Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path.

And you're listening to live from the Path gonna be from the Pathway Studios. Pure Johnston Proverbs. It's starting to be nice weather up there. What do mean? What do you mean? It's it's been nice weather. We should hold the the show outside. That's not in the park. It's not really a movable operation. I've been parked. Do you remember we used to broadcast from, like, Christian music festivals and stuff? Yeah. We had we had, like, a mobile rig. Yeah. I saw an ambulance for sale the other day, and I just wanted to buy it.

I almost sent you guys a picture. Yeah. Yeah. You that would be an instant yes, Dan. Yeah. See, was afraid, so I didn't do it. She says no first, and then then we go, yeah. But we think this is a good idea. Great idea. Hey. You're listening to Live From The Path. I wanted just two real quick things off the bat. First of all, I we received a a call on the complaint line

from our friend Joe, And Joe was a faithful complainer. Yeah. He's been on the complaint line multiple times. And oddly enough, it's been a blessing every time. God bless this man and his wife. Always it always works out that when we need when we need some level of encouragement,

somebody shows up on the complaint line, and more than once, God has used Joe. Yeah. And so very blessed for that. But in this particular thing, he was calling about the podcast. So generally, you could go back and listen to our podcast. I think it went back five, six years. There's like a limit of how much you can actually send on, like, a podcast feed, and so it has to stop somewhere. But, like, ours went back quite a bit. Now, I actually, was was working on the website. As we were talking about last week, no one no one uses the website. And so

I I I rearranged it to be podcast focused at least for now. So, like, you can't find videos out on the site anymore. Right now, it's just it's just podcast. And so when I did the switch, I had to kinda, like, move everything over. And one of the things that I wanted to improve upon was kind of a better numbering scheme of the episodes and then some description. Right now, like, the best you got is twenty twenty one episode six. There's no real way to remember what we were talking about. And frankly, it's hard to to tag what we're speaking of in an episode because we we might talk about so many things. But,

I I wanted to improve that, and so it just required that I had I had to go back and listen to some of the shows and get an idea of what what it was, especially if I didn't actually label it right the first time. And so I got I got it to this year's done, and they got us back to 2020. And so most of those those shows were, are are now live, and you can get them in the podcast feed. But everything before that isn't out there. And God bless Joe for noticing, him and his wife for noticing, that you couldn't get to the backlog of Live From The Path, programs. I I no joke, literally thought this when I was doing it. I thought, no one's gonna notice. Right? Like, one's even gonna notice or care if I don't do this, you know, two year backlog of the show. Okay. I thought that way about deodorant for like a week. Yeah. You was wrong. That's right. It ended. Yeah. Definitely wrong. Live From The Path is the is the aluminum filled deodorant for the masses. Okay. Small correction. I switched over to the aluminum the non aluminum deodorant,

and it gave me the hives. Oh. And I had to switch back to the cancer sticks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I I could my my armpits could not take it. Did you like, you made your own? No. It's some charcoal based. Oh. But it's super hard. Right? So you gotta let it sit in there for a minute and warm up. You melt it with your body pits. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, this is way more work than I'm used to putting into deodorant. Yeah. It's like it depends what you buy, but, like, use a natural deodorant, like, is like is like putting peanut butter under your armpits. Oh, man. It's a it's a weird deal. Well, see, that's thing is I had to save it up with coconut oil to get it to stop burning me, and that worked just fine. But it's like literally me shoving, like Yeah. What is I I don't know. What's the what what's the physical matter form of, like, jello or glutinous?

It's not a liquid. It's solid. It's like viscous. Yeah. Kind of a glob. And so, like, globbing this crap into your own art, it just makes you feel like a medieval king or like a or like a Bobo, like the the big warrior in, like, Lord of the Rings or something. You know, like, you're you're pounding your own armpits with this weird sap. I'm like, I just I can't I stopped doing it in front of the mirror. Couldn't take the side of myself. Yeah. Yeah. It's a funny it's a funny feeling. Anyway, stay out the natural deodorant. Yeah. Anyway, so broad takeaway. One, check out the website. It's up to date. Two, I actually I I do intend to get to the back shows. I just have to listen to them. I have to re go back and re listen to remember what we were talking about so that I can actually title them and and provide the descriptions in there. And so I will get around to it. I'm actually open hey. If any of you guys love the backlog, I'll just start publishing the shows again, and then you can go out and find anything without a description and just tell me what to call it. And I'll do that. I'm totally in for that. Save me some time. Do we have our own Wikipedia page? No. Could someone start that? Yeah. I think if you do it on your on your own behalf, people sniff that out as suspicious. Alright. We'll have someone else. If, hey, if anybody edits Wikipedia, can you put one out there for us? That's a great idea. Who would do that for us? Yeah. Yeah. Google could. Okay. So anyway, thank you. Always encouraged,

to to to have folks on the complaint line, especially always love to hear from Joe. He's a great encouragement to the show. And, so if you notice the change in your podcast feed, bless you for noticing the difference. And, two, I I am working on it. It'll it might take a little bit of time, but, I hope to at least get all the way back through 2019. Anything beyond that, we might be getting a little bit too long for for our, podcast feed. But I'll keep working my way back. So Cool. Anyway, thank you for that. Secondly, I'm just I'm gonna I'm gonna say this. There there was a show that we did last year,

and it was called it it is now titled something it was the same show where we did the advice, and it was about the guy who put the Robert E. Lee statue statue in their church. Remember those guys? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. It was great. So I actually didn't listen to most of the front of the thing because I thought the Rob the Bob Lee section was the real killer. So that's the title of the episode. It says, like, Robert E. Lee something. But it was when we had just come back from doing we've been out. Like, I'd been out for I've been down real, like, super sick for six weeks, and it was like the non COVID COVID. And it was it was real rough. Like, I'd never been so sick in my life. Dan had an anniversary. Mike had been out of town. We just hadn't done a show for a long But anyway, the the the the show ended up focusing on kinda random thoughts I had while I was sick. And the core of the discussion came out similar,

like, kind of in vain of what we were talking about last week, which is kinda what is truth. But this was around, like, how to walk in humility when when truth seems to vary or recognizing as a human that your possession of truth is always in some sort of limited scope. Like, you're bound by the one of the good examples that we gave was like talking about John f Kennedy. So at the time, if you would have asked people about Kennedy in in 1966,

like, you know, and talk to me about his character, you couldn't find anybody to say anything wrong. Like, the man had a glorious character. And then has oh, and and and they would have gone to the grave about it. Like, this is what we know. Like, with the we you can talk to people that that knew him and they would say this. And we know he's a Catholic and like all kinds of things. He comes from a good family. And then so now, you know, a number of years past that, like, other things have come out. We know a lot more about JFK's character. We we know some of of his extra relationships. And, like, there's like, you can't know everything all at the same time. You'd can you have to do the best you can with what you know at any given moment. Like, because you know that you can't know everything. But because you recognize that as a human, have a finite scope, you cannot know anything at any given time is of complete certain truth because you don't know whether you have an entire context or that something else might shift it over time, or whatever. And so the whole point was talking about things, like recognizing how you approach things in humility.

