitting back in your office? And he goes, I said, yeah. And he goes, That ain't you. He said, you come alive when you're out there in the showroom and you're with the salesmen and you're with the managers.

And he said, get out there and sell cars. I know one thing about you, Robby. You can sell cars. And if you get out there, Well, guess what's going to happen? And so not only was it the advice that I needed, But it brought such joy to my heart to go do what I knew I loved to do at that point in my life, which was to talk to customers and make those kind of things happen.

And I've never forgotten that as my heart started to get back to life, guess what happened? All the sales um the the the the you know, the whole organism was renewed, you know, because obviously that, you know, that that was one person that that clearly loved what they were doing. And and again, whether you're to me, it's the important thing about the calling is it's not what you do. It wasn't that I was a car salesman. It was that Whether I'm doing radio or I'm a pastor or I'm Tell my jokes at a nursing home, you know.

If I start, you know, just coming into that place where I love to be where I am, then, you know, obviously. That's how God made me. And that's really an amazing thing. The challenge with all that is. Right is balance.

And still having time for your family and stuff, but I'm sure we have stories along those lines. We do. I was talking with, I have an intern this summer that's working with me at my secular job, and just been talking with him a lot about he's trying to decide whether he wants to go in this part of the industry or this part of the industry, and just talking about: look, the money's going to come and go. and most people will chase the money. You have to decide what makes your heart come alive, right?

I mean, go out there and look at that. Because if you go after the money in five years, you'll be wanting to do something else. And you won't know why things aren't going well. You thought you had your plan, but the issue was you didn't really listen to your own heart and lean into God on it. And say, God, help me see where you want me to go.

Because if you follow that and step into that vein, It's revolutionary, as you were saying or trying to say earlier. Quite revolutionary. It is. He has reason to be afraid of that word, though. Yeah.

We won't go into that. Yeah, yeah. You'd send that to Jim, imasculinejourney.org, and he could eventually get back to you and tell you about it. No, he would never answer the email. Yeah, that's true.

That's a fair amount. But yeah, we do have a boot camp coming up in November. And we want to specifically talk to you guys that are in Greenville and Spartanburg. We're not that far from you, right? We're right over in Royston, Georgia.

How close is that, Robby? Any idea? It couldn't be 30 miles, 40 miles. 30, 40 miles. Yeah, I mean, it's close.

And so it's coming up in November. It's the weekend before Thanksgiving. That's the. Whatever, 20th through 23rd, right? November 20th through 23rd.

We'd love to have you there. If you have any questions about it, I'm telling you right now: if you don't plan now to go, something will come up and get in the way. We've been doing these boot camps since 2009. We've done them primarily in the North Carolina Triad area, right? But how many times, guys?

I know you can't just shake your heads because only a few people can see you, right? But how many times? Yeah, well, but how many times has that been the story? Oh, I'm going to come, I'm going to come, and then they wait, and oh, well, something came up. It's a constant thing.

And so go ahead and make your plan now. If you have trouble getting there financially, let us know. We'll help you get there somehow. But we're going to go to break. We'll talk to you after the break.

What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. I listened to Morgan Snyder's book, Driving to Work last year, and that was a very profound experience.

So, this kind of culminated into it. I'd have been invited to it several times, and just it never worked out. God really had it set up that I came last time.

So, coming into this one, I knew this one went deeper, and I really wanted it. It's a break for me to get outside of things I've got going on, and I just needed a break from it and needed to reconnect. It's been absolutely that, this process. The covenant of silence, silent prayer, those are some of my favorite parts. This is real connection with the Lord.

You hear him speak, you can get direction, guidance. Anything you're missing is there. You always learn something new. It's fun experiencing it with other men. It's fun standing for them and what they're going through.

We're all different. And unique, but we're all going through the same struggles. And when you hear somebody else went through it too, it kind of gives you an encouragement that, hey, you can make it through this. And God's got you, and He's going to hold you up through it, and He's going to carry you to the next level. Register today at masculinejourney.org.

I'm trying to hold all night, impossible not dreaming of that you won't go home all that be just what I am a war beautiful So that's Blue Collar Man by Sticks. Yeah, I think we've got some Seventies, eighties rock for you to On another show, but if you watch the camera, that's probably pretty relevant. Yeah, exactly. That's what we talk about what we know, right? Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so long nights and possible odds, keeping my back to the wall. If it takes all that to be just what I am, I'm going to be a blue-collar man. And I think sometimes we feel like we're just blue-collar men. We're doing, we're bearing down to just get through. And sometimes that's what it takes, persistence.

