Jonathots Daily Blog
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That Can Be Learned by Reading the Story of Joseph from Genesis, Chapters 37 – 50
1. The ever-present danger of pride impersonating confidence
2. The necessity of perseverance instead of drowning in self-pity
Jesonian … May 26th, 2018
Jonathots Daily Blog
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The key to success is a smart start.
Human beings fail because they start out on the wrong path, but determine to stick to the plan instead of changing their steps and beginning again. Sometimes it’s good to be perseverant, but often it’s like throwing marshmallows at a brick wall.
Jesonian is finding the heart of Jesus. His goal was to gain total humanity, while simultaneously using his spirit to “show us the Father.” Therefore, it is wise to tap his experiences.
You don’t have to go past the first verse of his manifesto–the Sermon on the Mount–to uncover what Jesus believed to be the key to attaining full awareness and a completed life:
“Blessed are those who know they are spiritually poor.” Thus: Find your weakness, discover your strength.
This is completely opposite from the way we are trained. The media thrust is always, “Find your strength, deny your weakness.” In other words, play up what you can do and play down what you can’t.
Yet what happens when we fail to deliver? We feel compelled to deceive. Otherwise, it may appear that we do not have enough self-esteem to carry the day.
There are two things the human race admires: humility and competence. This is why Jesus told us to lead with an awareness of our own weakness. “He that will gain his life will lose it.”
Why? When our claims are proven false and we fail, looking incompetent, we become defensive, which removes all semblance of humility. “He that would lose his life for my sake will gain it.”
Can we establish an inventory? Can we do it humbly? And then, can we give a competent performance which grows to excellence, startling our critics and increasing our value?
In today’s “super-church” promotion, we have the ongoing premise that “we are all great–we’re just waiting for the enemies in front of us to be destroyed by God’s hand, so that our miracle can be manifested.”
This may get you a hoot and holler in Houston, but it does not give you the kind of start in your life that is sustainable. “Blessed are those who know they’re spiritually poor.”
I am not good at spiritual things. I’m just a few steps out of the jungle, granted a larger brain than the ape and a soul provided by God, which I am still trying to comprehend.
Acknowledging my status launches me into discovery of what talents, gifts, abilities and attitudes I can muster, developing them into strengths to counter my weakness.
The power is in our weakness because once established, it opens the door to progress.
If we lead with strength, then when our weakness shows up, we appear to be insipid liars.
Yes, being Jesonian is making a choice.
Will you follow the folly? Or will you pursue the wisdom of one who came to learn human life, show us God, and empower us to make this journey more and more like heaven on Earth?
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Jesonian: Reasonable (Part 13) Logic … February 28th, 2016
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Logic is knowing what to use, how much to apply, how long to pursue and who to involve.
Logic is often avoided because people want to revere words like “faith” or “perseverance.”
Unfortunately, because we’re human beings, we often ignore logic–not out of some noble venture of scanning the heavens but rather, due to a stubborn nature or lazy disposition.
There are even those who contend that if they are true believers in a Divine Being, they must reject logic in favor of hope.
But in the Jesonian, we have the balance: it’s knowing when to apply the right measure of faithful effort.
For sometimes …
1. Let it pay out.
In other words, get your hands on it.
It’s not anybody else’s business but yours. It is in the scope of your ability. It is part of your daily bread. It is the talent that has been given to you, which needs to be multiplied. It is God, sitting back in his easy chair in heaven, waiting for you to take authority.
It is important to know when we are supposed to get our hands on it and mold it into something beautiful.
2. Let it play out.
Get your hands off of it.
Once it has become obvious that our input is counterproductive or useless, the quicker we abandon the present dilemma and move on, the better the chance that the Natural Order can play it out and good things can be born.
We spend too much time arguing at walls about why they are there. We are not called to knock down walls. We are to avoid the walls, and let Mother Nature tear down the barricade.
People ask me what I think about certain issues. Truthfully, I don’t. They are often anti-human, anti-kindness, anti-wisdom and certainly anti-logic.
My job is to let it play out and get my hands off of it.
3. Let it pray out.
Get God’s hands on it.
There is a gap between what we are able to achieve and what needs to be done. It is what the Good Book calls the “need” that God is prepared to supply.
God will always give us wisdom and strength, and sometimes it is His good pleasure to give us the Spirit to intervene on behalf of humanity.
When something is important and your hands cannot touch it, and other hands need to be removed from it, then put it in God’s hands.
This three-part anointing of logic will suit you well in everyday life–just by simply posing the question:
Whose hands are needed here?
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Jesonian: Reasonable (Part 10) Resilience … February 7th, 2016
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Your personal resilience is truly a great gift you can impart to yourself, and even a greater blessing to bestow upon others.
Walking through life believing that you’re going to overcome all difficulty through perseverance or prayer is a cruel and unusual punishment.
Life never intended to please you. This is reasonable. Life actually offers a blank canvas which occasionally arrives already marred.
There are five tribulations which are common in the human experience. Failure to realize this causes us to develop a childish mentality. It begins this way:
I plan something.
Reaction 1: Inconvenience. In other words, something came up.
I’m sure you know people who become exasperated over inconvenience, when it is actually the least pernicious of the five tribulations. If I am going to be a reasonable human being, possessing resilience, I must be prepared to evolve.
Because often, after inconvenience comes obstacle. Something is in the way.
I’ve never had a plan that didn’t require some adjustment. It is inevitable.
And obstacles often lead to resistance. Someone is disagreeing.
Truthfully, I can’t think of any statement you could make without having someone disagree with it. This is why each and every one of us must make sure that we actually believe in what we’re doing and we’re ready to reason with our adversaries instead of attacking them.
And I’m sure you are fully aware that resistance can lead to criticism. That’s when those who disagree with you decide to take a stand against you.