And it it it touched a little bit on COVID stuff and it touched a little bit on I think we got into some election stuff, but none of that specifically. It was around how to deal with those conversations and how not how arrogance is one of the worst asp like, one of the easiest ways to destroy a Christian witness is around these types of things. And and basically, how how especially interacting on social media, but I would say even on face to face conversations in these times and of these topics,

you're losing your ability to speak kingdom stuff because of your arrogance on worldly stuff. And so I I say all that to say, so that we don't rehash it, I might encourage you to go back and listen to the show because it was actually helpful to me. I was listening to it on the way in, and I thought this is actually this especially with, you know, the the the Delta variant Lambda variant. And, like, yeah, all kinds of stuff coming coming up. We're naming these.

Was there one between delta and lambda? Yeah. I probably just didn't pan. It wasn't Are these Greek letters? Yeah. Is it lambda the fourth? Or is there like a Exira variant? I should do it like a hurricane names. Yeah. That would be easier to follow. Yeah. Why they gotta bumble it up? Like the like the like the Marion variant?

Yeah. So like they should just do it in alphabetical order like they do to hurricanes so we know what variant we're on. Yeah. I don't know what How many have come by? I don't know what Lambda is. Yeah. That's true. We're already on COVID nineteen. There's variants of the 19. I mean, I'm I'm getting Can't keep track of it all this stuff. I'm getting all fired up about it. Right? Like, I if they would do it like hurricanes, like, they're like hurricane hurricane Phi Phi is coming by. You're like, okay. That's like the fifth hurricane this year. Yeah. It's easy to do some quick math and go, okay. That's Yeah. Well, shoot. Okay. Anyway, broad point. That's arrogance, Ben. It's a good show to go back and take a listen of, especially if just for a refresher on how you not it's not gonna tell you what to think or how to think it in these particular situations, but it is gonna prescribe that as a follower of Jesus,

you do need to be mindful on how you approach people with what you think, and your level of humility slash arrogance related to how you communicate it. Maybe that segues nice into the thing I've been thinking about. Okay. Hit me hit me with while you're doing that, I gotta get the the thrift store priest. He's not well positioned. Okay. So so actually along those same lines, it it

I was thinking as it pertains to like your your work or your job or your situations, even even your relationships and stuff. Like, I've I've been under the solid belief for a long time that like, if I was more faithful to the way that God had has asked me to interact with his humanity. Like, love God, love people, and serve them. Right? And and and don't set yourself at the head of the table. Let let God bring you to the front, you know, like and and that's your stance. This is how we're gonna do life. And I just continue to fail at it, like,

and over and over again. And we go, okay. That's a fallen sinful world. God's got grace for this or whatever. This should change, you know, whatever. And I think it's me that's the problem. Like, my my sinful ways and my my arrogance or my pride is causing me to continue to act this way, and I recognize it and I go, this has got to end. Lord, need you to help weed this out of me. And then I do it and I just keep doing it over and over again. And it especially pertains to like my job. For some reason, when I walk in that building and any person with some type of authority has an idea, I'm I just I'm I'm I'm ready to rumble. Right? I just got I'm ready I'm ready to fight about it, whatever it is, you know. And and so I've been trying to push through like I I mean, I've been going through the same thing for like years now. And I know who Jesus is. I know his life changing power. I know the power of the Holy Spirit. And I continue to act this way. So, like, does it come to a point where despite

the my best efforts or our best efforts to humbly submit something to Jesus, maybe it's time to just change the situation you're in. Right? Like, and and I'm I'm not saying, hey, tell me if I should like quit my job right now. But what I'm getting at is like, I've had this with some relationships that, you know, that I've been in. And and like, I just they they do this horrible thing and I react horribly and I go, I failed. I that's not the right way to react. I just I'm gonna keep this relationship up and I'm gonna continue I'm gonna do better. And like I do for a little bit and then I fail at it again. And like after a while, you go, maybe like an alcoholic that shouldn't be in a bar. Maybe I just should not be tempting myself to act so poorly. You know? Like I don't have this reaction in all situations. It seemed to be very specific situations that like, I just I'm not I'm not processing well. And despite being able to see it and label it as sinful and go, man, I wish I was doing better. Lord, how why can't I do better than this? Even through your power, humbly submit it. Change it within me. And then

I find myself right back to where I was. Like acting a fool to where I like I get home at night and I go, why did I make such a scene about this? Like, it's just it's really not that important to me, you know, to have have caused a hankle about it. So my my broader question is is as much as we like to let ourselves be refined, by the power of the Holy Spirit and through God's word, is there a time to go, look, man, that's it's just you're bent towards that type of that style of sin. Maybe you should just get out of that situation

and attempt to remove yourself from the things that are triggering you to, unconsciously. Right? End up in sinful territory and you're like, oh, no. I've done it. Like five minutes in, I'll realize that like I've taken a poor path here. I wish I wouldn't have. So

so I think out of the gate, you would agree we've talked about this about those guys that go to minister at the porn convention. Yes. Some people can do it. Some people cannot. Mhmm. And so if if if the situation that you are putting yourselves in to minister people

or or where you feel like you should be able to act faithfully in causes you in such a way to continue to drive towards behavior that you know is not edifying to Jesus or to the world around you. Yes. I suppose you could continue to fight that and try to to redeem it with you in it. I think it's a good fight. Right? It's worth having. Yeah. Yeah. But at some point, you also say,

like, I think it's okay to say, look, there's things that I'm not made for if it's related to that environment. And and maybe my my my my continual failure here or inability to adapt to this situation

is not necessary to persist. I think I think there is a notion, like, is are you the only possible person that can be the light of Jesus in that situation? Probably not. No. I would say it's it's more of a of of I have the opportunity to be the light of Jesus and I'm not doing it. K. So basically, your your concern is? I'm not saying, like, the overall God will give up on the things that I'm working on because I'm the only guy. Right? But, like, I know better. You're saying know better. You're saying,

like, is it it basically feels like cheating. If I can't win, am I gonna take my ball and go somewhere else? Right. It feels like you're bailing. Right? Because, like, I can't I can't live up to what God is asking me to do here. And I don't know why. I don't know why I continue to fail at it. Right? It's not on purpose. I don't wake up in the morning and pray for God's wrath against whatever stupid policy someone's come up with, like, a really mundane thing, you know. But, like, I will I will I will I will pray on it on the way in. Right? And, like, I know situations are coming, and I'm like, Lord, just just be with me. And then I won't be five minutes in and find myself acting a fool, you know. And, like, it'd be different if I didn't know better. Like, if you had to come up to me later and go, Mike, like, you're way you're way off the path here, man. Right? Like, you're not even close to shining lights of Jesus. I know. Right? It's it's not like I'm missing the conviction part of it or knowing it's wrong. I just can't seem to grab it before it happens. You know? And so, like, it's it's it's both embarrassing, one, especially, because there's not I'm not surrounded by a bunch of other Christian brothers that would know the difference. Yeah. Right? Like if there was another Christian dude in there that could give me a solid glare and a punch in the face and go, hey, man. I go, I'm way off. Catch it before it got. But since I'm the only goalie, in the Christian world at my place, I act like a fool. I'm the only guy that catches it like two hours later. And then I've I've I've not done well. You know? I've not conducted myself well. And so, like, it's mean, it's obviously not a mic counseling session. I'm just trying to figure out that, like, I I've been at this for a long time, you know, and and I I know where my failings are. Right? It's pretty obvious throughout the history of the show where I don't do very well. And so at at at after a point, like, let's say you become a manager and if you have a tendency to lord over people and make it your mini fiefdom,

maybe it's just not in your cards to go. You're talented to do it. You have the skills to do it. Maybe you're good with people. But like you tend to over you tend to put your pride in there and sit on a throne. So maybe you can't be a manager despite whatever your your skills are, you know? Yeah. I I mean, I would say that two two examples come to mind. I would say that's true about people sometimes people who appear to be good pastors ruin churches. And just because they have all the right skills to be able to teach well and they're and they are charismatic people like to listen to them, and they're good with quips of phrase, like, if they can't otherwise lead a church without being,

domineering or aggressive or self centered, then they shouldn't lead a church regardless of the other things that are true. And I think that from a secondary, resisting I'm not sure it's more holy

to resist temptation than it is to avoid it. Like, I'm not sure like, of course, you're called to resist temptation. But, like, I don't think I think it's just as much a victory to go, you know, I'm just not gonna minister to porn convention.

