Jonathots Daily Blog
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Old people don’t like to change.
Perhaps better stated, older folks think they’ve done all the changing they need to do.
It fascinates G-Pop that we spend so much time trying to appease the tastes, mentality and standards of individuals who have basically retired their dispositions, and use much of their gray matter considering longevity.
Perhaps it’s the fact that once we’re given our first prescription for high blood pressure and cholesterol, we are forever lost to discussing our treatments. Is it because older folks accumulated all the savings bonds and property, and seem to be in power?
The wealth of our nation actually lies in the elasticity of young minds–the flexibility of those who have not yet determined what color they would like their den to be painted.
It’s why Jesus said that the message of the Gospel is geared to the child-like mind, and only those who are willing to acquire such thinking can truly comprehend it. It is also why Jesus said you can’t put new wine into old wineskins. When the fermentation produces expansion, the old skins literally explode.
Yet children are relegated to a status of property, propaganda and proof of our prowess and parenting. So we ask:
- What are your grades?
- What do you like about school?
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- What do you think of your teachers?
We trap our offspring into a prison of education and tell them not to contact us until they’ve graduated reformed. So they mimic us. It’s what they’re taught to do.
So rather than having a cultural and social revolution with every generation, causing us to grow in intelligence and openness to one another, we implant the prejudice and bigotry of the former generation firmly into the minds of those who are haplessly controlled by us because they live in our homes and feast at our tables.
We’re missing an opportunity. And because we’re ignoring it, we are condemning ourselves to more wars in the same areas of the world–just with new names.
Teach your children. Teach them well.
Otherwise they’ll end up with their father’s hell.
And here’s what G-Pop thinks we should teach them:
1. Love people.
There is no better species due to arrive. You can live with the monkeys or dine with the lions, but you will eventually find that their habits are even worse than your brothers and sisters living next door. People are the best that God offers us. If you’re upset about it, contact the Creator. He has not made a more magnificent contraption, and there is no sign that He’s upgrading the model. Love people or die complaining.
2. Respect people.
Get rid of your color charts. Get rid of your expectations. Keep your moral code to yourself. If you have a plan of salvation, enjoy it, but don’t force feed it to anyone else. Every human being is given three square feet of influence, and once you step out of your own, realize you are trespassing. Don’t be surprised if you get shot.
3. Work with people.
Working with people is easy. You listen, then you try. Just make sure that the trying is a test and not selling out completely. In other words, if you’re going to dye a piece of cloth, it’s a good idea to cut off a small unit and try the dye on it first, to see how it takes. As long as we’re willing to be wrong, working with people can be quite fun. But when we insist that we “have to be right” because we’re invested in the project and therefore need to make excuses for the failure–then we become obnoxious paper clip counters.
It’s rather doubtful that you can take anyone over the age of forty-five on a journey to love people, respect people and work with people.
Pick your target market. It will be the children of the Earth who still don’t have enough assets to sit on their asses.
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G-Poppers … February 23rd, 2018
Jonathots Daily Blog
(3592)
G-Pop looked on with a bit of sadness as social media lit up with posts about evangelist Billy Graham.
Many of them were cruel. Matter of fact, an inordinate number were laced with vindictive language and resentment against the deceased Reverend.
He lived for ninety-nine years, so trying to abridge his life into one space of time is completely impossible. So the last generation only has insights on the occasional press release which came from his home in North Carolina and the actions of his son, Franklin Graham.
G-Pop feels the same way about Billy Graham as he does about Michael Jackson. G-Pop is not sure either one of them would appreciate the comparison, but every person’s life, including Michael and Billy, comes down to two questions.
What did he or she do?
What did he or she miss?
Can it be as simple as the good doings outweighing the bad, which means someone ends up righteous?
Yes. Any other standard would be prejudicial.
What did Billy Graham do? He preached the Gospel to the whole world. Granted, it was a particular gospel–focused mainly on repenting of sin, accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior and being baptized. Therefore he missed the greater glories of the Gospel of Jesus:
Michael Jackson arguably wrote the most unique blend of R & B and pop music ever penned. The tunes were filled with humanity, generosity, giving, joy and tolerance. We also have to note that he missed the opportunity to learn to love himself or accept who he was, and in the process may have accidentally damaged the lives of some young people because he was abused as a child.
Billy Graham stayed married to the same woman and was never involved in a sexual scandal throughout his entire ministry.
Yet he missed the opportunity to link arms with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and failed to encourage the South to join the North, East and West to accept civil rights in this country.
He missed the moment when the gay community sought equality as citizens, and instead evaluated them by his moral code and traditions, dating back thousands of years.
Michael Jackson was generous, childlike and desperately tried to address world hunger while simultaneously destroying himself through drug abuse.
It would be terrible if Dr. Billy Graham were to be known as “Billy Graham Cracker.”
Just as horrible would be “Michael Jackson, child molester.”
G-Pop thinks both of these men established that they had hearts to do more good than bad. The weakness of each one showed up at poor times in their personal histories, but with confidence, G-Pop will continue to respect their journeys.
So every time G-Pop hears the old hymn, “Just as I am without one plea,” he will think of the love, efforts and mission of Billy Graham of North Carolina.
And when G-Pop hears Beat It, Billy Jean and Man in the Mirror, his eyes will tear up over the memory of one of the greatest talents that ever inhabited the Earth.
If G-Pop expects this same quarter when he dies–to be evaluated by what he’s done, minus what he missed, hoping for a positive total–then he must first extend that grace to others.
We must first extend that grace to others.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this inspirational opportunity
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on February 23, 2018 at 3:55 pm Leave a CommentTags: abundant life, abuse, Beat It, Billy Graham, Billy Graham Cracker, Billy Jean, child molestor, Civil Rights, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., drug abuse, evangelist, Franklin Graham, G-Poppers, gay community, grace, judging others, just as I am, Man in the Mirror, Michael Jackson, moral code, North Carolina, personal savior, politics, pop music, prejudicial, R & B, repenting, resentment, sadness, sexual scandal, social media, tolerance, world hunger