PoHymn: A Rustling in the Stagnant … February 17th, 2016

 Jonathots Daily Blog

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Eureka

I am not afraid to doubt

Doubting purifies my belief

Belief links my spirit with willingness

Willingness is the giddy notion that there might be more

More is what God offers to my labored thinking

Thinking is cleansed by honoring feeling

Feeling lets me know I am human

Human is the merger of the monkey and the angel

Angels wish they were me

Me is the space I have been granted to experiment

I experiment because I am not afraid.

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The Alphabet of Us: I is for Intelligent… February 2, 2015

 Jonathots Daily Blog

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All human beings possess a heart, soul, mind and strength. Nothing of any true significance can be achieved unless this is understood.

• Information
• Knowledge
• Smart
• Intelligent
• Insight
• And wisdom.

Normally these words are used synonymously with each other. Would you please allow me to assign different meanings to these words, and in the process of doing so, inflame them with purpose?

Let’s begin with a little piece of prose:

We gather information

To study knowledge

Then learn what’s smart

So we can experiment by being intelligent

To acquire insight

Which promotes wisdom.

Stuck right there in the middle of the verses, is the word “intelligent.” Intelligent is the status we achieve when after gathering information, gaining knowledge and discerning what is really smart, we decide to experiment with these ideas to improve our quality.

As you can imagine, it is possible to stop off at any stage along the way and declare yourself to be intellectual.

For instance, someone can just go on the Internet, dig up the latest gossip, and tout themselves “informed.”

Other folks go to the university and cram for exams, to repeat back knowledge which has been determined as acceptable for acquiring a diploma. (Some of those brave souls actually go out, put their knowledge into application in the business world and get smart.

But intelligent is when we personally experiment, challenging what has come our way and what has been taught to us, in order to unearth validity.

I call it the “Rit dye test.”

I’m probably dating myself a bit by talking about Rit dye. When I was a teenager I had a lovely shirt, but it was white. I wanted it to be gold.

So I bought a box of Rit dye, which was labeled “yellow.” Fortunately for me, on that day I was in an astute mode, so I read the directions. They cautioned me to take a small spot on the bottom of the shirt and dye it first, to make sure I had the color I desired.

I did that, and lo and behold, it was anemic.

It took me about eight boxes of Rit dye, blending yellow, red, some blue–well, I forget all the combinations I tried–to end up with the perfect gold for my shirt.

Having run all the tests, I dunked my shirt into the concocted dye and pulled out a magnificent masterpiece.

That’s what it means to be intelligent.

Just because its been said, proclaimed, preached, called holy or scientific, take a moment and test it in your own life.

It is the only way we get to the point where we gain the insight which leads to wisdom.

If you’re not willing to challenge the status quo and test it, be prepared to land in the discarded pile of all those who trusted conventional thinking and fell short.

It’s the Rit dye philosophy: if you know what color you’re looking for, be intelligent enough to seek it out until you get just the right hue.

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Lasting “Fiend”ship… March 11, 2013

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I could be absolutely wrong, but to my recollection I can only conjure the memory of about two dozen people in my life who have become my enemies and I am at odds with–around twenty folks. It’s nothing serious–there is no “shoot on sight” declaration in place–just coming to terms with the fact that our particular chemistry was not favorable for future experiments. So considering the fact that I have met tens of thousands of people, I think that average is not too bad.

Yet, I’m not proud of having ANY maladjustment with my fellow-humans. But every once in a while, you run across a situation where, try as you might, the jagged edges of human character just don’t seem to snap into place.

I thought about this yesterday in Houston. Here was my discovery. Presently in our country, there are two options available for interacting with others. Both require decisions. You can decide to be loving or you can be preoccupied and avoid making a decision. What I’m saying is that people aren’t really hateful–just disconnected. And if you’re trying to relate to them in the midst of their preoccupation, it can certainly feel like rejection.

I think it’s the difference between being a fiend and being a friend.

To become a friend to people, you have to understand a bit about how things work. It’s a four-point process. If you’re going to be a friend:

1. There’s no reason to compete. Not every mortal on the planet is my competition. There are people who are better at things than I am, who deserve my respect. And there are folks that are not quite as adept and they require my mercy. The need to compete is a sign that insecurity is in control of your soul.

2. There’s no need to unseat. Some people are determined to attack power because they think it makes them appear more powerful. Attacking power is simply you admitting that someone IS ruling over you. It’s a waste of time to argue with people who are in the seat of power. If they’re doing a good job, you end up looking like an idiot, and if they aren’t, they soon will be “de-seated.”

3. No desire to deplete. Sometimes when I am in a church service I get aggravated because we somehow believe that showing appreciation for what people do, or applauding effort, diminishes our honoring of God. Didn’t Jesus say that “when you’ve done it to the least of these, my brethren, you’ve done it for me?” I do not need to rob you of your needful praise just to make sure that you stay humble. We deplete each other–making us so defensive about our egos that we are reluctant to interact with one another.

4. And finally, no plan to repeat. Am I the only one who thinks that life is self-explanatory? Case in point: you try something. If it doesn’t work. stop doing it. When I look at the things I was trained to be from my youth, I find some of them to be applicable to my present situation and some of them to be comically broken.  Don’t repeat what’s STUPID. It’s a great lesson for life. You will take away much of your pain if you will just follow that simple principle.

The difference between friendship and “fiend”ship is whether you show up to be loving or you arrive on the scene of fellowship in a state of preoccupation.

• There’s no reason to compete.
• No need to unseat.
• No desire to deplete, and
• No plan to repeat.

When you initiate those four things, you suddenly become of great value to the people around you.

And in the process, rather than coming off as a self-involved fiend, you become a self-aware friend.

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