Not, hey, I need to show that I can dominate this by going. Right. I'm not I'm not sure it's implicitly more holy. I I like, if you don't if you don't have to do that, I think at some point, it's okay to say no. I don't I'm just not gonna subject myself to this because I don't I don't handle it well. Or frankly, people. Yeah. I think I think I mean, in the beginning, was following you along thinking, yeah. Yeah. I mean, and really, there isn't anything wrong with it changing the environment.

The problem is wherever you go, there you are. So there's gonna be parts of the same environment wherever you go. There'll be the same struggle, the same That's kind of the harder part. Right? Because like the porn convention example is great. You're like, just don't go to the porn convention. Right? Right. But like, say you have a legit problem dealing with people. Yeah. Right? Like, how are you gonna solve that by running away from them? Right? You don't actually get to do that. Yeah. That's what I was thinking like if you if you change it just a hair, like say the problem is with your your wife, and I don't know what whatever it is. You'll make fun of her ears or, you know, whatever. She hates that. Yeah. See, she hates that. But you you don't at some point say, well, I just better find a better wife because, you know, one of these different ears is gonna be better. Ears are in check. Because she's your wife, you're gonna you're gonna fight through that. You're gonna say, you know what, dude? You just need to learn to not about her ears. Just, you know, it might take a while. I mean, it might be a struggle.

My point being is maybe you give up too soon to to say, well, I don't know if I can handle this environment. I just need to go on. And maybe God's going, I wanna see you handle it. How long you worked here, Mike? Ten years. How long how long you need here, Dan? At least twelve. Because I I I think it's I I think it's true. Like, I like, the the wife example is tied to a spiritual promise, a promise between you and the Lord that that you're not gonna And it's a lifetime commitment. That's right. You're not gonna part this thing. Yeah. Like, you do have flexibility here. Apples and oranges. Yeah. Well, so let's put it

that's the right train of thought though. It's like, maybe all problems and and and maybe this is just a fact that we we should have put out on the table. It's not all problems are are through repentance and prayer. That that's a great place to start. Right? Like in in involving God in the things that you're struggling with. But that doesn't mean that you can't put a plan in place that says, you write a note on your forearm that says, shut up. Right? Or Right. Or you or you pin a guy that says, hey, if I start rolling on this meeting and acting like a fool, your job is to interrupt me and sit me down and tell me to shut up. Yeah. Right? Like so like you just prayer does not completely replace practicality. Yeah. Yeah. Right? So I mean, if behaviors need to change,

there's no reason that you can't put things in place Yeah. To to guide you along opposed to I talked to God about it. I prayed about it all the way in, and then I found myself off the rails two hours in. Obviously, not that God has left me in this situation, but like he's given me a brain and a mind and a and people around me to go, look, when when you see my my heartbeat start racing,

I need you to step in and shut it down for for me. I need you to shut down for me, because I don't wanna be embarrassed about again. Because it's too easy to say, hey, have a I have a problem with Sally. Right. Actually, you have a problem with people who do what Sally does. Yes. So there's gonna be a Sally in every place or John or whatever. Maybe. And so you're gonna go somewhere else and it's gonna be the same thing until you get the root of of maybe it's going back to the marriage thing. Like, I've just decided with people I'm not gonna do this because I'm for life, I'm with people. Might be different people. I mean, it's not the same commitment to your wife. But it's it's it's I'm dealing with people. I've got to figure this dealing with people thing out. Yeah. I mean, I guess it does it does depend on the problem. Like, if it's a if it's a, like, a people to people problem, Dan's right, you're gonna run into people everywhere. If it is a like, if your situation has to do with your position,

like, from a work perspective, like, let's say it just put sometimes it's easier to take like, let's say let's say for example, you're in a position where

you you you it's higher up folk and you don't can't figure out a way to get along with them. It's because you're involved with higher up folk. You know who don't have that problem? The janitor. He's not getting into tests with the higher up folk. Mhmm. And so, like, if there is a if there's a pride problem, if there's an arrogance problem, if there is a hey, you're actually surrounded by Dillard's problem, Either way, you either have to resolve to figure out how to deal with it or pull yourself out of it so that you don't have to you don't interact with that situation. So maybe that's the that's the answer back to your original point was, like, I don't know if there's anything more holy than than fighting through it or, avoiding it. It depends on what you're avoiding. Right? Like if it's a if it's a God given responsibility or you've agreed to a responsibility,

so it's an integrity thing, and you're trying to avoid your responsibility because you can't handle it. That probably not it's not gonna work. You need to put yourself in a different complete position and say, I'm not gonna be responsible for that. Therefore, I'm not gonna have to whatever. I'm not avoiding my job or my responsibility. But I don't disagree with Dan. I feel like Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would never advise even to my own self that it's time to bail on something. I think that's terrible. I feel because I feel like I should be able to trust God enough, submit myself enough, and and and and go through some humility and go, you have to stop acting like this. But like, mean, I ain't kidding you. We're ten years in and I'm like, still have to catch myself acting like a fool and it's so disappointing. Right? Like, and you go, what am

I not ever going to learn or have I not maybe I haven't even addressed it with the seriousness that I should with practical things and whatever and saying, you know, I shouldn't be in certain conversations. I just don't do well there. You know, like it's not edifying for anybody. I'm not actually helping. You know, I'm just wearing my mouth. So like and like I've been in that. So so my job, it causes me to interact with high level folk. And there are times when

my perspective is helpful. And then there are occasions where like, I just recognize it's like this is I'm not gonna provide value here and I will step out of it. I'll just say, hey, look, this is not the conversation for me. Oh, no. We we really want you there. I said, look, this is you're gonna you're gonna talk about this thing in this manner. I'm gonna tell you what you pay me for, which is to tell you the reasons it's not gonna work or why it's going to be a problem. Is this is that what you want going on in this meeting? Well, no. We're not really. I said, well, then I don't need to be there. That's not what you're paying me for. Like, that's what I'm good at. This you put you my job is to poke holes in things and help you to find the right way to get it done. If that's not what you wanna talk about, I'm not offended. I just probably shouldn't go because I'm not gonna be particularly helpful in this situation. And so, like and and sometimes if you like in the take to it like a more like a world focused item, you know, you may maybe you when you work on it and you make your way up

in a company and you're involved in tense discussions and decisions and it causes you to be anxious. Yeah. You probably should figure out it'd be ideal to figure out a way to get over it and to no longer get it and to not be wigged out about those types of things. But then sometimes, dude, it's alright just to open up a a mobile froyo stand. Like Yeah. To what like, it's all it's alright Yeah. To do froyo.

