Genesis

Made for Work…

/ pastorlynnmalone / 1 Comment

I admit. I have a lazy streak. In my defense, I’m only lazy after I’ve been working. I’m like the lady that used to work for my grandmother who said, “When I work, I work hard. When I play, I play hard. When I sit, I go to sleep!”

Working is on my mind this morning because of the past few weeks I’ve had. Now that I’m pastoring a church again and running a business, my time off has been scarce. Vanessa and I took a few days away before beginning our new adventure in pastoring, but yesterday was my first day off in 20 days (but was it really a day off since I spent part of the day working on a sermon?).

The purpose of my writing is not to elicit your sympathy. It really is my way of trying to process my inability to find workers for my business. It makes me ask: “What has happened to the work ethic in our culture?”

Lessons in Futility

So, here’s a snapshot of my past month. I’ve been trying to fill a position in my shop for a couple of months now. I advertised for the position. Received a couple dozen applications (that’s a good thing). Spent some time processing those applications. Made a few decisions and began the process of interviewing people.

Called a guy in for a face-to-face interview. Went well. Checked his references. Again, went well. Called to make him an offer. Crickets!!! That’s right! Never returned my call. Emailed him. Crickets! No response. Time to move on…

Called another guy. Came for the interview. Went well. Checked references. Again, went well. Called and made an offer. Accepts offer. Start work on Monday. Monday comes. He’s a no-show! Make a call. Crickets. Email sent asking about the situation. Late on Monday I receive an email back that he’s sick and cant’ make it (he’ll start when he’s better–yeah, when will that be?). Okay, he can’t help it because he’s sick, but dude, you have a phone. Call somebody!

Schedule him to start the following Monday (surely he’ll be better by then). Monday comes and he shows up early. Hey! This is a good sign. Works Monday. Asks to take off early to finish a project he started before he took the job. Okay, sure. Tuesday comes. He’s a no-show! Calls that his truck is broke down. Okay, so he can’t help that, right?

Wednesday comes and he shows up–early again. Points earned. Works the morning. Goes to lunch. Never returns! Haven’t heard a word from him. No call. No email. Crickets. Odd thing is I owe him money for the day and a half he worked. Go figure.

Call another guy in for an interview. 10:00 a.m., Friday? Great! See you then. Friday comes. No guy.

Call another guy. 10:00 a.m., Friday (yes, another Friday)? Great! See you then. Friday comes. No guy.

I’m starting to develop a complex. Is it me? Am I not doing something right? It must be me, right?

Then, I think, “It’s really not me, it’s the world in which we live these days.”

I say that because I’ve got another job posting, as well. I’ve received a couple of dozen applications for that position, too.

I provide a link to every applicant who submits an application on-line to a personality assessment. For every person who actually takes the time to complete the assessment, I set up a phone screen interview. I did that for three applicants who completed the assessment. I call. No response. Three different people, three no answers. I leave messages. Still…I’ve never heard back from a single person.

Bummer! And, I’m still two people short on staff.

Lessons for My Life

I don’t know. Perhaps they’ve found other employment and don’t have the courtesy to call and withdraw their name from consideration. Perhaps they’re just checking boxes on a form so they can continue drawing their unemployment. Perhaps they just reconsidered and decided a job in the quick lube industry isn’t for them.

Okay! No problem. How about a little consideration. Have we lost that with our work ethic, too? Do I blame it on Covid? Or, have I just been walking around all my life with blinders on and didn’t realize that’s how it goes with the job market because I’ve never been in business for myself before now?

Whatever it is, it’s very frustrating…and I guess I’m taking my frustration via this blog. I am, however, reminded of Genesis 2:15–

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.“

The good Lord created us for work. Our work is meant to be an offering of worship to the Lord. I’m wondering if our world might be so upside down because no one wants to work anymore. And, don’t get me started on the government and give-aways. Lord, have mercy…

I’m also reminded of this little passage in the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians:

9 We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. 10 Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.” 11 Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business. 12 We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living. 13 As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.

So, I’m finding some solace in the fact that it’s not actually a new problem. I guess it’s as old as we humans are.

I could launch into an entire diatribe on the benefits of work, but the blog is long enough already and I’ve got to get ready for work. But, work today is worship (and to lead worship). Then again, work is meant to be worship everyday, but I’ve already been down that road this morning.

So, get up and go to work. It is what we’re made for.

Until next time, keep looking up…

Happy Father’s Day!

/ pastorlynnmalone / Leave a comment

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! I did a blog honoring mothers on Mother’s Day, so I should return the favor to dads on Father’s Day. In that blog (read it here), I reflected on the mothers who were influential in my life, but I kind of did that previously (here and here) for dads, so I don’t feel the need to repeat all that again.

Someone asked me this week, “What are your plans for Father’s Day?” I answered, “Go to church, eat lunch and take a nap.” Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. I think that for most fathers the routine of a typical Sunday is perfectly fine for them. It’s not that we don’t appreciate the warm and loving gestures of our wives and children, it’s just that we view the Hallmark holidays a bit differently.

