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1. Take an honest inventory of what you have and what you can do
2. Immediately turn all of your wishing into a passion of present action
3. Imitate what you desire in your life right here and right now
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1. Worry is transforming into action
2. Fear is melting as the pursuit for love grows
3. Rage calms as anger gains a voice
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly donation for this inspirational opportunity
Click the elephant to see what he’s reading!
Jonathots Daily Blog
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There’s a lot of terrible things going on in the world lately and I don’t want fear to have control over my decisions. How do I make sure I am moving forward in freedom instead of fear?
Life is a tug of war between action and thinking.
We spend much of our early training fine-tuning our brains to make quality decisions based on knowledge, and therefore, hopefully low-risk adventures.
The difficulty with this approach is that thinking your way out of situations is unlikely. Normally we work our way out.
Human beings become afraid when we convince ourselves there’s nothing we can do and our minds become dumbfounded with anger and helplessness.
One of the things a person of faith is supposed to possess is an understanding that “going the second mile” gives us an activity to perform while we’re waiting for better options.
For after all, none of us are very good at sitting patiently by and waiting for the next bus of opportunity to come our way.
This is why Jesus said to “take no thought.”
If it turns out you can’t change the circumstances around you, thinking about it won’t improve things in the least, but instead, will drain the remaining hope and ability you might possess.
So whenever you run across a situation, you should ask one simple question: What can I do about this?
If the answer is “nothing,” make sure you distance yourself from the quandary and stop musing. But if you get a clear revelation about what you could contribute, insert it quickly and get the good vibrations that come from being involved.
How about an example or two?
Poverty.
You cannot make poor people comfortable all over the world, but you can be generous within your circle. That generosity not only radiates out, encouraging others to be more open-minded, but gives you a sense of completion.
Violence.
There’s probably nothing you can do about gun control in this country, but you certainly can control the amount of animosity and intimidation that you allow to be around you. Once again, you set in motion the possibility of trickling down to others while satisfying your soul’s need to improve matters instead of being afraid of the monsters.
Take action, not thought.
It is the best way in the world to chase away your fears and plant the seeds of solution.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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Lights! Camera! silence.
Escaping the pernicious violence
Understanding the curly boy
In pursuit of lingering joy
He directs his attention.
Mothered by a child bride
Yearning to balance human pride
Staring at the falling water
Bring to us a precious daughter
He desires a creator’s heart.
Telling a human story
Curious to touch the glory
Simple in a complex way
He enjoys the priceless day
No hurry when you’re happy.
Selfish I am, you see
He is a son to me
But free of nagging ties
Ignoring the cumbersome lies
He labors, sifting truth.
He has so much to give
A platform on which to live
Survived the buffalo clinic
To bring hope to the abiding cynic
He returns to an empire state.
So mingling together a holy mixture
He seeks to find the bigger picture
Aligned with the Angels of Art
Never afraid to make a start
He always selects his best shot.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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Reasonable: being able to reason.
It seems like a noble idea until you realize it requires you to sift through your beliefs and discard the unreasonable portions.
The process of becoming a good Earth-citizen is acknowledging that there are billions of others, and the goal is to find a way to peacefully co-exist with your brothers and sisters without compromising the power of truth.
So what is the first step to being reasonable?
Free will.
We are not on Earth by God’s plan, by luck or to be guided by superstition. There is a way things work and a way they don’t, and the first step in understanding that process is comprehending that every human being has free will.
1. God died for free will.
Using the flesh-and-blood passport of Jesus of Nazareth, God came to Earth and submitted to the decisions of arrogant religionists, who gave a verdict of death because he preached love.
God did nothing to stop the process. But after it was completed, He used the bravery of Jesus as evidence of salvation.
2. You have free will.
Don’t ask God to live your life. He won’t.
You may convince yourself that certain events link together to form a plan, but actually, they happened because of your action or inaction.
Jesus characterized God as Father, and no good parent would ever try to control the life of His child.
3. Human beings have free will.
Therefore you can’t force your beliefs on others.
We have to learn the power of influence. And how do we influence people? By making them jealous of our success–so jealous that they imitate our actions in their own way, without ever giving us credit.
4. Because free will is immutable, if we’re going to impact others, we need to make sure that we’re constantly making our choices simpler and easier.
I can always tell when I’m in the presence of someone who is a novice to the human experience.
They talk about complexity.
Becoming mature is resisting difficulty.
We make progress by using our free will to find paths to greater ease and simplicity.
You will never be reasonable until you understand that human beings have been granted free will, and therefore will quite often choose ignorance over wisdom.
Selecting to blame God for this malady is not only a waste of time, but also puts you in a world of superstition … where you nervously await the next disaster.