And so, like, I'm not sure what we are proving either in heaven or on earth to stick it out for twenty years to put up with a manly structure and a man structure. But I think that going back to what Dan had said though, it does it does really depend what your issue is. Yeah. I mean, you even look at in in Acts, you got you got Paul having an issue with Mark. And so Barnabas and Mark run off and plant churches and Paul and Silas, you know, do

go different directions because of like, I don't think I can work with this guy. Right. So so there is, you know, he could have sucked it up and say, you know what? I just need to forgive him, whatever the issue was. Yeah. That's true. So there is a time. Yeah. I I wasn't trying to say there wasn't isn't a time, but you just gotta be yeah. No. We're just not talking about the the towel in earlier. You've given up or or whatever. I I think probably what I'm and and obviously this is very much pertained to me, but what I'm frustrated with is my lack of progress in this area. I don't know why I can't do it. Like, I come in here to this radio show every Monday and I I pretty much got the same tune to sing. I ran my mouth again and blah blah. I'm like, I don't wanna do this. I don't I don't think it's a virtue. I'm not proud of it, you know. But here I found myself, you know, doing it again. And I'm like, you know, after you look around the room a while and you go, I I know I'm the problem. I get that. Do you feel do you feel like you have put in anything besides wanting to be better? Do you feel like you have put in anything tangible to curb that? I've tried to bow out of some things and I get and You get drug back in? I get just get drug back into it. I'm like, look, I I just don't know that I should be in this, you know, and like, I I mean, once again, I'm pretty open about where my failings are. And I'll say as much to people like, look, I'm I'm just probably not I shouldn't be in this conversation. Yeah. We need you in this conversation. I'm like, I I really I just don't think I'm gonna be helpful. I got I'm already tuned up to whatever I think it is, and I'm not really open to hearing much else. So, I I'm just not gonna be helpful. Yeah. See, so now there, that sounds to me like, you know what? I get a little bit too tempted in these porn convention. Nah. You should come in. Yeah. You think you should do it. Nah. I really don't think I should. Yes. We think you should. At some point, you gotta go minister with some different folks, man. Yeah. Yeah. So I so I think it's I think it's alright. And like, I know

I'm I'm totally feeling that, like, that there's a right tension in here where, like, you don't just go, hey, I got trouble with people. I'm gonna bail at this situation because I don't wanna work on myself. Because, like, that's not what you're talking about. No. But there but there is but, like, it's one of those things where this isn't a sniff test question. Like, you gotta run it through the ringer and and probably through ten ten different, like, either people or situations or and prayer before you go, you know what? It's okay to leave this situation.

Because, like, you never wanna miss an opportunity for being refined and for people being witness to that Refination? Is that a thing? Mhmm. Whatever. Because like,

God refining people and changing people and that being a witness to his goodness to people around him is a positive thing. And so like, you never wanna duck that. God often works through that. But it doesn't preclude that there's not an opportunity to say sometimes it's alright to be to put yourself in a different situation because it's not you're not sacrificing for anything that is that is in particularly of of worldly or heavenly good. Yeah. And it doesn't necessarily mean that like you have to change, you know, your entire work environment or quit right now. Like it just means that like there's certain parts that maybe I just don't belong in. And and and and maybe that's the cause to recognize what those are and despite any type of begging to the other other cause, you're like, look, I I just I'm for everybody's I'm not made for this. I'm a stay out of this one. That's fair. And so and and that goes back to kind of I think a broader conversation too. It's like your life isn't just in your work environment. Nobody's life is that. And so how you how you feel at work or the types of things going on there do impact your house life and your, like, your your your church life or or how good of a friend you are. And to the extent that that,

the work thing starts to negatively impact the things that you're actually working for or to be able to support, then again, I I think that's a proper consideration to say, you know what? This maybe this does brings me a good amount of money and maybe I should be able to overcome this. But to be honest with you, I'm not a very great father when I get in the middle of some of these things that I don't wanna be part of. And so you know what? It's not worth it. I have a responsibility at home too. I'll go serve the froyo. Like, I'll take like,

we we talked about this just a hair before the show, but like one of the questions you have to ask yourself when it comes to especially your job, like, if you look at the time that it takes you, what it the mindset that it puts you, like, do you have any free time to think that is not you thinking about your job? And that kind of thing, like, does the money you are earning provide you the value you expect? Because like if someone said, look, I'll give you a $120,000 a year, but your but your family life is gonna be sometimes a little dicey because you can't focus your attention on it and your attitude sucks when you get home. Or I'll give you $50,000

a year, but like you have the ability to focus at home, you're home all the time, like when you can expect to be. Your mind isn't bloated down with things that you're worrying about with work and your attitude is generally good because the work doesn't cause you to act or behave in a certain way. It doesn't put you in situations that you know cause you to to act, in ways that you don't want to. Like, are you really getting your value out of the $120? Or you're getting your value out of the fifth fifth the 50,000

spins less, but like the things you really care about came for free with it. The $120,000 will go could last you a lot longer in cars and salt and pepper, But like the stuff that you really wanted, you don't actually get from it. And so I get that it's never that it's not that easy. But like just consider you're working for a value, not just a money. And so the question is what's going on at work? How does it impact your

your home life? And the other thing the things that you really care about, like I've had that I actually had this it's funny. I I work in a corporate environment, always have. And like they're constantly trying to find other things to offer. They're like, hey, we got all these perks or whatever. And like, I don't. I I just want you to give me money. And I want you to take whatever perks you're gonna offer me and I want you to put it on my paycheck as cold hard dollars. Because I'm gonna take that and I don't worry like if if if you didn't pay me, I wouldn't come. I don't work here for free. I don't work here for the jollies of the moral benefit. I work here because the dollars you send me support the things that I care about. I can give money away to people who need it. I can support my family. I don't have to I don't have to take a salary at the church because of this. Like, that's the value that I have. And so I actually literally do not care at all about any of other stuff that you're trying to offer me. It doesn't mean anything to me. They all they offered some kind of life coaching class. They're like, hey, we're gonna help you with your life purpose. I'm like, thank

you. I can I'll I'll source that somewhere else. You've read the book of Mark too? Yeah. But like, but the the point being is that, like, I I work there. I I wish I I wish I wish I had a job where what I did for work

felt like it was contributing to my broad moral life's purpose. And outside of being a faithful follower of Jesus there, which is a good, totally fair, and good life's purpose, it doesn't do that. Like, if I could work for a company that drills wells in Africa for poor people and then did the same work, I would do it. Every I think I think there's a lot of guys that struggle with, hey, man. I feel like I'm just pushing paper around. Well, as long as you're directing the result of the pushing paper around to serve Jesus well while you're pushing paper and use the outcome to otherwise serve and support your family, community, and church, you know, I'm not sure we can ask much more. Those are confines of the world we live in. But like, shy of a moral good that I think I'm contributing to on a day to day basis at my work, at least like I at least know what I'm asking of it. I'm asking for it to support the things that I actually care about. To the extent that it doesn't do that or it taints those things like I spend too much time worrying about it and it takes away from my wife and family, that it's actually robbing me of the very thing that I'm expecting to support. And then I need to find something else to do or put the right boundaries inside of it. Yeah. So so overall,

what's a good exercise is probably write down the five things you care about the most. And then look and see how your current work environment is impacting those. Is it where you want them to be? Those being at the top of the goal list and saying, how do I get this to support this and what I want it to be and how out of whack is it now? Right? Like does it explain why I'm feeling x, you know, anxiety or stressed out or whatever and and and irritated at my family just for walking in the door or whatever is going out of your place, you know. And same thing is true with the job that doesn't allow you to be in community with people that you need to be in community with. Right? Or or or or be spending time at home with your family or even just some you time. Just resetting and I don't know, watching a movie or something, taking a breath, and taking in God's good earth, you know. Yeah. Something like that, which I'm sure we all throw to the wayside way too fast. So I don't know. I yeah. That was helpful. That was helpful. We'll see if I show up next week with the same list of grievances after I've done better. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, you're listening live from The Path. Thanks for hanging out with us today.