But we're also talking about it's revolutionary. It's revolutionary. It's revolutionary. Or revo, revo, revolution. All right, y'all make your fun.

I'm not submitting any more topics. Never a kid. It won't stop us from teasing. You might as well give the topic. Maybe I'll call in or something.

Yeah, you might. That won't stop us either. That was true. Yeah, you wouldn't even hear we were making fun of them. True, true.

You don't have to be present to win. That's right. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, well, go ahead, we're through the uh bubble.

But I just, you know, uh Sam's got some good ones too, uh, you know, that are they'll be coming up. But it just there's a lot there's a lot of songs out there that speak to what we go through as men working, and um I think that was a good one. Yeah, there are. There's a 'cause I think it's something, you know Music imitates life. Yeah.

Right? And so if they sang about things you couldn't relate to, then why would you be attracted to that song?

Well, the point I wanted to make when we first started this out was we spend over a third of our time there. It's and and a lot of times Your heart may be elsewhere, actually, but you know that that's your um that's If a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat. There is a responsibility. It's the way the world is set up. And we gravitate to it.

It's easy to do that early in our careers. You get some appraise, approval, and then you're addicted to that. And you're trying to get up the company ladder. And I think we've got to be a song. Exactly.

You're trying to rise up that way, and that's not really what God intended to, but it still plays a role. And I think it's a crucial role. That's exactly what I meant to say. Part of your crucial adventure that you provide for those around you. Yeah.

I think you're right. It's crucially revolutionary. It is. Or it's revolutionarily crucial. One thing I like about this, it's obvious that I'm quotable, right?

You are quotable. Yeah, because you have a dictionary. You get a dictionary. Yeah, that's a show. I know a dictionary.

You do, yeah, exactly.

Now, you made the point that we spend a third of our life at work, and I think that that's a minimum. Yeah, yeah. That's a minimum for most people, especially in America, right? And, you know, with the busy lives that we have, I would say most people spend more time at work than they do with any of their family. Yeah.

That's true. Right. Because you can't really count sleeping. You know what I mean? You're there, but how much are you really interacting?

Exactly. I guess you could talk in your sleep, you know, and maybe, but you may not be able to respond. But, Danny, you. Have the next clip. Yeah, before I got my CPAP machine, we had some interaction.

Yeah, hey, wake up, the neighbors heard you.

Now you do your Darth Vader impression. That's right, yeah. Yeah, Cody, I'm your father. Yeah, when Andy introduced Target Minute Work, I thought we were going to talk about an 80s band from Down Under.

Well, I looked really hard to find a song that they did related to that, and it wasn't any catchy tune like something nice. It wasn't. No, they were flashing the pan. They were here and gone. They were eating veggie and white sandwiches.

Yeah, that's it. But my clip is from Shrek, and we've used the clip more than once. I like it so good I put it in a folder twice. You did? Apparently.

So that's what happens when you hear an echo morning. Echo. Yeah. Echo. Shrek, Shrek, Shrek.

But it's a clip. We played it before about. He talks about ogres are like onions because him and Donkey are engaged in a conversation about the current job he's doing, rescuing the princess and everything. And so Donkey's trying to. feed into his ogre identity.

Shrek breaks it down for him and it's hilarious, but you know, I'll make the point on the other side when we talk about it.

So Okay, let me get this straight. You're gonna go fight a dragon and rescue a princess just so Farqua to give you back a swamp, which you only don't have because you filled it full of freaks in the first place. Is that about right? You know what? Maybe there's a good reason Donkey shouldn't talk.

I don't get it, Shrek. Why don't you just pull some of that olga stuff on him, you know? Throttle him, lay siege to his fortress, grind his bones to make your bread. You know the whole olga trip. Oh, I know what.

Maybe I could have decapitated an entire village and put their heads on a pike, got the knife, cut open their spleen, and drinked their fluids. Does that sound good to you? Uh No, not really, no. For your information, there's a lot more to ogres than people think. Example?

Example? Okay, um Ogres are like onions. Mm-hmm. They stink? Yes.

No. Oh, they make you cry. No. Oh, you leave them out in the sun, they get all brown, start sprouting little white hairs. No!

Layers! Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers? You get it.

We both have layers. Oh, you both have layers. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions. Cake!

Everybody loves cakes! Cakes have ladies! I don't care! What everyone likes. Ogres?

Are not. Like cakes. You know what else everybody likes? Parfait. Have you ever met a person you say, hey, let's get some parfaits?

They say, hell no, I don't like no parfaits. Parfaits are delicious. No! You dance, irritating miniature beast of burden! Ogres are like onions.

