 Young men are being lied to and it's leading to tragic results. That's what I want to talk about today. If you guys don't know who I am, my name is Isaac David and this is the Daily Disciple where I hope you follow Jesus Daily. A huge shout out to everyone on Patreon that supports me on there. It makes it so I can continue to make these videos. Link in description if you want to join. Today, we're talking about the fact that men, young men specifically are being lied to in our culture on a number of fronts. Now, just to preface this, I want to let you in on a little something you probably actually know when you're on social media and, you know, as a guy, I'm on social media and you can get caught up in different groups, right? Depending on what your interests are, you tend to follow different circles. Maybe some guys are into working out. So we're in this like sphere of workout videos and, you know, tips and how to bulk and how to, you know, cut and how to eat well and all these kind of things or maybe you're in like tech technology and you're in this sphere of consuming this content around technology. Well, for guys, one of the big common groups is kind of an entrepreneurial slash hustle culture niche and that is huge for guys. It has been blowing up over the last several years with guys really pouring themselves into this idea that look, if I hustle as much as I can, if I work hard at what matters to me, right? I'll get to where I want to be. And usually this means financial freedom. Usually this means, you know, living the life and the lifestyle that you want to live and means getting success and finding fulfillment and meaning in hustling hard. And, you know, it's idolized to put in 12 hours, 16 hours a day. That is seen as what guys should be doing and in our culture in general spreading a little bit further, taking a little bit of a wider lens here. We see it's prevalent that guys are told that through monetary success, financial success and through career achievement, they will find meaning because you look at it. Look, we're all looking for meaning and maybe you're not a Christian. You're watching this video and you're like, yeah, that's true. Like we're all looking for meaning, right? Whether you're looking for it in the Bible, whether you're looking for it in Christianity or whether you're looking for it in other religions or in hustle and productivity. We're all looking for a place to find that fulfillment and meaning. And so some guys and it's popular. They say, look, I got to focus in on getting my career straight hustling hard and putting in that time and that hustle to really find success. And you're thinking, Isaac, okay, what's the big deal here? What is the culture lying to us about? Isn't that true? Isn't that a good thing? Shouldn't guys really focus in on becoming responsible, hardworking young men? Isn't that what we've always wanted them to do? Isn't that the counteraction to the laziness that our culture often is known by in our generation? Gen Z or Millennials is, you know, accused of. It's the laziness. It's the, you know, whatever, but no, it's finally getting together and we're working hard. Here's the problem is that you think that because our culture purports these things, these qualities, you know, of working the 12 hours of working the 16 hours of hustling hard for what you want of being extremely career focused of putting, you know, family and, and those kind of things aside relationships, cutting out social life, cutting out community in order to pursue financial success and career success. You think that would be the thing that would bring men the most meaning, right? Because of course we're going after it. So isn't that the best? Isn't that going to lead to the best results? Here's the tragic thing and here's what I've actually been learning and discovering as I've been talking to a number of different older men and also just seeing documentaries online and things like that. If other people speaking out about this is it when men completely put and you know, women, you can you take what you can from this, right? No, I can speak as a guy. Men, when we are put in a situation where we're focused in on those things and even when you achieve that monetary success, you end up realizing that what you were working for isn't actually what you truly wanted or needed or desired because no amount of money is going to fill that desire in us. And what desire is that? Well, God desired designed us. He wired us and I'm just 22. I'm just speaking on this. I haven't even experienced this, but in my conversations with, you know, older men, fathers and stuff, it's like they they find their most meaning and purpose in their life being fathers and husbands, right? That's amazing. That's crazy because it seems like our culture idolizes the man that is free, that is not tied down, that is wealthy, that is successful, that is, you know, well known and is renowned and respected as opposed to the man who lives a quiet life raising his family and doing what it takes to to raise them up in the way that they should go. And so we're being lied to when we're when young men are told, look, if you focus on your career, go home all in, right? You gossip, you make it. You channel, you you you have that tunnel vision, right? And you crowd everything else out. That's going to fulfill you because we're missing something fundamental. I think we need to normalize young men aspiring to be godly fathers. Maybe you've heard of young women, you know, aspiring and they've even verbalized aspiring to be moms one day and that scene is great, right? And I agree. That's