I had another I had another thing I wanted to talk about, but I I think in light of pointing you back to that previous show, I don't wanna spend a lot of time on it. It had basically there was a there's a Christian band that I follow on Facebook. I think they were one of the festivals that we were broadcasting from one time.

And they basically it was a it was a plea regarding masks and vaccinations and stuff. And the only reason it gave me pause ignore the fact that it's about masks and vaccinations, but it's like it was a tying of a worldly opinion

with a biblical load on it. And I I think maybe to sum up what would otherwise be a long and blowhardish discussion around it, I'm gonna tell you don't do that. It's okay to care about stuff. It's okay to care about things passionately. But I'd be real real careful

when you when you hashtag Jesus onto something. Because it it employ it does a couple things. It puts somebody on, like, it says, what I'm talking about doesn't stand as opposed to standing firm on its own, I'm gonna tip the scales and just say, well, Jesus likes what I like. And it applies to anybody that thinks differently you than you isn't loving or following Jesus. And like,

I mean, my theology parts ways with many a Christian on things that they believe. But I'm gonna tell you this, it takes a real arrogant person to be like hashtag Jesus on my side. Yeah. That's some real screw tape letters kind of stuff. Yeah. Right? Like it doesn't take much to divide the factions of people that follow Jesus, and you go ahead and want to start drawing lines in the sand and say this and this and this and this. Right? Like, you're just watching the devil go, that was easier than I thought. Yeah. See, like, you took you took something that is a matter of worldly human opinion and limited limitations of human knowledge and made it as if it was a forever kingdom opinion. And and I'm I'm just I get like, there's here's the thing. Unless the only thing that I'm talking about is something directly that Jesus is talking about or that scripture is talking about, I can't imagine I'd ever do that. Like, it just would not occur to me to moral load hashtag Jesus onto something

that is that is of a worldly debate unless it is something where Jesus has has clearly spoken or the character of God has clearly spoken about it. Because I I just it just presumes a lot about who you are or and how other how other people follow Jesus. And so

in in this we we talked about this during the political season too. If it's a political argument, you gotta be super careful. If it's an argument among a bunch of non scientists about what they think, again, I think you just gotta be super duper careful. It's don't care if you have an opinion, I hope it's a learned one. I hope you spend a lot of time thinking about it. I hope you

deal in objective reality and not as much in perceptive reality on what we talked about last week. And if you come to a conclusion, generally speaking, I I can probably support that as long as it follows those premises regardless of what it is. However, the minute you hashtag Jesus on that thing, you're presuming a higher office than what you hold.

And frankly, you also just you you slam the door like you gave the impression that Jesus can be communicated in his reaction to a particular thing that you care about. And it's alright to care about it, but it's not alright to act like you're Jesus in the matter. So just be careful. Just be careful. I will. Okay. I'll take that post down immediately. Yeah. As you as you should. I can't be involved in this conversation. I'm getting riled up. Yeah. Getting riled up. Alright. Hey. So let's let's do some let's do some advice, Mike, and then we'll I think we'll let the people I like how it feels like we're always holding the hostage. We'll let the people go. Here

we go. Think it's a view. Dear life from the path. A year ago, I was working at a small wholesale bakery with maybe 15 employees. While I was there, the place was overrun with food safety issues, including mice, allergen cross contact issues, and poor employee hygiene practices.

At the time, the owner was working on fixing some of the problems, but not fast enough for my taste. Although he is never my never my favorite person, he was clearly overwhelmed with running a business and didn't have the resources to fix the problems. Now that I've gone been gone for some time, I'm on the fence about whether I should leave an online review or comment detailing some of the problems. I don't want to hurt a struggling business and it's possible these problems have been fixed. But there's no way for me to know for sure because I'm no longer there. Well, that's the oh, we should underline that one. Personally, I think customers should know about these issues before purchasing their products. But I don't want to stick my nose where it shouldn't go. Even if I leave a review anonymously, there's always a chance they will find out. Advice?

Well, you're worried about all kinds of things here. Are you worried about, a, they're gonna find out it was you. There's one problem. That's a problem. Yeah. B, you don't even know if the problem still exists. C, I I've not been to one, and I spent some time in some food production, environments. Everybody's got mice. Right? Everybody.

Right? You make food here. This is something that's where mice are. Right? They mitigate them with traps or whatever, and you're like, yeah, I'm not getting rid of these mice fast enough for my taste. Well, what are your taste, friend? Like, it even reasonable? Because even the biorefineries that process corn, they got mice problems. Right? Everybody's got mice problems. Yeah. And cross contaminant issues for allergens. Employee hygiene practices. I mean, does that mean there's a couple of stinky dudes working there? I mean, I I they're not wearing beard nets. I don't know. They're aware of the problem. Yeah. So so

okay. I went to a a grocery store. I went to well, was a grocery store that that sells food. Dining. When they make up a place like They had a restaurant in there. A restaurant. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to say. I went to the restroom Somebody speaks Dan.

And and one of the cooks went into the restroom, did this business and didn't wash his hands. And and I could I knew by his uniform he was providing the type of food I was gonna order. And and I what I did, I didn't write a review for the whole world to see like, hey, nobody ever washes their hands because I don't I don't know what everybody does. Right. But what I did do is, hey, I emailed corporate like right there and said, I think you probably wanna know. I would wanna know if I was you blah blah blah blah. You might wanna review your your practices with your employees that are in in the food. And like they immediately respond like, wow, thank you blah blah blah blah blah, you know. And and

so you don't have to make a big public stink of it. If if you're if you're concern is the public, then go to the source. It sounds like they want to

just stab at the owner while at the same time saying, oh, I don't really wanna hurt them. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. You just wanna shine it with a rose and act like you're not trying to do that. Yeah. Yeah. But it sounded like her question was, can I gossip? Because like, you don't know this is true anymore. Yeah. It's just it's like hearing it's like hearing something like, oh, I heard two years ago that Barbara was into methamphetamines.

Yeah. Like, you don't know what Barbara's doing today. She may have gone through rehab and successfully and things are going fine. Like, why are you spreading things about Barbara? You know what you could do? You could go ask Barb. Hey, Barb. How are things going? And then maybe go from there. But like, here's the thing. If you feel like if it's in the public interest, then you should put your name on it. There's no reason for you to be ashamed of yourself. If you're worried that your name is on it, it's because you probably recognize that you're being a gossip. And you're not helping you're not trying to actually help a situation.

