Dear Man/Dear Woman: A Noteworthy Conversation … July 16th, 2016

 Jonathots Daily Blog

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Dear Man: Did you ever think, just for discussion’s sake, what if the story of Adam and Eve were true?

 

Dear Woman: From the Bible?

 

Dear Man: Yes. I don’t mean religious–I mean, what if the telling of this tale was overall accurate, if not specific?

 

Dear Woman: OK. I can see that. But where are we going?

 

Dear Man: Working on that premise, do you realize that you and I–a man and a woman–were created, generated, evolved–whatever term you want to use–to be equals?

 

Dear Woman: I suppose that’s true. But that’s not the way it ended up.

 

Dear Man: No, but let’s step away from how it ended, and instead, talk about where it began. Both man and woman had equivalency and respect.

 

Dear Woman: I got that. So what happened?

 

Dear Man: You see, that’s the key. If we follow the story, it still makes sense in our world today. Because what you have is not a poorly defined sexual relationship or an inadequate parenting situation, or even an inability to speak to one another. It’s a failed business relationship.

 

Dear Woman: I think I understand. What you’re saying is, Adam and Eve’s equality stemmed from being in covenant with each other to achieve a common purpose, and when that was removed, then the frailties of each one were suddenly thrust to the forefront.

 

Dear Man: Exactly. So what we have today are men and women trying to get along with each other, already having experienced a bankruptcy together.

 

Dear Woman: That’s far out.

 

Dear Man: So if you want to get back to the Garden relationship, you have to understand what the problem is. I have to ask myself, can I trust you?

 

Dear Woman: And I have to ask myself, can I trust you?

 

Dear Man: And finally, can we work together without lying? Because this is what brought them down. They didn’t trust each other so they lied to each other–and then came together to lie to God.

 

Dear Woman: So you’re saying that all this fuss they make in society about the differences between men and women is really just a coverup about an abiding mistrust and a fatal flaw–lying.

 

Dear Man: Exactly. If I have confidence that I can trust you enough to tell the truth, we can address the real problem and work out almost anything.

 

Dear Woman: But if I can’t hear it, and get my feelings bruised or my masculine pride shaken, then I strive to make you insecure, too.

 

Dear Man: Of course, this is all based on the story having some believability.

 

Dear Woman: Well, I’ll tell you this–it sure is a hell of a lot better than acting like men and women are hopeless.

 

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Jonathan’s Latest Book Release!

PoHymn: A Rustling in the Stagnant

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G-24: To Kill or Not to Kill… May 16, 2014

Jonathots Daily Blog

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Cain killed his brother.

What to do with Cain?

It seems that dead men can’t repent.

Vengeance tends to communicate that we don’t believe in salvation.

It’s just too easy to kill.

After all, you can’t be God if you can’t salvage people.

Punishment has little value if the punished can’t make amends.

Will Cain kill again?

Is living a better punishment than execution?

Who is hopeless?

Can a curse be turned into a blessing?

Can the knowledge of evil transform people to appreciate the knowledge of good?

No one really knows what God thought.

I guess that’s why we call Him God.

He has a bigger brain.

But we do know this:

Cain killed Abel.

But God didn’t kill Cain.

 

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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.

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The Big Tow… December 27, 2012

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Yesterday at 2:46 PM I walked out of my motel and into the parking lot to discover that my van had been towed away. Let me share the three steps that led to this dispersion:

1. The motel was painting the floor where I usually go to my room via the wheelchair ramp.

2. I had to find a parking place in the back near another ramp.

3. As it turns out, my selection of parking places was their tow-away zone, and rather than calling me on the phone and asking me to move my vehicle, they apparently took some glee in punishing me.

Let me make a long story short. Both Jan and I went to the front desk and explained our situation as calmly as we could, considering the fact that we were battling a bit of anger, and they corrected the mistake, took us to pick up the van and it ended up costing us nothing but a bit of time.

But it did get me thinking. (I guess if you’re going to write a daily column on the Internet, you should think occasionally. Otherwise you get boring not only to yourself, but also end up disappointing your readers.)

You see, what happened here was that a simple error was overly punished because no grace was given. We talk about grace a lot in religious institutions, and I have never been satisfied with anyone’s definition of this magnificent virtue. The classic definition for grace is “unmerited favor.” Whether a church is liberal or conservative, they all contend that human beings are a lost cause and God tolerates us by offering us salvation because we’re helpless.

I don’t think that’s what grace is. If those people at the front desk of my motel had just picked up the phone and given me the opportunity to change my own circumstances by moving my van, I would have been more than happy to do so. But to trap me in my accidental mistake and to follow through with swift judgment, with little regard for my feelings, does not make me very appreciative, even when the outcome is to my favor.

See what I mean? Telling me that God thinks I am a miserable, despicable individual who Jesus came to die for on a cross, and that without accepting his gift of blood atonement, I am destined for a hell-of-an-ending to my journey doesn’t make me particularly glad that I believe in God.

If that is the way you view our heavenly Father, you are welcome to continue to pursue that theology. I find it repulsive. I, being a father, certainly would not treat my children in that way–and I expect God to exceed my efforts.

Here’s what I think about grace, in the form of what I needed from the front desk people at my motel:

1. This person with the big black van is a guest of ours. I don’t know why he ended up parking back there–maybe he was ignorant of the rule. Let’s give him a chance to make it right.

2. Let’s not assume our guest is helpless, and let’s not believe he’s hopeless. Let’s take a moment and just believe that he made a bad choice.