awesome. But yet somehow guys, it's like that's not something that, you know, is just seen as a normal thing. Why would a guy, you know, aspire to be a godly father? Doesn't he have greater pursuits in his mind? But it's because our values have been shifted. Our values have been severely missed and and and we have chosen money oftentimes money and outside achievement as the measure by which we say something is meaningful by which we say a pursuit is meaningful. We see these outside numbers and and you know, how many followers do I have and how much money is in my bank account. We see those things as look, that's what you want as a guy. That's where you get your meaning. That's where you get your worth. That's how you can say that you are enough in this world. That's how you know that you made something of your life and that's pounded into our brains and it honestly drives us crazy where we feel guilty all the time. I know I do. I feel guilty a lot because I'm like, am I doing enough? Am I doing the right thing? I got to get to this spot where I can make something of myself where people will respect me and I'll have money and that kind of thing and and it's so much and yet when a guy says, look, you know what? I want my greatest aspiration is to be a godly father to raise godly kids like who says that? And yet I think like if you're a guy watching this, I think that's great and I think that's a godly a godly something to aspire to aspiration. That's the word I'm looking for. It's a godly aspiration to have and so I want to create kind of because you can easily go into a ditch or another ditch, right? But I want to clarify things a little bit. So when we're talking about should we be responsible? Yes, we should be responsible. Of course, right? We want to take care of what we need to do. We need to work hardly for the Lord and not for man. But here's the measurement that we've been getting off, right? Like we've been we've been wrong about how we see and how we choose to hustle. And so I'm going to introduce something which I think we should be aspiring to is is meaningful hustle, meaningful hustle guys. They hone into hustle because they think the mere act of working hard and not giving yourself rest and tunnel vision and all that kind of stuff is is honorable in and of itself. Even if the ends isn't great or even if the ends is kind of like or even if the means by which they're doing it is kind of a scummy. They're like, well, I got to hustle into this and make that money and become successful. So then people will respect me and I will have meaning in my life. That's what guys are honing in on. And what I want to say is that we've been measuring things all wrong like we've been measuring things all wrong because as Christians, if we're looking at where does value and meaning and purpose come from like does it come in to us trying to find that thing that's going to make us the quickest buck that's going to give us the most financial stability or we honing into what God would have for us. Are we going to hustle meaningfully for a purpose for providing for our family for providing for our own needs for helping other people is that why we're hustling to serve God to serve others to provide all these kind of things as opposed to just selfish self and and self appeasement and trying to appease our guilt that's so deep in that shame that's so deep. Like if you're a guy watching this and maybe you feel this too. I know I'm getting a scattered brain, but look, this is just a stream of consciousness consciousness here. I'm just kind of trying to get this out. So if you're guy watching this right now and maybe you felt this pressure this this deep knee, you're like I got to hustle like I see this like I got to work hard because otherwise I'm not going to make anything of myself and and I and I got to do that and I and I understand that like I'm not going to tell you oh look don't even worry about it. Don't even try to work hard like it's not worth it. I just focus on you know reading Bible whatever like no, I think reading about was good, but also you need to work hard. Of course, but what is our motivation for it? Is it a panic out of like this deep need to make something of ourselves to prove ourselves to the world or is it out of a security in knowing that God has loved us in knowing that God accepts us and knowing that God is sending us with his power and his presence. And I think when we realize that we say, okay, now I can approach my work with with joy and not panic and not trepidation and anxiety feeling like maybe I'll fail and I'll never measure up and all this. No, I'm secure in Christ, but then also I can turn my head and say, oh, what is the things that God is really pulling me towards that are that are the most meaningful, right? And I think God is designed men and women, but I think in this context, men to to be looking for those that next generation, whether through fatherhood or mentorship to raise and to mentor and to like, man, there's so much wisdom there and we were designed to pass that on and leave a legacy. There's no legacy in just tunnel vision and putting in 12 hours and 16 hours a day to get to the point where we are financially free, but we're lonely and isolated and we have cut out anybody else in our lives. Like there is an amazing gift that God is offering us in becoming a part of a community and also in, you know, those if you do have kids becoming a father and that should be seen as something absolutely amazing. And I pray that I'll have that blessing one day and I think, you know, if we're only focused, if the only metric that