Oddly, you're seem to be trying to draw attention to yourself in some way or another, because otherwise, you would have done this already. Why didn't you do it while you were already there? Like when you're participating in this mess, why didn't you feel the sense of guilt about it then? Like Yeah. I I this is true with every place you've ever worked. Right? Like Oh, yeah. I mean, this is why we have advertising and branding. Right? Like you want people to think a certain way, but everybody knows that like, sometimes the chicken nuggets sit there for like thirty minutes. And sometimes they're there for three hours. And some some poor slob comes through and orders a 20 piece, and you're like, he's getting the oldies. And you give it to him because that's the deal. You know? And then you're like, you'll never guess what they do. They gave them the old McNuggets. I mean, I could have figured that if I had put two thoughts into it. Everywhere you ever worked does not run like the average the commercial says. Right. Right? Like, no one's misting the fries and and, you know, whatever they say they're doing. So, I mean, you're basically trying to explain a truth that is known by anybody who's ever had a job as the back end workings are not the same as the front end store display. Right? Everybody knows that. And like in the business of preparing food, making food, processing food, there's gonna be some things that people don't wanna know about. Otherwise, they'd be growing their own food. Right? What you trade when you don't grow and harvest your own grain is you have to rely on other people to harvest their grain and process it correctly. That's what you gave up when you stopped doing it yourself. That's right. And so you're just gonna have to take some of these things and go, do I think that sometimes the flour got spilled on the non gluten table and they cleaned it up, I think, the best they could, but they're still under point o 2% of gluten here, so we're probably fine. Yes. Just figure that's the case. What was it what was somebody telling me? Is the reason they can have it was Grace. Was telling me the reason the Tic Tacs are considered a sugar free because it's under like 2% sugar. Right? And that's the line as far as the FDA is concerned. And if it's under that, you can call it sugar free. Well, it's not sugar free. No. Right? But there's definitely sugar in there. Well, and there's there's caffeine in all decaf coffee. Right. It's it's not this it's not as much, but like everything has caffeine in it. And so like right, you're just accepting that when you when you lost control over some of the sourcing of things,

you you bought yourself into a program where, you know, if you're not gonna harvest your own chicken, you're gonna get a little bit of a butt scratch food warmer chicken from somebody somewhere. Yeah. It's gonna happen. Yeah. You've taken you've mistakenly thought yourself to be the PI of the world here, and like, you're basically revealing truths that everybody already knows. Yeah. So okay. So so tangibly, here's what I would say. If you really felt that it needed to be act upon, there's governing bodies for this. There's people that inspect restaurants. And so don't call the restaurant owner because he's he's probably working on it. And I'm not sure what you're hoping to gain out of it. I just call the food place and say, hey, look, I worked here a number of months ago. I know the guy was working on it, but I just wanted to check and see if you've, you know They could use an inspector. Yeah. Maybe go take a look. And then if the inspector goes and he said and things aren't up to snuff, he'll shut them down. That wasn't you. That wasn't gossip. He wouldn't validate it whether there's still a problem or not. The I restaurants should be up to snuff at any time, so I don't think it's unfair for the guy to show up and take a look and make sure things are good. And so if you're super worried about it, that's what I would do. Past that, I think you should just keep your mouth shut. Yeah. I feel like you're yeah. You're you're just not in the right frame of mind to you. This is a more of a you thing than it is a them thing, it sounds like. Alright. I'm gonna save the world. What what what kind of restaurant was it? It's not. It's a food processor. Like a food. Yeah. Like a bakery. Yeah. Wholesale bakery. Oh, small wholesale bakery. Like a mom and pop bakery. Oh, well, god. And here's the thing. God bless them. You gotta know that when you go to a mom and pop shop, you are supporting the mice in the back. Yeah. And it's more like home cooking. It's more like your place. You got because guess what? If you were raising that at your house, you'd have mice. That's right. That's correct. You got food coming in and out all the time, a giant garbage can full of food, like, 30 feet away from the place, and Ma and Pa kettle back there working themselves to the bone. I'm sorry. Like, you're gonna it's a premium. You're paying a premium for the mousetrap in the back. You just gonna have to get used to it. I'm a tell you a secret if you ever come to my house.

When you're not at my house, I have a fly strip hanging up in my kitchen. Oh, yeah. Because we live on a farm and there's a lot of flies in there. And there's nothing you can do about it. When I know that you're gonna come into my house, I take the fly strip down. And it makes it appear as if we don't have a fly problem. We definitely have one. Oh, man. Yeah. I take I take at it with a fly strip when you're not there. And if you were to see it when you walk in my kitchen, you oh, they have flies here. But like there's there's I mean, 60 farm animals over here. We have flies. You're you're fooling yourself that we don't. Right? And so like, I I think it's one of those things. You have an unrealistic expectation in a food environment of that you are not gonna have vermin or a stinky belchy man who has put coconut oil on his armpits back in the back in the bathroom and come out working on some bread. You know, it's got but what Ben talked about this a couple three shows ago. We're like, you would have you have no idea how much poop you've taken in. Yeah. Like through air particles and whatever. Like, you get fired up about the handwash and listen, you've taken it in. It's on your toothbrush. You think that the three foot you keep it away from the John is doing. It's not. It's flying through the air. You're brushing your teeth with your own number two. If you ever flush the toilet without that lid down, that's what it's for. It's it's well, let me give you two things. The lid exists so that when you flush it, whatever the contents were, don't spray around everywhere. You ever flush the toilet while you were sitting on it? You know that breeze? That's what gets out into your into your bathroom when you flush it without the seat down. Now, let's say you're a good boy, you flush it with the seat down all the time. You ever reach in there and lift the seat up? You just put your finger in all the stuff that floated up there. Yeah. Like, it's a nasty business that you're involved with, and you don't always do as good of a job as you think you do. You're taking it in. Yep. For sure. So just dial it. Just calm down. Okay. Let's see. Let's let's do let's do another one.

Yeah. We killed that one. Yeah. Wait. Did did did we get the advice? Yeah. Yeah. What did what did secular say? Secular says, I agree customers of that bakery should know there are possible problems. Rather than leaving an honest review, contact the health department in your city and report the conditions you observed. Yep. It should trigger an inspection of the place. Your personal feelings about the owner have nothing to do with this. The cross contamination you described could trigger a possible fatal allergic reaction, and the vermin infestation and poor hygiene practices of the employees could cause someone to become seriously ill. I'm a tell you a secret.

I'm a tell you a secret. So this is wrong of me, but I got somehow we so we have we have a bunch of cast iron cast iron pots and stuff. And we had this silver

scrubber thing that you used to clean the cast iron pots. And somehow, roughly fifteen years ago, I got it in my head that, like, the silver

because it's silver or coated in silver, you don't have to ever use soap or anything. Like, you can just scrub anything with this. And so we're primary my my my wife got it for the cast iron pots. But I said, well, shoot, man. I might as well just scrub the rest of the stuff in this thing. I've been I've been hand cleaning pots and casserole dishes and things with this silver scrubber with no soap for fifteen years.

Fifteen years. Because I thought it was some like I could explain. I just thought it was some kind of magic going on. I've eaten at your place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now here's the thing. I got six people in my family. We've never gotten sick related to this behavior. I'm not saying it's good behavior. What I'm telling you is is that a lot of the things that they have for food safety are being super cautious.

But like, I mean, we cook that casserole dish. It gets up to four twenty or whatever. Like, whatever was in there probably died. I assume everything like, ever you ever go to the restaurant and you find that there's something stuck on your on your fork or on your cup? Mhmm. It got sanitized. I'm not saying it's delicious. I'm not saying But is sanitized. I'm just saying you ain't gonna die from it. Yeah. It's fine. It it went through the sanitary cycle. I'd be more worried about drinking the sanitation chemicals than I am about this old piece of oatmeal.