End of story. Bye-bye. See you later. Parfaits may be the most delicious thing on the whole planet. You know, I think I preferred your humming.

Do you have a tissue or something? Cause I'm making a mess. Just the word parfait made me start slopping. I kind of want a parfait now. I'm going to say that.

Oh, you do, yeah. Exactly. A canyon parfait? Yeah, you can't not laugh at Shrek. I mean, you have to laugh at Shrek.

Yeah, that's. But, you know, Andy, when you threw this topic out. We talked a little bit about how men tie their identities to what they do. to their career. And and we even do it, you know, oh, you know Sam the builder guy, that wears orange shirts.

Every week. Yeah, every week. Or we tie ourselves to that. And and so, you know, there was a time in my life I've done some sort of uh repair work since I got out of high school. And I came to a place where I had some back issues and that kind of thing and you know back doctor told me that you're either gonna have to go find something else to do or you know you're gonna have some real problems.

And I went into identity crisis 'cause that's all I had ever done. And I'm thinking, what am I going to do? And, you know, I talked last week about my father saying, you paid for what you know, not what you do. And, you know, God opened up some doors right in that company for me to get off of the road, out of more of the physical part of it. And then one thing led to another, and I ended up leaving the company because of some stress and some micromanagement and that thing.

And But I literally didn't know who I was, didn't know who I was going to be without being able to turn wrenches and fix things. And you know, God took me through a whole lot of that and And ultimately, I ended up at a job I'm in now where I do more tech support. I tell people how to fix things. Delegation, if you will. But it's If that hadn't happened, and then with this current situation we're in with the cancer and the operations and the chemo and having to have a flexible work schedule, I don't think I would have been in the position I'm in with the other companies.

So God knew what he was doing. And I'm grateful for that, but I'm not, it's not who I am. You know, I work in tech support. That's not who I am. Who I am is Danny Lee Marsh.

the guy that God knit together in his mother's womb. And you Robby talked about in the pre show, you know, about you know, this is how he made me. And you mentioned it earlier. You know, I love people. And if I can engage with people, I come alive.

I mean, I love interacting with people, hearing their stories, and, you know, trying to do. And get them going, you know, they'll carry on some sort of shenanigans and that kind of thing, and just making people laugh and kind of cracking the. facades that that everybody has and and that's what makes me come alive and I get to do that on a daily basis on the phone all over the country with my coworkers and you know we're family and so that that's kind of cool. But I do that in my family too. I do that in you know, we engage in there's lots of laughter and giggling going on around the Marsh household all the time, even if it's just me and Michelle.

because we we laugh like school children sometimes. It's just part of who we are. But that to me, Andy, was you know the the work factor is I have to separate myself. Yeah, it's part of my gifting and it's part of what I can do, but it's just a layer of the onion. Yeah.

Or the parfait, whichever one you want. But because they're all there. Or cake. Cake. Everybody loves cake.

I love cake. It doesn't love me sometimes. But that's the reality of who we are. You know, God created us, and we walk through this life, and life changes sometimes on the turn of a dime. But it doesn't change who you are.

You just have to dig in deeper to who you are and react to the situation with who you are. That's what I'm trying to do now. And so, you know, and they tell me it's one of the healthiest things you can do in this situation.

So. That's good. Thank you, Danny. Appreciate it. Harold, do you have a a story you'd like to share with us?

Well, in talking about how God can arrange things in your life, Uh I was in school at Auburn University and School of Engineering curriculum called Industrial Management. which was a hybrid of business and industrial engineering. I met my sweetheart. Again, here's God's influence. And uh she told me that uh I was going to have to give up being a Navy pilot, which was my Ambition And I wanted her more than I wanted the Navy.

But I was scared to death as to what kind of work I was going to be able to do. Because a lot of the jobs that people in my curriculum got were not things I was. interested in doing.

So I joined the Air National Guard, went off to basic training, When I went back in the fall I had a class in computer programming. I fell in love with my wife when I first saw her. I fell in love with computer programming when I first saw it. and God allowed me to work in that for my career forty plus years, And I loved it. I love the challenge of it.

It did become my identity, though, I have to confess. I spent way too much time. Yeah. But To me, it was a challenge. that brought such great joy.

I loved five years. finding programming techniques that other people didn't know. and trying to develop ways to do better programming.

so that the programs would be easier to maintain. Less buggy. and so forth. God gave me A career. That was good for my family as well.

Because it provided us financially very well. But God will look after us if we let him.

Well, thank you, Harold. Go to masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp November 20th through 23rd. We'll talk with you next week, and maybe you'll talk to you next week. We'll just do that. How's that?

Yeah. This is the Truth Network. Yeah.