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“The best Christmas stories I’ve ever read!”
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EC + W = IND.
Looks like a formula, doesn’t it? I guess it really is. We do live in a material world, chemically charged, and we are part of that process. So what is this little formula? Let me break it down for you: EC stands for “emotional counting.” The W signifies “worry” and the IND is “indecision.” So what IS emotional counting?
Emotional counting is when we fail to come clean with the feelings from the previous day and carry them over without self-discovery into today’s activities, allowing them to color how we view our possibilities.
In other words, if I had a bad day yesterday and failed to clean myself out emotionally with God, the mirror or a friend, and then I look at the little dab of what I have, that little pile of potential will always look insufficient.
Yesterday’s unresolved problems always make today look impossible—and when we think things are impossible, we commence to worry. Worry, very simply, is pitching a fit that “life is unfair.” Let me tell you—life is unimpressed. Life does not care that we are spoiled brats who threw a temper tantrum because we didn’t get what we wanted.
Next, when worry fails to produce inspiration, we choose the dastardly position of indecision, which causes us to finish our day in greater frustration, compiling our emotional upheaval. This is why those who have problems continue to be plagued by more problems, which we deem to be bizarre and unrighteous.
You cannot count your blessings or even assess the value of what you presently have if you’re still distressed over yesterday’s failures. Looking back on yesterday causes us to worry about tomorrow, making us squander today. Just go back and read that sentence to yourself again. It is a powerful thought.
Emotional counting is allowing ourselves to be ungrateful for what God has given us and what has been provided by our own hands because of fear of yesterday’s inadequacies following us into this 24-hour period. It makes us lose all faith in ourselves and God to supply the need.
So emotional counting produces worry, which is the arrogance of thinking that things should be different, which incapacitates us with indecision.
And what is the danger with indecision? Is it necessary to make decisions every day? Have you ever heard the phrase, “It’s a jungle out there?” It’s true. And when we choose to be indecisive because we’re worrying over our lack, due to being emotionally clogged up, we leave much of our destiny in the hands of others—who just go ahead and decide for us.
Emotional counting is when we cease to believe that we have enough if we just can come up with a very good angle. So can I give you a better formula? How about this one: C + P = A
Yes, simply Counting what we have and know instead of coloring it with a dark crayon energizes us to do a bit of P—Planning. How can I take what I have and make it work for today without allowing myself to be overly concerned with tomorrow? And when you legitimately count what is available to you and permit yourself the grace of planning instead of worrying, it always leads to A: action. Yes, as human beings we just feel better when we’re in motion. “And a body in motion shall remain in motion and a body at rest shall remain at rest.” Likewise, a body that’s emotionally distressed will remain that way and one that is worrying will eventually turn into the proverbial wart.
Ingratitude is not merely acting like we don’t appreciate what has been provided. Ingratitude is also believing that it’s just not enough.
God does not have any victory in making us look stupid. God does not receive glory by abandoning His friends in the middle of the desert. But God is quickly rejected by those who will not deal with their emotions and begin to view their possibilities through a clouded lens which produces worry, causing them to land with indecision.
“Here you go” is when we allow ourselves to be emotionally clean by speaking out our worst fears to God, the mirror or our friend. And “here you got” is when we view what is available to us in a positive light because our cleansed emotions do not prompt us to begin to worry and become indecisive.
If I will clean up my emotions, I can count my blessings and plan to use them well in this day’s period, which will prompt me towards action. Remember, often our problem is not that we are destitute, but rather, that we look beyond today’s need and project what tomorrow will demand.
Counting + Planning = Action.
But to count with a sense of joy what God has given us demands that we remove all the emotional frustration of the previous day … and give God a good chance to bless us right now.
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Here comes Christmas! For your listening pleasure, below is Manger Medley, Jonathan’s arrangement of Away in the Manger, which closes with him singing his gorgeous song, Messiah. Looking forward to the holidays with you!
Jonathan sings “Let”
Jonathan Sings “Spent This Time”
Jonathan and his partner, Janet Clazzy, play “The Call”
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
 | Jonathan on 1 Thing You Can Do When Your F… |
| Anonymous on 1 Thing You Can Do When Your F… |
| Anonymous on 1 Thing You Can Do When Your F… |
| Anonymous on 1 Thing You Can Do When Your F… |
 | Nolan on 1 Memory About Jonathan Richar… |
 | Maxine Mantooth on Drawing Attention … Dece… |
| Steve on From the Stacks … Octobe… |
| Maxine Mantooth on Scrambles … October 20th… |
| Maxine Mantooth on From the Stacks … Octobe… |
| Maxine Mantooth on Scrambles … October 13th… |
A voice writing in the wilderness
Jonathots Daily Blog 