Yeah. It's this stuff is probably fine. I'm just and so the reason I tell you that, like, we could just be super lucky. But I mean, we use these pans all the time. What I'm telling you is is that, like, we say, oh, the soap has gotta get in there and make it super super duper clean. Actually, Mike Mike and I both worked at at pizza restaurants, multiple. Yeah. And like, almost all of them don't wash all them pans. Nope. They like the sweetness that comes lives on there. It gets a little bit of grime, little bit of grease, and one, stuff comes off them a little bit easier. But like,

they just put more dough right back on top of that stuff. Because here's the thing, there's nothing implicitly unsanitary about that piece of food. It just it got cooked. It went through the oven, and then it got cooked again. And so I know it feels gross to us, and we think old and things like that. I just I just want you to open your mind. Like, you don't have to do behave this way, but just the things are not as likely to kill you as you think they're going to kill you. Now somebody somewhere died of some sort of, like, weird pizza, like, twice baked, pizza leavens, probably. I don't know. I'm I'm just saying, like, the rules are there in place to try to keep no one from getting hurt.

Not like, hey, it only happens in a in a blue moon kind of thing. Yeah. And so don't eat at my house. That's the logic of the story, especially if it's serving a casserole. Now, Seth's correct to that because I said we ran it. My wife bought a copper thing one time and some because they were out of the the the ones with the silver. And I said, hey, man. This do I gotta use soap then? And she's like, well, yeah. You're supposed to use soap. I said, but but but when we get the silver ones back, I don't have to do that. Right? She's like, what are you talking about? I said, oh, no. Oh, no. You're supposed to clean with the soap. We're like, never mind. Yeah. Yeah. That's I just wanna say, Make it funny. That's

just what it is. I've been comedy time. I'll clean the dishes. Shoot. Anyway. Alright. Ready? Dear life from the path. Yep. I'm a retired widow who took in a renter in his sixties a few years ago. At the time, he had moved from another part of the state for a job that lasted only four months. As a result, he could no longer pay his full rent. I empathize with this situation and couldn't throw him out to live in his car. The man is clean and respectful of my home as well as my personal space. He has sent countless resumes around for a job with no luck. These days, he seems to be always frustrated and angry with everyone, including his doctor's office staff, and I have to hear all about it. Tried to mediate his frustrations to no avail. I've reached a point where I feel he's creating a heavy atmosphere of negativity in my home. Mhmm. How do I handle this? I don't wanna throw him out, yet I am living with guilt.

Wow. Is there any chance his attitude is what's causing him not to be able to get work? Like he's going going in there all spiced up? Yeah. I mean, he's in his sixties. In his sixties. There's all kinds of jobs. Like he he but he he but he's not old enough 60 to retire? I mean, maybe he doesn't want to because the payments and whatever too. Maybe he doesn't have a choice. Yeah. I think that's a solid point. I mean, at some point, sometimes you gotta look around and go, here's what I wanted. Here's what's the reality. Yeah. Right. Right? Like Yeah. I I ain't holding out to the 67 massive Social Security payment. 62.5, I'm cashing in. I'm gonna get my money. That's what I got.

I mean, yeah. She doesn't owe him anything. It's it's she's been very generous. It's a it's a train of thought where you're you're misdirecting the truth. The truth is you didn't put him in this situation. Yeah. He put himself in this situation. You tried to help and be generous with your time and money, and, give him the opportunity to change his situation.

And he instead took the time and money that you put into it and it is stagnant. Right? Now, it's harder because you're like, he's trying to get a job and he's not succeeding or whatever. And so I I get how you could feel responsible for that, but you're not responsible for that. You don't control the employer.

You don't control the situation he put himself in that he's, renting from you by the at the age of 60, whatever. These are all choices that were made before he even met you. And so it's very hard to not feel responsible for that. But if you're if you're looking to assuage your guilt and give him the boot, consider it assuaged. You didn't do any of this. Because it's hard because you you obviously have a room available and he's in it. Yes. You seem to be able to get along without him making the rent payments. And so

it's very difficult to to imagine then this man walking out of your house with all his belongings and you going, okay, now I'm relieved of this. When you like when in the back of your mind you're going, but I I have a place. He could stay there. Right. And it seems such a difference of personality or a situation that I'm not in all the time. It doesn't affect me. He's not violent. He's not drinking. He's not tearing the place up. It's just I have to listen to him complaining all the time. Yeah. I mean, I I think it's okay. I that seems to be the prime complaint, really. I don't doesn't sound like other than that, he's a decent guy to have around. It's that he's just he's got a bad attitude. I mean, I think it's alright to say, look, your rent for the next few months is like your attitude's gotta change, buddy. I'm willing to be part of you finding a better direction,

finding help, finding a job or whatever. But like, I they and think of it as even if it wasn't even it wasn't a roommate. It was just a neighbor who constantly came over to your house and complained. You would go, hey, look. I've tried to be neighborly, but like, you're really dragging the joint down. I I I don't want you to come over here all the time and and complain about stuff. I'd say that to a friend. After after a bit of time, right, where it feels like it's not fading away and it's it's skulking in,

I would say just be a good friend to him and say the thing a friend would say. Well, let's start there because it because it doesn't seem to me like the rent thing is actually bothering you all that much. It's really just he's now he's become bad to live with Yeah. And you don't wanna deal with it, which I think is fine. I think it's okay. It's the the most unfair thing we can usually do to people is not give them boundaries. They're just like I I don't wanna say they're like don't hear me wrong when I say they're children. But like, you can't be upset with kids when they don't act within boundaries that you have not one, told them about and two, help them know where they are. Like, kids, especially younger kids, they'll test your boundaries. And they like, part of them testing is to know when it stops.

And if you don't actually do this, it's one of the big commitments when your kid hits like three, two, three, four, five. Like, you gotta hit the it's like training a dog. It sounds terrible. But like, you gotta tell them every time. Every time they cross the boundary, they have to know about it. You don't have to be angry about it. You don't have to overreact to it. But like, they won't know. And it's your fault if you don't teach your kids to have the boundaries or if you don't have the patience to sit there and walk them through them. Like, you have to do it and you gotta do it consistently. By that, like, eventually, they'll get six, seven, and eight, and they know the boundaries. You don't have to spend a bunch of time on them anymore because you trained them right up front. And like, for adults, like, it shouldn't have to be 50 times, but you can say, look, man, part of the deal with you living here is you're supposed to pay rent. I need you to get to figure out a way to pay rent. You got three months. I'm good with another three months. If you can start paying rent after three months, then you're free to stay. If you can't, then you gotta find another situation. Give the man a boundary. It's alright. It's okay to be fair with him. He doesn't you don't owe in the room. And it's not unkind. In fact, a lot of times, we are we feel like we're being kind by allowing people to to not have to face their own realities. And it's not kind. We just don't wanna do it. It's hard. It feels harsh. And if sometimes it feels like it lacks grace, like it lacks mercy from us. And like, sometimes it does. Sometimes we're just flat out being greedy. But like, sometimes,

we just don't wanna have a conversation with somebody. And we're afraid how they're gonna react. We're afraid that that they're gonna treat us in a certain way about it, and so we don't wanna tell them. I think it's awkward because you're I mean, you're you're kinda passing judgment on the thing. Right? Like, you're saying, look, there's there's there's very little excuse for this behavior not to have changed. Right? Like, I I feel like I shouldn't have to manage another adult's

