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PoHymn: A Rustling in the Stagnant … June 20th, 2018
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Fly Girl
by Jonathan Richard Cring
I want to apologize to you
For feeling so sorry for me
It’s just that everything is new
Not used to being free
Do I enjoy feeling pain
So I can nurse the sore?
Flirting with a hurtful insane
Sitting in the dark on the floor
Do I understand I was wrong
Remember the twist in my mind?
I finally feel like I belong
With a heart, generous and kind
My hands are strong
My mind is clear
It took so long
To calm my fear
Yet I yearn for grace once again
Embarrassed to feel so weak
At the mercy of my lingering sin
Still inheriting with the meek
As a girl I dreamed of flying
Across the sky, crystal blue
Lying, sighing, trying and crying
A seeker without a clue
Lord, give me wings like a bird
So I can finally see
The beauty of your heart and word
And all your love for me
Fly… fly… fly
Try… try… try
Fly girl.
Our guest reader is Angy, entrepreneur, wife, mother of two daughters, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida
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Populie: Deny and Defend… July 9, 2014
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Religion, politics and entertainment often get together and find what is popular, mingle it with a lie, and then set out promoting the fad for the masses. After all it’s the easiest way to get along in the short-term.
Unfortunately, it wreaks havoc on the emotions and soul of the human race while declaring a truce with an existing deception.
It is a populie.
Even though we tout that we are a Christian nation, we tend to receive our marching orders from other nations and their philosophies.
- From the Jews and Arabs, we cling to “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
- From Buddhism, we believe that we have the power to enlighten ourselves.
- And from the Hindu we have an inordinate worship of animals.
Case in point: we tend to prefer to deny having problems and defend our actions in covering them up.
Religion likes this because it makes human beings appear weak, and therefore God seems stronger.
Politics favors the idea because if you can survive a 72-hour news cycle about one of your failings, maybe it will go away.
And entertainment builds whole storylines around characters who either cheat or fudge on the truth, or defend themselves from dealing with difficulty.
Here’s the populie:
1. Deny. “I do not allow myself to make mistakes.”
2. Defend. “Therefore I will not tolerate critique from you or anyone else.”
This populie creates a climate of lies, leading to an ongoing sense of mutual mistrust.
Since we don’t admit our fallacies, insist there’s no problem and refuse to be inputted by others, a complicated web of deceit is constructed and maintained by our spider sense.
It would be comical if it weren’t so dangerous.
And you can certainly judge your spirituality not on whether you attend church, but by whether you’re willing to deal with your problems without shame or falsehoods.
Honestly, this is what works in the human family:
A. Confess. “I will tell you myself where I’ve made mistakes.”
Confessing your faults one to another is the only way to set inner healing in motion. It is also the only way to prevent people from piling on.
B. Expand. “After I confess, I will tell you what I have learned through my mistakes and how I plan on improving my situation.”
If you want to be the victor instead of the victim, you have to be prepared to admit what is becoming obvious to all. If you get ahead of it, you’re leading the way instead of being drug with a rope by the mob.
Yet I will admit, this is probably one of the more difficult things for people to overcome. But if you don’t confess, be prepared to be confronted.
In the long run (which is often a shorter sprint than you might think) people do find out–and when they do, and they sense that you have tried to escape reality–the punishment will be more cruel.
Deny and defend–a national pastime. But it is time to put it in the past.
In closing let me give you one idea on how to welcome this into your life: start very small.
If you left something on a table and someone had to move it, step over, apologize, and move it yourself. It’s only by practicing this kind of candor that you will gain the muscle to lift your own weights instead of having them dropped on your head.
“Deny and defend” may be one of the most popular of the populie–and may I add … one of the more devastating.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity
Click here to get info on the “Gospel According to Common Sense” Tour
Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about scheduling SpiriTed in 2014.
Click here to listen to Spirited music
Jesonian: God’s House … June 29, 2014
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Word has it that God has a house. At least, that’s the popular belief by most folks about the church building.
Even though there are a few folks who try to go cosmic and insist that “the people are the temple of God,” it is still generally considered that His Holiness’s address is somewhere on Church Street with a steeple above.
It is a building filled with individuals who have a history of attending such conclaves, and believe they should be conducted in a particular way. This proposed “God’s House” usually has organ music. Men and women usually only hear an organ three times in their lives–weddings, Sunday church and funerals.
They blur.
But what would God’s House be, and what would the sounds of His domicile consist of, if we really felt He made a visitation within four walls?
I know this–when I go to Steve and Sharon’s house, there’s the buzz of business, papers everywhere and the sound of phone calling to promote new ideas and commerce.
Arriving at Jerrod and Angy’s house, there’s the ruckus of two young women growing up in an exciting environment, with little constraint on their level of joy.
If you pop into Jon Russ and Tracy’s house at any time, you’ll hear the hum of machines and editing bays, and films being pieced together like giant jig-saw puzzles, with unfortunately, many pieces often absent.
Jasson and Deahna’s house has the sound of two young boys, who certainly believe that screeching is permitted in every room of their abode, to the delight of the young parents.
Yet what are the sounds of God’s House?
Jesus described it as an enclosure filled with the sound of music and dancing. As he told the parable of a prodigal son who returned home to the delight of his father, to be thrown the greatest party ever known, the overwhelming exuberance of the visitors and the young lad who had miraculously received a reprieve from his misdeeds, vibrated into the night air.
The only person upset with all the noise, and felt it was disrespectful, was an older brother who was accustomed to somber ambience and the sounds of silence.
He complains.
The father does not apologize. He explains that it’s necessary to have the sound of music and dancing if you’re going to adequately commemorate human beings making progress.
Here’s what I think: as soon as we realize that church is not for our ancestors, nor a gig for the chancel choir, and also not a platform for sermons, responsive readings and overblown special music, is when we actually will build a house that God is comfortable living in.
For if it’s going to be God’s House, it must be a place in which human beings are allowed to cut loose and “rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.”
As the father in the story of the prodigal son said to his older, complaining offspring, “It was right to party. Your brother was lost and is now found.” (He was gracious enough not to add, “What in the hell’s wrong with you?”)
God’s House should resound with music and dancing–to the best of our ability.
Maybe that’s a little too far for you.
But subsisting on the same repertoire program that might be used at your funeral is a bit premature, don’t you think?
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity
After an appearance earlier this year in Surprise, Arizona, Janet and I were blessed to receive a “surprise” ourselves. Click on the beautiful Arizona picture above to share it with us!
Click here to get info on the “Gospel According to Common Sense” Tour
Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about scheduling SpiriTed in 2014.
Click here to listen to Spirited music
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