Butting one’s head against the wall is what produces headaches. When I run across people who are against what I’m doing and reasoning has failed to reach them, I know it is time to relocate. A plan that fails to work in Location 1 might work better in Location 2, where you don’t have to struggle with your enemies.
And finally, you can run across downright refusal. Progress is blocked.
This is when you must count the cost and have a Plan B ready, which honors Plan A, but separates itself enough from the original idea that those who have blocked your “A game” plan are ill-prepared to prohibit the new idea.
For instance, I’m not so sure that Jesus was supposed to die on a cross, but when human beings became hypocritical and religious, God had a Plan B to grant us salvation.
Resilience is knowing that inconvenience, obstacles, resistance, criticism and even refusal loom on the horizon.
Those who are reasonable in the Spirit have prepared for such eventualities by evolving, adjusting, reasoning, relocating or if necessary, even implementing Plan B.
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Ask Jonathots … September 24th, 2015
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It seems to me that you only win in life if you’re aggressive. For instance, Donald Trump, who is extremely defensive and cutting, leads in the Republican polls. I’m not asking you to talk about politics, just answer this question: how can Jesus suggest that we get anywhere by “turning the other cheek?” Or is he just talking about the afterlife?
I think the problem in most people’s thinking is that they like to characterize certain words as positive or negative. Putting it in simpler terms, most folks would consider passive to be the opposite of aggressive.
But the issue is not whether we should be aggressive. The issue is, to whom?
You are absolutely correct–aggression expressed to others as a means of domination or for generating payback is not only non-spiritual, but also generally considered, in the long run, to be a lame choice.
Yet we are certainly supposed to be aggressive to ourselves. Intertwined in the teachings of Jesus is a strong motivational message to go the second mile, be perfect even as the Father in Heaven is perfect, and take care of the beam in your own eye instead of worrying about the mote in your brother’s eye.
The foible in humans is that we would much rather be aggressive toward other people’s weaknesses than our own.
Donald Trump is characterized as aggressive, but he isn’t alone. There is a general consensus in our society that we can achieve success by–pardon the expression–“trumping” others. Nothing could be further from the truth.
After all, insult may be the only word that never requires a period. As long as an insult is hanging in the air, it’s just awaiting the arrival of the next insult.
So what does it mean–to be aggressive to yourself?
1. Take an inventory.
Consider what you actually can do instead of what you want to do, and then work on those talents.
2. Practice what you want to achieve until you reach the point that you don’t have to make excuses for your shortcomings.
There will still be failures but you want to make sure they are not caused by your lack of perseverance.
3. Don’t compare your work to the work of others.
Compare it to your own vision and what you desire to achieve.
The Jesonian life–a life following Jesus–is an aggressive one–but not in relationship to our judgment and critique of others.
Rather, in our own passion to perfect our ways … and learn how to go the second mile.
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The Alphabet of Us: P is for Passion… March 23, 2015
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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.
Passion is the flesh we put on the spirit of our faith. It is the visible sign that we are involved and enthusiastic about our own convictions.
It has two parts, and each unit requires the other for the passion to be real, workable and acceptable in the human tribe: perseverance and peace.
- If our passion has too much perseverance and lacks peace, we will be dissatisfied with our present conditions and greatly inhibit our progress by coming across too aggressive or too grumpy.
- If we have too much peace, we cut ourselves slack and retreat from challenge because it seems to rob us of our gentle solitude.
Passion is perseverance and peace wed in a matrimony of lust for good things.
It is expressed in this way: “I am chasing my goal and I will not give up, but will have joy with where I am while I pursue.”
In other words, “I want it, but I don’t need it; I enjoy while I seek.”
Human beings without passion begin to settle for circumstances and even ideals which are comfortable rather than transforming. Yet passion has to be grounded in the common sense that comprehends that if we do not find a sense of balance in our everyday lives which produces good cheer, we will find ourselves unworthy of opportunity knocking at our door.
Very simply, no one wants to bless someone who is cursing the world, and no one thinks to offer a new chance to an individual who appears unmotivated.
Human beings need passion.
It is when we use our perseverance to generate the peace which allows us to continue to be perseverant.
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Why I Come … June 16, 2014
Jonathots Daily Blog
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“What caused you to come to our little town?”
I hear this question everywhere I go.
I guess there’s some sort of assumption that I should be elsewhere or some place the inquirer deems to be more important. Yet I learned a long time ago–it’s not about where you go. It’s about what you do when you get there.
After all, we have a dual responsibility in life: to enter the doors that are open and to make sure when we finish, we leave behind blessing.
I have two reasons for coming and going in my life. They haven’t changed in forty years. Although they’re not always compatible with the inclinations society’s trend, I refuse to change them, because the quality they bring to my life and to those around me is undeniable.
1. I come so that people can have life and it abundantly.
Yes, I enjoy arriving in situations where people have given up on the excitement of just being alive and allowing a fresh stream of consciousness to re-baptize them with the joy of living.
“Abundant life” is when you’re no longer afraid of the change that certainly must come. You know you have the ability to love and be loved.
2. I come that your joy may be full.
Joy is underrated. It is a happiness we select because we know that temporary set-backs are always transformed by patience, perseverance and purpose.
God is in control. In other words, He has established a beautiful universe and a natural order, and if we learn it, it will feed us instead of attack us.
This is why I come–and you would think, with such a universal message of gentleness and encouragement, that I would be welcomed with open arms and a sense of anticipation everywhere I go.
But as long as there are individuals who gain strength by hurting others or limiting the capacity of their fellow-humans, I will have my enemies.
I know who they are, and I know where they are. But as Jesus requested, I love them too.
I have come to bring abundant life, with the aspiration that joy can be made full.
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