we have on our worth as men is how many hours we're working, what our wages, how well known we are, how many achievements we have, we are going to end in despair because here's the fact it'll never be enough. It'll never be enough for you. And I feel like at this point, I'm like still at that stage where I'm still trying to get to the basics, right? I just want to get to like ground level where I feel like I can make something of my life, but at the same time, I want to be concerned and hopeful and and inspired and aspire to focus on the things that matters my family and and ultimately, I hope to get married one day. And I think that's an awesome, an awesome aspiration to have. I just want to free you guys from from the pressure of the world and it's saying that you are defined by your work and that it that is the thing that will bring you the most meaning because unfortunately it will leave you empty. It will leave you always wanting more. You'll never have enough money. You'll never have enough success and without that legacy without that those people that you're pouring into, whether your children or you know, other younger people that you can mentor, there's going to be a hole there. God didn't just design us to to act as nomads or lone wolves, you know, trying to, you know, make become that this successful mogul or whatever or successful engineer or doctor. He didn't just create us to be that without the intention of what we're using that for and what we're striving towards ultimately and pouring into our family, pouring into our communities, those kind of things. And and I think that the stress, the anxiety, the pressure that is put on men to make something of their lives. It causes them and I can speak from experiences to cut out all the other aspects of life in pursuit of that thing. And as I've gotten to that place where I'm like, I've cut everything out and I focused in on it and then it's not working and then it's I'm not getting to where I am and I'm not as successful as I wanted to be and I'm not as rich as I want to be and I'm not there yet and and then I feel like I'm nothing and then I feel like I'm garbage and then you get depressed and you realize my heart was in the wrong place. My my aspirations were in the wrong place. I got a I can't continue to live this way. I can't continue to pour myself into work and and my dreams and my goals and expecting that to be the thing that refuels or fills me because God's given me so much of a greater calling than that. And until we realize that man will always be empty. We'll always be looking for that next thing to to fill us up. And look, I think I think God has it right in front of us. It's himself. He wants us to focus on him. He wants us to have a deep relationship with him and through that a deep relationship with others and not just cutting off communion with him and communion with other people in order that we be that tunnel vision to achieve our dreams because we think that'll give us meaning because it won't. It won't give us that purpose that we dreamed of. It won't give us that meaning. We won't have enough money. We won't have a big enough health. It will leave us sad and depressed and empty and I'm trying to tell you is that it's not worth it. I'm telling you today that if you can come to terms with that that, yes, you can have your dream. You can have your aspirations of where you want to go and yes, work hard at it. That's awesome. But don't give your life to that thing in hopes that it will fill you completely and make you whole because it can't do that. That's not its purpose. And if you are asking that thing, that dream, that aspiration, that achievement to fill you up and make you whole, you will be so disappointed and I've been there. I've been so disappointed when I put my identity, my life into my social standing or how close I am to being able to work full time for myself or those things and then it falls short. I feel like garbage because I put my my whole life, my identity into this working. But maybe it doesn't need to work. Maybe I can live my life and strive to my goals and work hard and and it doesn't have to ever get to the point where I dreamed it needed to be because there's a greater dream. There's a greater aspiration. There's a greater fulfillment in family and in Christ and in that identity of of pouring into the next generation, leaving a legacy that is more than just money or achievement. We've gotten so far from the truth and every time I see a every time I see a young man, maybe my age, that's poured themselves into this hustle culture and, you know, waking up at 5am and reading self help books and trying to work 12 hours on whatever the heck drop shipping or whatever the next fat is to make a million dollars. My heart breaks because I know how that feels. I know how that you just you ask God, God, give me something where just make it work. God, make me make me wealthy or make me successful. Make me good at something or just God, just give it to me because I think that that's what I need. But if we can take a step back and we realize why God's not giving it to us because he says, No, my child, that's not what you need. You don't need. You don't need massive success at 22. You don't need to become famous. You don't need to become rich. You need me. That's all you ever needed. And through me, I'm going to show you amazing blessings and opportunities in maybe being a father, a husband, somebody in the community, somebody that a church that young men and women can go to and ask for advice. And you can be a mentor and that'll be that'll be enough. That'll be enough.