Jonathots Daily Blog
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That Make for a Good Diet, Body and Soul
1. Don’t spend so much time chewing the fat
2. Avoid too much artificial sweet
1 Thing That Would Make It Easier to Get Along with Each Other
Weakness
Unfortunately, we all seem to be terrified with the freakishness of meekness that seems to rob us of uniqueness.
So to remain strong, we will cry, try and even lie.
So what does this mean? “When you are weak you are strong.”
What is this devilish double-talk?
We are much more transparent than we wish were true.
In other words, people are already suspicious that we have weakness.
- Attempts to cover it up become comical.
- Efforts to deny it make us appear to be carnival fools.
You are weak. If you know this, it becomes your strength.
Why? Because you can be in charge of letting others understand your emerging nature. But if you insist on being strong when there’s an obvious weakness, not only will it be found, but those around you will work very hard to uncover and expose it—so they, themselves, can disguise their own weakness.
So do you want to make it easier, or do you demand on it continuing to be hard?
What should I do with my weakness?
- Admit it.
- Work with it.
- Rejoice in it.
I am weak, but even though I have a weakness, it has not stopped me. By continuing through that weakness, I have done things I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to get finished, so I am grateful.
Are you weak too? Do you have a weakness?
Are you able to speak it aloud, or must it be exploited in the town square and ridiculed?
Weakness is what makes us strong if we admit it, work with it and rejoice in it.
Things I Learned from R. B.
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Episode 5
R. B. really liked girls.
They did not share his interest.
There were many reasons for this.
First and foremost, R. B. had an opinion on almost everything, which he spoke clearly and loudly, leaving little room for input or variation on his stance.
He also thought of himself as being macho, trotting through rehearsal camp without a shirt, which might have been effective had he not sported the motif of skin and bones.
He was very religious, making it clear that women were equals except when they were married. Then they needed to be submissive to their husbands.
And finally, he maintained the hygiene standards of a twenty-four-year-old single man whose mother apparently gave up on confronting him in his early teens.
This did not stop him from trying.
The female members of the cast often looked over at me haplessly, wishing I would stop R. B. from flirting. I did occasionally step in when it was obvious that his overtures border-lined on verbal rape. But R. B. never missed a beat.
Then one of the sponsors of our show caught wind that we had gay men as choreographers. Even though these “sodomites” had left, during the process of their departure, they had outed our producer as a “penis preferrer.”
The sponsor was outraged. He requested a meeting with me to find out what I planned on doing with this obvious sinfulness in the organization. I invited the cast to the meeting so they would be privy to all conversations, with nothing done behind their backs.
The premise was simple.
My sponsor, who was named Tim, was telling me about my producer, who, ironically, was also named Tim, accusing him of being “homo.”
Tim, the sponsor, assumed that once I understood the situation, I would kick my friend and producer to the curb, restoring righteousness to the surroundings. He also let me know that the other sponsors, who were not as religious as he was, also did not approve of the producer’s lifestyle.
When Sponsor Tim was finished talking about Producer Tim, I sat and stared at the cast. I was curious to see if anyone would speak up.
They sat quietly. It was an era when, even if you disagreed with the treatment of homosexuals in America, you had a tendency to keep your mouth shut so as not to uncork the wrath of the religious right. Also, the mental health professionals of the time considered same-sex relationships to be “aberrant behavior.”
R. B., who had never lacked a prejudice or two, spoke right up, saying, “I think that Tim has to go.”
Feeling some need for comic relief, I patted the sponsor on the back and said, “Tim, you don’t have to go.”
There was a much-needed laugh in the room. However, it was quickly swallowed by the monster of intolerance.
R. B. did not think I was funny.
“You know what I’m saying!” he said. “We can’t have a homosexual working for us and think that God’s going to bless!”
Bouncing off R. B.’s theory, I asked the cast, “Do you think Jesus would kick the homo to the curb?”
