Jonathots Daily Blog
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I Learned from Christmas
1. Life moves fast.
Stubbornly slow things down.
2. Life is expensive.
Get excited about searching for a great deal.
3. People can be rude.
Be different.
Jesonian: Reasonable (Part 14) Living … March 6th, 2016
Jonathots Daily Blog
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She had found her place.
She was satisfied.
She had substance and purpose.
Then, all at once, life, which had promised only good, interrupted with pain.
She was bleeding–not excessively. Just continually. Everything that was once pure became tainted by the introduction of this new evil.
Her sense of solvency was challenged. Now her money had only one purpose:
“Heal me. Stop the bleeding. Give me back my life as I knew it.”
A change was necessary. She went from having a life to needing to live.
For to live is finding a way to continue your life when it threatens to depart.
- She sought cures.
- She studied.
- She examined.
- She trolled for possibilities.
Expensive.
For twelve years, she struggled to find a treatment while simultaneously growing weaker as her affliction drained away the essence of her will and her finance.
Life had turned on her. Unfortunately, her passion and efforts to live also failed.
She remained sick as the doctors got rich.
She found herself languishing in poor health.
Her instinct to live left her bankrupt and teetering on death.
What now?
What do you do when life turns sour, and efforts to live are foiled?
There is one choice that remains: move towards living.
Go where there is still the energy of loving and pursuing. Escape away to any living possibility.
Because living is endurance. It is deciding to add joy to the process so as not to grow weary in such well-doing. She decides to leave nothing untried.
She hears about a “giver of life.” The rumors are mixed. Some deem this miracle man to be a savior, while others insist he is the son of hell.
But living is not a guarantee–rather, a desire to continue in hope.
So she makes a plan.
Planning makes her feel better–it helps her to realize that she still has some control.
She will touch the hem of this healer’s garment, with the anticipation that mere proximity to his virtue will grant her a cleansing from all sickness.
Her idea is childlike.
Her organization, tenuous.
But her faith, willingness and joy–persistent.
She pulls her plan off–and amazingly, it works.
She is whole.
She is free to go back to life, or to return to her city to live. But it seems ridiculous to merely pass time when living is available.
So she curls up in prayer, thanks God for His intervention, and allows herself … to be born again.
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In Secret … December 9, 2013
Jonathots Daily Blog
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It happens every once in a while.
As we tour across the country, it becomes necessary to have a single overnight stay in some town for the sole purpose of resting, relaxing and getting ready for the next day’s drive. We refer to it as a “sleep stop.” There are three goals:
- Find a comfortable motel
- Carry in as little as necessary, since you’re not setting up for an entire week.
- Make it as reasonable a location as feasible so as not to bust the piggy bank.
So when we arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee, at our sleep stop, Jan was confronted by the innkeeper, who explained that the room would be more expensive than originally stated. Jan, being an excellent business woman, lodged a complaint and asked the lady at the front desk to honor her original quote.
It wasn’t a big deal–no large argument. But a negotiation ensued, and as with most compromises, both parties were dissatisfied.
So as we were unloading into our room, I handed Jan the money to cover the extra price our host felt was needed for our occupancy. It wasn’t necessary. The room was already ours, legitimately.
But it wasn’t ours righteously.
Let me tell you, my friends, there are three ways to believe.
There is the belief we proclaim to others. This is what we call “church”–quoting the Good Book and tried and true hymns, to inform our neighbors that we are good folk and excellent Americans.
Secondly, there’s the belief we apply. This is a convoluted mixture of what God says, what we think, what Mom and Dad taught us, and the pressure put on us by society to conform to the present norm.
But last, there is the belief we allow to reach into our “secret place.” This is the room within the house of our faith, where we spend most of our time, closet our fears, and determine our future–based upon our own thoughts and feelings, many of which we would never be able to share with others.
I have learned over the years that Christianity does not work unless it reaches into this private compartment.
For some of the rudest and meanest people I have ever met have just come from church, proclaiming the goodness of God.
Likewise, many of the more confused, frustrated and mentally unstable individuals I’ve encountered over the years seem to have a terrific testimony about their relationship with the Almighty.
But I’ve never met anyone who allows their philosophy to reach their “secret place” who isn’t humbly satisfied with the experience.
I didn’t need to give that lady at the front desk any more money to satisfy her requirements.
I needed to give her the money to satisfy the yearning … in my secret soul.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity
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