way of living. Right? But you're not holding up what a standard adult would be responsible for. Like, why do I have to be respond that's a real question. Like, why do I have to be responsible for being adult for both of us? That's correct. You're an adult. That's right. I I I didn't take on a renter so I could be a parent to somebody else. Right? I just assumed you're gonna hold up your own weight here, and now you're flipping the game. Like, you're paying full rent and you do live at my house and we can coexist, I think that's kinda awesome. Right? I get a little bit of company. We can share community. I'll invite you over for for dinner or whatever. This is great. No big deal. And then all of a sudden, it's turning from a mutual understanding to a parent child relationship. You're like, I'm I'm 65. I don't need no kids. I've I've done that. I've raised my kids. I I this is a burden. It's becoming a burden to me. Mhmm. And so I think Ben's right. Like, you probably should lay out a standard that says, look, I I know you're going through a rough time, but honestly, like this constant negative Nancy stuff, I'm just not I'm not built for it right now. So,

let's figure out how to how to get you in a better state of mind or, you just can't stay. So let's see what we can do. And like, they're gonna take it harshly. And I suppose if they get mad and leave, your problem's still solved. You know, like, they're like, whatever, you know. So I I don't think you can be afraid, and I'm guilty of this. I don't think you can be afraid to have the conversation because you're worried about the outcome. Right? Like some conversations just have to be had, and if they choose to run it in a terrible direction, that is a choice that they made. You were just putting facts out into the air and going, look, this is the deal. Just make sure you're not being a jerk first.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I think you should bend towards mercy. I think, you know, like, allow people the chance to be to have trouble and to to get their way out of it and offer to help them in the right direction. But like, just there isn't only one solution to this, and it isn't always what the person who's having problems. Like we've talked about this before, isn't isn't only that's not the only option isn't that they stay with you forever without paying rent.

Like, that's not the only option. Like, it will it's either that or they're homeless. Well, probably not. There's probably a 100 other options in there. Right. And this is not so so just because you're removing one of the options, doesn't mean that you have personally sentenced them to a life of demise. Mhmm. That's not the reality. And and maybe there's other family out there and, you know, they can move back to where they came from. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean Yeah. And it's and it's not it's yours to offer to help, but it's not yours to figure out. Yeah. Right? Like,

of all the things that I heard come out of the Driscoll camp is like, dudes dudes run better when they're they're like an old Chevy truck. Right? The more you weigh them down, the straighter they'll drive. And some some of that's true for responsibility for people. That's true with your kids too. The more responsibility you give them, the less swerving around they do. And so you give people like complete avant garde to do whatever they want, they'll start taking advantage of that freedom and taking zero responsibility, and then you're left with weird discussions that you shouldn't have to be having. Yeah. And I well, I think that goes along with the principle too that, like, it's you can help people without having to own their problems. Like,

it's okay to help people in in pockets in pockets. Like, you find out that someone is hungry, it doesn't mean that you have to provide meals for the next six months.

Like, help them where you can. Help them to, like and again, I expect it to be probably over and above the, you know, what the world would do. You want them to to to to see the generosity of of of Jesus, and you're gonna be free with your time and your money for it. But it doesn't need doesn't mean you have to seed your life over to it.

And so just yeah. Just be just be careful. It's okay to basically, the the the broad take away boundaries. It's okay to set boundaries here. And just be clear about them, and then help them work within those boundaries to whatever. Secular says, you are kind, understanding, and you have done your darndest, but you cannot solve this man's employment problems for him. He may suffer from depression at this point. Because he's not getting along with the staff at his doctor's office, he may need counseling through your county department of mental health. Please suggest that. Since he has been your quote's guest for so long, it would be in your interest to discuss your situation with your attorney.

It may not be easy to get him out of your home, which is something you may need to consider for your own mental health. Oh, we're getting the lawyers involved, Does everybody have an attorney? I don't have an attorney. Dan, do you have one? I don't know who my attorney would be. People are like she she recommends this all the time. You should get ahold of your attorney. I don't I don't know an attorney.

Maybe people are getting in legal scrapes all the time that I'm not aware of. I can't say the last time that I thought I should get my lawyer involved in this. I feel like I can handle just about everything with a direct call to somebody. Well, and also, like, it seems so casual, like, hey, get your lawyer started thinking about it. I'm like, I don't I don't have $500 to have somebody think about it. Now see, but people you know that run small businesses, they're like, yeah, I'll call my attorney. Right? Like, know the guy, they talk to him about stuff, he helped file the LLC paperwork or whatever. Yeah. And they know an attorney. But regular Joe's, I mean, unless you've been through a divorce or whatever, I what do you got in the business doing? Should we get one? Do we need somebody we can refer to? Have we ever had an attorney on this show? I don't think so.

Hey. What's who's that guy that runs the the the that ran for office in Johnston? Andrews. Yeah. Yeah. Is he an attorney? I don't think so. I guess I don't know. I mean, I doubt he would represent us because he's a current under the government doles. But still, I mean, we might know an attorney. I don't even know what that's That's way you reflect any public servant on the government doles. Yeah. Why is that the wrong is that is that That's usually how they describe like welfare.

I mean, it is On the dole. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I that's why I said it. Right? Yeah. Hey. You've been listening live from The Path. Thanks for hanging out with us this week. We do appreciate it. Again, if you have any if you love the show, hate the show, like the website, like the new descriptions on the podcast, like the way I dress, whatever, call the Complaint Line. That's a call or text (515) 517-0085.

The Life From The Path, Bob Eisenhower complaint line, (515) 517-0085. Hey. Since we've recently renamed some of these podcasts for easier usage, now would be the time to leave a review.

Again, one star, five star, just be honest. But we do like it when you interact with it so that we can, we can talk about it on, Thursday nights when we get together and weep over our, YouTube comments. Yeah. Hey. I I had to shut a guy down. Same guy kept going in there, left like 15 comments under caps for sale, but they were just like plugging their new music release, which seemed relatively flattering. Like, they were looking for videos with high clicks and then comment sections where they could they could, like, horn in on it. I said, well, thank you, sir. So I left a number of them because I said, I like to be flattered. Is Caps For Sale still getting action? Yeah. Yeah. It still does real well. I haven't checked the numbers lately, but I'll I'll get a report for next time. Okay. I think once I took it off the website, maybe if nobody looks at it anymore. It gotta be. Yeah. Anyway. Hey. Thanks for hanging out with us. We do appreciate it. Oh, hey. And maybe there's something you want us talk about. If you're interested in our well, my goodness. Maybe you maybe you want our opinion on something. You say, I read this in the news or, I've been thinking about this from the Bible or whatever. You can use that complaint line for that too.

We'd we'd love to, I don't know, take a shot at it. So I I had, I was talking about the the cross thing that people do. Right? The the Catholics and the Lutherans. Right? And I always thought it was, spectacles, testicles, wallet, and watch Yeah. Left to right. And apparently, the the Catholicism does it left to right, and the Lutherans would do it right to left.

And I feel like that was a decision made right at the time where they're like, we'll show those guys. That's because the Catholics were right first. You're welcome. You all are welcome. I feel like the Lutherans went first of all, we're gonna we're gonna separate ourselves from these dudes. And we're still gonna do the cross saying, but we're gonna do it from

right to left. Yeah. We'll show those guys. Yeah. That's right. That way people can recognize us in the streets. Yeah. Wait. Do they get you gotta wait till the third motion, and then you'll know. One, two, three. Got them. Yep. Okay. Alright. That's it. We're we'll leave. Thanks for hanging out with us on Life of the Path. We appreciate it. We hope to see you next week. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to Live From The Path.