You could tell they wanted to say no, but remained mute—like we all do when yellow seems to be our favorite color.
Sponsor Tim pursued. “You know I admire you,” he said to me. “I know you’ll do the right thing.”
“Thank you for that,” I said. “Truthfully, Tim, I don’t know what the right thing is. But I know what the right thing is for me. I’m looking at something called loyalty. I don’t know how immoral it is to be a homosexual, but I do know how immoral it is to be disloyal to a friend. The only reason you’re sitting here tonight talking to me is because my friend, Tim the Homosexual, believed in this project, got investors, and even arranged for this beautiful facility wherein we sit. I consider that to be good fruit—and since I know that good fruit doesn’t come from a bad tree, I think I’m going to stand with my buddy and keep working with him out of loyalty, because I consider it to be true morality.”
Tim the Sponsor glared at me like I had just been belched on the beach by a huge whale. There was the inkling in the room to applaud, but it was quelled by provincialism.
R. B. stood up and left.
Amazingly, Sponsor Tim accepted my stance and said that because he loved me, he would honor my decision and not interfere. If you think about it, that was remarkable.
After the meeting, R. B. came into the room, where I was alone.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to quit the play,” he said.
I didn’t say a word. After a long pause, he continued. “Sin is sin and wrong is wrong. Even if we think we’re defending for the right reason, evil still lurks to destroy us.”
As brave as I had been with Tim the Sponsor, I suddenly was worried that I was about to lose a cast member nine days out from the premiere. I buckled.
“Listen, R. B. Give me a break,” I said. “I’ll check into this. If there’s truth to it, we’ll cross it when we get to it. Okay?”
R. B. peered at me for a moment and then sprouted a smile. He stood to his feet, hugged me and sauntered out of the room.
All at once, I realized that he had never intended to quit. He just really enjoyed threatening.
1 Thing Every Political Candidate Fails to Do but You Can Overcome
MAKE THE TRANSITION ON YOUR POSITION
Yes, the healthiest way to live life and be current, successful and relevant is to develop the “with and therefore” philosophy:
- With the information provided to me
- And my understanding of human nature, I
- Therefore support the following
Politicians are so afraid of changing their premises that they break their promises.
We constantly evolve through new data. Even human nature is experiencing growth—so therefore, we occasionally have a revision to our provision and a transition to our position.
Without this, we can find ourselves stubbornly ignorant.
After all, the two deadly doors to ignorance are:
A. Refusing to learn
B. Refusing to change
You end up looking just as ridiculous when you won’t change as you do standing in the corner, rejecting learning.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a politician or not—you must prepare for the fact that information is still being gathered.
Likewise, human nature is in flux.
So therefore, what we begin and how we begin it will certainly need to shift as we go.
If we pass laws with the awareness that new amendments, new additions and even sometimes repeal may be necessary, we would be in a mature profile to face the real problems of our times.
It doesn’t matter whether the issue is abortion, capital punishment, war, immigration, or a thousand other matters. Each one has factual information—a reading from the present humans on Earth—and therefore allows us to make a start of things.
If we take this approach of “with and therefore” we keep ourselves in the game and admit that a good part of our journey is about learning how to be a better Earthling.
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Sit Down Comedy … June 21st, 2019
Jonathots Daily Blog
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God.
Would you stop talking about God?
Unless this God of yours has a goddamn idea on how to overcome this god-awful mediocrity.
I, for one, am fed up with anyone or anything that needs to be worshipped.
I can barely get someone’s attention at McDonald’s.
Where does God get off thinking we should stand up for thirty minutes, sing atrocious songs with insipid lyrics, and feed His ego—when He owns title and lien to the whole mess of the Universe?
And by the way, stop promoting books written by Bedouin prophets who believe that demons cause sickness. (By the way, they don’t.)
No more God talk until we have God walk
Here’s the problem—to be religious, you must buy into religion.
