SENSITIZE 37
Every morning, Mr. Cring takes a personal moment with his audience.
Today: Good fathers don’t want to run their children’s lives. Neither does God want to run ours.
Click the picture below to see the video
Iz and Pal (Bedouin Buddies)
Jonathots Daily Blog
(4182)
Sitting Thirty-Nine
Seeds meticulously planted weeks before suddenly came to bloom in the blazing desert sun.
For Macklin Harrisonburg was not your garden variety genius. He was an audaciously wealthy man, the founder and director of Mackie’s Ice Cream—the one with all the cavalcade of flavors.
Well, you see, Macklin opened up his newspaper one day (which he read religiously despite the current preference for receiving such international information via the computer). Peering through the paper, he came across the picture of Iz and Pal—the one taken by Matthew Bradley. Although there was nothing more than a small caption, he was deeply moved by the tender embrace of the boyhood companions. He decided to call Mr. Bradley on the phone, get details about this Middle Eastern pair, and also, in the process, offer Matthew a job.
“How would you like to make $80,000 a year taking pictures of ice cream?” posed Mr. Harrisonburg.
“Cones or sundaes?” Matthew inquired with a chortle.
“Both,” quickly retorted the billionaire.
Matthew agreed to accept the deal and join Mr. Harrisonburg at his one-hundred-twenty-two-thousand-acre ranch in Nevada. The place was big enough to apply for statehood. The ranch included five thousand head of cattle, two thousand sheep, one thousand hogs, two hundred buffalo, fifty camels, thirty llamas and one unicorn (which was really just a llama vexed with a large wart on its head).
It was from the headquarters of this ranch that Macklin Harrisonburg devised a plan. His secretary informed him that he had received a call from the editor of the local newspaper near the campsite of the boys. He returned the message and in doing so, learned more about the story, including a secret part—about the buried hand grenade.
Macklin loved to plot, so this got him thinking, which led to some chuckling, and ended up with the ice cream mogul hatching a master delight.
First, calls were made to the International Environmental Agency, telling them about the hazardous waste possibilities at the desert location. Then he contacted Armistice International, informing them of potential buried weapons. And finally, he called some friends he knew in the Israeli Army. He quickly created a coalition of allies—cooperative, willing, and determined to secure the space.
One final thing—Macklin decided it would be best if he owned the surrounding property so there wouldn’t be any furor with the locals over trespassing. Through some careful negotiation and bizarre translations, Harrisonburg purchased a kilometer of the desert in all four directions.
He wanted to do what was right—not an easy thing. Often what’s right gets in the way of what’s expedient. But he placed calls to the father of each boy, to explain his intentions, but they would not speak with him except to claim that they had no sons—since the young men birthed from their loins were in “devilish rebellion.”
He checked for additional relatives, studied local law on the custody of children, and finally, he made a personal call, to Nevada—to a little lady who had been his wife for nearly thirty-five years.
“Marguerite?” he sang. “I have found me two more boys to work our ranch and to love back to life, if you think we have room at the table.”
There was a brief delay on the other end, and then a sweet reply. “I’ll get Jose and all the boys gathered, and we’ll just begin building a bigger table.”
He laughed—the kind of laugh a man emotes when he knows he’s with a good woman and his soul is tickled by the fingers of blessing.
When Macklin arrived at the desert scene in his yellow limousine, he was immediately intimidated by the large hill. Physical exercise was rarely necessary for an ice cream executive, but he was determined, and steadied himself on the arm of a friend who walked by his side, and with a little extra oom-pah in his polka, he made it up the hill, breathing heavily, and knocked on the door of a Port-a-John.
At first there was no answer. And then, a boy’s voice crackled from inside. “Who is it?”
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Jesonian… April 8th, 2017
Jonathots Daily Blog
(3270)
The Disagreeable Disciple
Disciple: I love you, my Lord.
Master: Well, thank you. So let’s get to work.
Disciple: I’m all ears.
Master: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Disciple: I pick up that the key word there is “neighbor,” which connotes they’re neighborly. If you mean being kind to neighborly people, then I get it.
Master: Your neighbor is everybody.
Disciple: I understand your heart, but that seems a little unrealistic.
Master: Judge not lest you be judged.
Disciple: I hear you. Gossip is a horrible thing. But there are things that need to be spoken against. Things that you, yourself, certainly don’t condone. So I believe there’s a difference between speaking up against evil and judging people.
Master: What if I told you that I don’t make that distinction?
Disciple: Interesting.
Master: When you pray, enter your closet, and when you shut the door, pray to your Father in secret.
Disciple: At our latest prayer seminar, we were discussing the power of thousands and thousands of people praying together over a common theme. Sometimes my personal prayers seem so anemic–lonely, if you will.
Master: And the Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly.
Disciple: Once again, interesting.
Master: In the Kingdom of God there is neither male nor female.
Disciple: Yet you want is to keep our social roles, am I correct? Women as mothers, men as fathers. Also good to study the different personality traits and emotional leanings. Is this true?
Master: Kingdom of God. Neither male nor female.
Disciple: Much to think about.
Master: And whenever you’ve done it unto the least of these, you’ve done it unto me.
Disciple: Now I know we’re on page! We have a food pantry at the church and we take care of hungry kids in after-school programs. We’re tracking this one down.
Master: By least, I don’t mean social order or poverty. I mean the ones you personally consider the least among humanity. The prisoners, the terminally ill, the outcasts, the individuals who don’t necessarily conform to your moral code.
Disciple: Sounds like you’re suggesting we condone sin.
Master: No, I’m telling you that you’ll be judged by how you treat the people you have deemed to be least.
Disciple: Wow, you’re sure giving me a lot to ponder. But you have to be pleased when you see your people gather to worship you every week in church.
Master: In vain do they worship me, because they teach their traditions as if they are commandments of God instead of mere preferences of this generation.
Disciple: But you do like praise and worship?
Master: Worship should be in spirit and truth–a mingling of our hopes with the impact of reality.
Disciple: You know, I haven’t thought about these things from this perspective for a long time.
Master: I’ve never thought about them from any other perspective.
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