3. Give him an opportunity to do better work.

You see, I don’t think God believes I am a depraved sinner. Why? Because God, for a while, wore a human body when his name was Jesus, so He knows what it’s like. He understands that it often is not an issue of temptation, but rather, too quickly choosing convenience over being smart. He doesn’t want to trap us in our moments of dumbness. He believes there is better in us. If He doesn’t, He’s a lousy Father.

Grace is giving people a chance to realize their error and do it again before any punishment has a chance to arrive. Therefore my life isn’t over when God saves my soul. I’m just given a clean sheet of paper to do better scribbling.

Because the people at the front desk decided to be judgmental instead of generous, they ended up paying for a tow that they thought would be levied on me. Such is the end of all vindictiveness.

Let’s learn grace. Grace is when we believe that people still have a chance to do good… because they came from good stock.

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Part VI: And Finally … December 5, 2011

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Live from Fernandina Beach

I always try to give you a good report about my travels and journeys across these United States. Generally speaking, this narrative is positive because most of my experiences are either extremely joyful or at least I find a way to coax some jubilation out of them. But there are times that I go into places and see the effects of religion, politics and desperation on the faces of the people sitting in front of me. It is a strange cocktail of hapless, helpless and hopeless.

Because quite bluntly, my dear friends, if you tell people there is nothing they can do about their situations–that it’s either beyond their pay grade or completely in the hands of God–you will make them feel hapless.  It’s a quiet desperation that eeks out of the eyeballs with a pending sorrow which could, at any moment, produce a bit of rage.

And if you tell people they are hapless for too long, they will begin to abandon all of their talents and walk around in a coma like the living dead, feeling totally helpless. Helpless people resent the notion of solution. Helpless people are angry with those who appear to be doing well. Helpless people find testimonies of God’s grace to be annoying rather than uplifting. Helpless people like to discourage any attempt at transformation and revival in favor of maintaining a unsatisfying status quo.

 

And if you keep helpless people in an environment that is always in a state of flux, like our world is, they will most assuredly become hopeless. And hopeless folks are self-destructive and don’t mind spreading their mayhem out to others.

 

So if we’re going to change this, we have to empower people with a message that tells them they are not without resource or absent ability; and not only do they possess these gifts but it is actually anticipated that they use them and multiply them. They can no longer hide behind a sense of inadequacy, pretending that their particular brand of depression gives them a pass from participation. They need to be encouraged.

 

This is exactly why I believe that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

 

1. Jesus knows the hearts of people. We are a baffling, befuddling, bewildering and bewitching blend of ego and power. But you do not separate ego from power in the onset. You must allow them to coincide until accomplishment proves that skill is available and then it will be time to teach humility. I just don’t see the power of instructing people in humility when they haven’t yet established that they can do anything. Humility is the virtue of those who are accomplished, not those who are inept. Jesus allowed people to experiment with their abilities and then he challenged them that ego was unnecessary because the fruit of their labors screamed their prowess much louder than any stump speech ever could.

 

2. Jesus despises religion. Why? Because religion keeps people hapless–overly dependent–which makes them feel helpless and at the mercy of the world around them, which then renders them hopeless and angry at the world, taking it out on its inhabitants. Religion waits for a heavenly pay-off without any earthly investment. Religion weakens the human spirit instead of manifesting it. I use the word “despise” because Jesus didn’t hate religion, as if it were some powerful force to be reckoned with, but rather, just found it despicable. In other words, religion is unable to deliver any of its promises, but insists on being worshipped.

 

3. Jesus marvels at faith.  And faith is when we teach people to take the mustard seed they have and instead of pocketing it, plant it in the nearest soil and then do everything possible to use effort towards the second mile. No one ever became exhausted from pursuing excellence. There is just too much energy infused into us through that quest for us ever to sense weariness. On the other hand, we do become exhausted, waiting for something to happen that never comes our way, because we didn’t plant our mustard seed, nor did we pursue the second mile.

 

4. Jesus believes in the Father. Matter of fact, he made a very bold statement. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by me.” I suppose you can pursue other paths to God–or gods–or even religious fervency, but the only path to the Father is Jesus. And the only way to truly understand the divine nature of a creator who inserted his own image into his offspring is to realize that He truly is a Daddy. I don’t know if there are other paths to heaven and I don’t care, because quite bluntly, if I can’t find a way to enjoy my journey here on earth and live in a household of a Father who loves me, why would I want to spend eternity with this being? I know this–Jesus came to show us the Father, to reveal the Father, to talk about the Father and culminated his ministry by saying that he was one with the Father.

 

So who is God? The closest representation we have is Jesus–and we know that he knew the hearts of people, despised religion, marveled at faith and taught us of the Father. Can you imagine what would happen if ONE church in a single community decided to abandon the futility of religious practice and simply taught these four principles to those who would dare gather and have an ear to hear? We would remove hapless, replacing it with intelligence. People would no longer feel helpless, but instead, empowered by the gifts God has given them. And hopelessness would be out of the question because enthusiasm would spring out of our souls over the successes we would be experiencing through communion with our Father.

 

intelligent, empowered and enthusiastic. Do you really believe that these three emotional energy boosts would be against God’s will? Of course not.

 

So Jesus IS the same. It’s just that we’ve changed … to become religious instead of like him.

 

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Here comes Christmas! For your listening pleasure, below is Manger Medley, Jonathan’s arrangement of Away in the Manger, which closes with him singing his gorgeous song, Messiah.  Looking forward to the holidays with you!