They won’t let you be religious by taking God in your everyday life and trying to love people. You have to purchase the whole package—kind of like a gym membership. You sign on the dotted line, it sounds like a good deal, you think you might be interested. But after you go there and realize you can’t measure up to the clientele who are lifting their heavy burdens, you don’t ever want to go back.
Religion says: God is in heaven.
I say: God is on Earth, or what’s the big deal?
Religion: God is to be worshipped.
But I say unto you: God is a lifestyle—a way of living. Otherwise, if we’re just going to meet Him when we die, why mess around with Him now?
The church says God is a Savior.
I happen to believe that God is life abundantly. He’s just as interested in my pizza choices as He is my Bible study.
They will preach to you that God is a spirit. I happen to believe that God is the person next to me. If I treat him or her poorly, I register “suck” on the meter.
Of course, we’ve all heard that God is contained in the Bible. I will object and say that I think that God is my living word, if I dare to use my words for better living.
God is a Creator? Sure.
But more importantly, God is creating—even strange essays written by folks like me who might perturb those who pursue more of a divine sensibility.
And there are those who feel they can judge other people and tell you that God is Law.
May I proclaim to you that God is love, and if He isn’t, He’s not of much use to us at this point in our history.
OMG.
Stop talking about it, unless you’re prepared to bring something to Show and Tell.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this inspirational opportunity
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3 Things… October 4th, 2018
Jonathots Daily Blog
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That Cause Great Decisions
1. Disconnect your faith.
You have some work to do before you pass it off to heaven.
2. Engage your brain.
Count the cost–see what you have and what you can do with it.
3. Welcome back your faith.
Now you know where you are, so invite help.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly donation for this inspirational opportunity
Jesonian … August 25th, 2018
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Temperamental.
Yes, I do believe that would be the word that the folks of our culture nowadays would attribute to Jesus if they carefully studied his actions and reactions with the human race.
He wasn’t always sweet.
He wasn’t always kind.
He wasn’t always compassionate.
But in reviewing his lifestyle and his personal moods, you get a good glimpse of what the Gospel is truly about instead of what it’s purported to be.
We take great pains to convince people that they’re sinners, but it doesn’t make any difference–God’s grace covers it all. But if the motivations of Jesus are any indication of the mind of God, I think we’re sorely mistaken. After all, Jesus did say he “came to show us the Father.”
Based on that premise, what do we know about God through Jesus?
Jesus had no mercy on incompetence.
When he told the parable of the virgins, he made it clear that they were foolish because they didn’t think ahead and provide enough oil for themselves to last until the bridegroom came.
He also stated that people laugh at anyone who builds a foundation but doesn’t have the time and money to finish it.
And of course, let’s not forget the basic teaching of “counting the cost” before leaping into a project.
Jesus had no mercy for judgmental people.
When the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, Jesus weighed the value of a human being against the sin of adultery, and determined that the soul was more important than the judgment.
He explained the same principle to James and John, who wanted to hurl fireballs from the sky down on the Samaritans. He challenged them, “You don’t know what spirit you are of.”
And Jesus certainly had no mercy on people who were self-piteous.
When the man at the pool insisted that he was too weak to get into the healing waters–that everybody beat him to it–Jesus later told him, “Be careful how you think and what you do, because something worse could befall you.”
And we must understand that Jesus never visited a leper colony. Those who felt sorry for themselves because of their disease never found the healing touch of the Master.
Christianity would prosper if we would let Jesus be Jesus instead of insisting that he fit into the mold of a Christ who salves the Old Covenant while initiating the new one.
Jesus had no mercy for the Old Covenant.
He told them their “house was left desolate,” and that they couldn’t put “new wine into old wineskins.”
Would you call that temperamental?
Maybe not–just impatient with those who make excuses and end up losing the opportunity to be fruitful.
*****
If you like the mind of Jesus without religion, buy the book!
$7.99 plus S&H
*******
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