Untotaled: Stepping 18–(January 14th, 1966) On My Sleeve … June 14, 2014

Jonathots Daily Blog

(2263)

(Transcript)

Two doors down from our home were some neighbors who were quite friendly, but we only saw about six times a year and talked to maybe twice.

So imagine our surprise when they showed up at the door the day before Christmas and brought gifts. My mother was frantic, trying to figure out how to reciprocate with some sort of generosity to this surprise burst of holiday cheer.

But the most amazing thing was when I opened my present on Christmas morning from these little-known neighbors and it was a sweater.

It was beautiful for two reasons. First of all, it was a swirl of blue in a cardigan style and had brown leather buttons that looked like chocolate covered cherries.

But the greatest blessing was that it fit. I was a big fat boy, and in that era, no one made provision for such creatures. I don’t know where our neighbors found it, but it was made of Angora–that material that looks like it should be on a goat or a really pretty rabbit.

I loved it. I wore it every day. I pretended it was my winter coat. Maybe because of that, I picked up a cold.

I hate colds.

I guess everybody does, but the main reason I despise getting the common flu bug is that I had no intention in my young teen years of doing anything about it except enduring it with much complaint.

So I was sitting in the study hall while wearing my beautiful blue Angora sweater with the chocolate buttons. It was a very cold day and they had turned up the heat, and the mixture of the other students in the room with the air of the furnace blowing started my nose running.

Now, I was a young man who had little care for anything that looked frilly, so I certainly did not carry Kleenex. (I don’t know what kind of fellow you would have to be in 1966 to have a Kleenex on you.) And I was also too macho to ask a nearby girl if I could use one of her tissues. That was forbidden territory.

So at first I just tried to sniff it back into my nose. Of course, this was loud, sounded gross and caused a cheerleader next to me to crinkle her nose and turn away.

I did not know what to do. I had already used up all my bathroom privileges with the study hall monitor, and was quite sure I would not be allowed to leave the premises. And sure enough, when I raised my hand, he just looked at me and shook his head.

Meanwhile, my nose was reaching avalanche proportions. I don’t know what it looked like, but it felt like Niagara Falls was running down my lip. It had to be gross. I tried to duck my head down, but that made the gravity of the situation worse.

I thought about running my hand under my nose, but then I would have it on my hand.

Suddenly, without thinking, fearing that I was about to embarrass myself in front of the entire class with my river of snot, I reached up with the sleeve of my sweater and ran it across my face two or three times.

Fortunately, at that point my nose loosened up and I was able to have one huge sniff and the running went away.

But my beautiful Angora sweater had been slimed by my drippy nose dropping.

I took off the sweater, folded it up, and when I got home that night tried to wipe the goop out of the fur–but it wouldn’t go away.

I wore the sweater a couple more times, but people kept asking me why the sleeve was matted.

I loved that sweater so much.

But about four days later, I quietly went out into the back yard, dug a hole, and buried it.

I realized there would be no way to ever fix it. My family knew nothing about dry cleaning, and I was in no mood to try to explain why it was rumpled and stiff.

I know it sounds strange, but I cried. Actually, I cried more at the grave of my sweater than I did for a couple of aunts who passed away.

Of course, they never looked nearly as good or kept me nearly as warm.

 

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

 

 

Touched and Tempted: Feel … January 23, 2013

(1,769)

I am touched by life’s infirmities.

I am tempted like everybody else.

It is what makes me human.

The more I allow myself to be touched and to acknowledge my temptations, the purer my heart and the more I see God. The more I see God, the greater the chance that I will view Him in the circumstances and the people around me, rather than alienating myself from anything that appears to be foreign and scampering away like a frightened deer.

This is where the paths of psychology and true spirituality cross. In both cases, sharing your feelings, knowing your heart and keeping yourself clean from clogs due to fear and anxiety are key to maintaining a balanced life. So what’s the problem?

The problem occurs when both religion and our cultural approach to the roles of men and women encourage people to hide their temptations and cease to feel compassion, excitement, turmoil and joy. When the medical community prescribes Prozac and the religious system offers grace as a means of neutralizing any of the questioning in our emotions, which might lead to deeper understanding of ourselves, the problems are not alleviated–just masked by medication or meditation.

You will never succeed in living a good human life if you do not feel the freedom to be touched and tempted–without disguising your condition. There is  a place where psychology and spirituality intersect. Both of these worlds understand that we are heart creatures–if we don’t deal with our feelings, we close the door to the possibility of spiritual growth, mental acuity and physical improvement.

So what should you and I do today to make sure that we are “touched with infirmities and tempted like everyone else?”

1. Ask yourself how you really feel.
2. Don’t be afraid of the answer.
3. Speak how you feel to someone else–or at least in the mirror.
4. Take a moment to cleanse yourself of any worry that comes to mind because you don’t sense that you’re  in the flow.
5. Realize that this process you’ve just experienced makes you a human being. Perfection is reserved for God (and after all, that, too, is only a theory).
6. Find a place to start–make sure it’s where you actually are instead of where you wish to be.
7. Don’t be embarrassed to feel.

Telling people that God’s grace covers everything is not only a lie, but is something they know, deep in their hearts, does not work towards their well-being. Taking the edge off via medication only suppresses the avalanche of emotions instead of teaching us to shovel our snow.

This is where we begin: we feel.

We feel by being touched by the infirmities of the world around us, including our own, and tempted like everybody else, and not being afraid to admit our weakness. Without this, we set in motion the climate for lying.

And lying is what keeps us from the truth that makes us free.

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity