As I was contemplating what to write today, the Lord drew me to a name from the past. While living in Chicago, I spent nearly a year and a half as an assistant golf professional at Four Winds Golf Club, Since I worked long shifts in the summer, I often ate in the clubhouse. Although I usually didn’t have much time to talk during my lunch or dinner break, I couldn’t help getting to know the head bartender.
Personality is a trait which is overlooked by employers, yet for bartenders, this is a key ingredient for success. Richard had one of the best personalities that I have ever met with an innate ability to tell stories like a comedian, nailing the punchline every time. Though his friends called him Dick, don’t laugh, he was one of the best bartenders I have ever met and the only one I have ever known, but who’s counting. As we became friends, Dick even caddied for me in a professional tournament in Morris, Illinois, a 2 hour drive from Chicago.
Dick’s greatest attribute was his honesty. Sometimes I felt like a priest at a confessional, listening to a long list of mistakes he had made in life. In fact, during the end of my first full season, Dick was one of the fall guys in a golf outing gone bad. Even though he had no decision in the clientele who participated in the public relations nightmare, Dick took the fall, getting fired so someone else didn’t. I miss the honesty, sincerity and openness I saw in Dick.
Unfortunately, in our current age of cut throat politics, honesty is used against candidates by their opponents in the form of campaign ads. Meanwhile, lies are reported and repeated so regularly that the truth is flushed down the toilet. Though are founding fathers weren’t saints and said disturbing things, many of them would be rolling over in their graves if they saw the garbage on television which exists today. Where is the voice? Where is the messenger? Where is the bartender like Dick, who spoke the truth in love. God is waiting for an Ezekiel like call to come forward before its too late, Ezekiel 22:30, are you the one willing to bridge the gap?
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 