We view days like today differently because men are different. I don’t care what our culture has been trying to tell us for the past 50 years, men and women are different. It has been that way since the beginning:

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Yeah, I could now launch into a long essay on how men and women are different from a biblical perspective, but if you’re reading this you probably don’t need my persuasion. Most of you probably already agree with me.

I also could expound on the impact that feminist ideology, and now trans ideology, has had (and continues to have) on culture’s view of fatherhood, but again, most of you probably don’t need my persuasion and most of you would agree with me.

I could connect feminist and trans ideology to Marxist ideology that has at its core the destruction of the nuclear family (see here if you don’t believe me). It really is eerie how that ideology is being played out before our eyes in today’s cultural climate. I won’t do that here, though, because most of you reading this already see it and you would agree with me.

Besides, doing so would be too much like work, and it’s Father’s Day. Most fathers would rather simply go to church, eat lunch and take a nap.

So, I’ll just say Happy Father’s Day to all our fathers, and I’ll leave you with a Facebook meme I saw this week that pretty much sums it up for me:

I leave that with you because it is what your children need. It is what your wife needs. It is what your church needs. It is what our culture needs.

Happy Father’s Day!

Until next time, keep looking up…

Missing Breakfast…

/ pastorlynnmalone / Leave a comment
A delicous home style breakfast with crispy bacon, eggs, pancakes, toast, coffee, and orange juice.

The congregation I serve as interim pastor has a men’s breakfast once a month. I missed the men’s breakfast for the month of September. No, I wasn’t otherwise occupied. I simply forgot. I’m uncertain as to why I missed it. It’s probably because I’m just getting old and forgetful, after all, I do celebrate a milestone birthday this week and it’s one that ends with a zero and officially puts me in the old man club. Or, it could be that I’ve adopted the attitude of the rest of our culture–men just don’t matter that much. I pray it is the former and not the latter.

Our culture has told men (particularly young men) that masculinity is toxic. It’s as if there is a wholesale attack in our culture on traditional manhood in general. Our culture tells men (especially young men) that they are fundamentally flawed and that their natural impulses are misguided and wrong. One of the guiding principles behind the attack is the belief that the differences between men and women are not biological, but rather a matter of social conditioning.

When men act the rebel, roughhouse or (heaven forbid) assess women based on their looks, they are called out and straightened out. Having lived this many years now, I can honestly say that it seems for almost two generations, young men have been told they are toxic, sexist and probably racist, too. I should probably attach a bunch of links to prove the point, but you have Google, too, so you can do it if you want. I just sense that there is a crisis of manhood in western culture. And, it’s showing up in the church, too. It seems I’m not the only man missing breakfast.

Our culture needs men! Every culture needs men! Every church needs men! Men and women are different, I don’t care what sociologists tell us. Genesis 1: 27 says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” No amount of wishing, feeling or believing makes it otherwise. To state otherwise is to state a lie, and if there is one thing our culture needs today, it is to stand on those things that are true.

I haven’t shared much about my journey out of the United Methodist Church simply because it was too personal, and I possess a deep love for the UMC. To share my reasons for leaving might cast a dim light on the institution, and I have no desire to do that. It could go its way and I would go mine. I would be grateful for the opportunities it afforded me and the blessings it brought into my life. I suppose officially becoming an old fogey has changed my mind.

I knew my time in the United Methodist Church was drawing to a close in 2019 when a UM seminary hosted a drag queen chapel (not going to link it here, either). That’s not a slap on drag shows. There have been men dressing as women for centuries. I know that. The difference, as I see it, is that now drag is hyper-sexualized and is part and parcel of the broader trend in culture to promote transgender ideology–which promotes the idea that men can be women and women can be men. Neither is true, and the Church (any Church) should not be promoting the lie.

God’s creation is magnificent, wondrous, and powerful, but it is also inviolate. We tamper with God’s natural order (and with truth) at our own peril. To pretend men and women are the same is to defy the natural order and the entirety of human experience. Men and women are different. We need each other in order to be whole. That’s the truth. Anyone who tells you different is lying.

We need to be telling men they are worthy. We need to be telling men that they have meaning, value and purpose. We need to be telling men to pursue that purpose. Get up. Get a life. Go to work (we are created to work). You won’t discover meaning or purpose spending countless hours a day in front of screens. Don’t be lemmings. Challenge the status quo. Play the rebel. Live the truth of your masculinity!

Truth is contagious, but so is lying. Once we discover the truth and proclaim it, the stronger we become. Once we proclaim a lie and believe it as the truth, we become weaker. The world (and the church) needs strong men, men who hold to the truth found in Jesus Christ who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life…”(John 14:6).

I’m not sure any of this makes sense. I just know there is a burning in my bones. Eh! It’s probably just because I’m old now and don’t care nearly as much what other people think of me.

I do know these are the things we need to be talking about when men gather for breakfast. It’s why I hate I missed breakfast last month. It’s why I’ll try not to miss again. It’s why I’ll encourage other men to join, too.

Until next time, keep looking up…