Good News and Better News… May 29th, 2017

 Jonathots Daily Blog

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There is something of a phenomenon going on in our society. Yet it is not phenomenal. That would connote it possesses goodness.

Somewhere along the line–maybe fifty or sixty years ago–people began gauging history from the time of their birth.

It’s getting worse and worse. Matter of fact, many younger humans will pop off and tell you, “That was before my time”–as if it does not matter or it might not happen again.

This came to my mind Thursday night when I was at a music rehearsal. I introduced the participants to a song by Dottie Rambo. One of them said they didn’t know the song and another piped up, “Most people don’t know who Dottie Rambo is.”

It angered me–not just because this fine woman wrote hundreds of well-known gospel songs, but also because she was instrumental in integrating American gospel music.

In the early seventies, there was a complete segregation in the music field between what was known as Black gospel and Southern gospel. When a young man of color, Andrae Crouch, began his group, “The Disciples” out in Los Angeles, he introduced contemporary Christian music to the nation. It spread like wildfire.

Everywhere except the Southern gospel community.

Oh, yes, there were a couple of groups who recorded the songs, but there was strong resistance to inviting Andrae to the National Quartet Convention, which was more or less the Mecca of gospel music at the time.

It was Dottie Rambo who stood up for Andrae Crouch, traveled with him and even encouraged him to record one of her songs.

It took about one year.

At one convention Andrae was not welcome, and by the next convention he was invited and tore the house down.

You see, the good news is that things can change.

And the better news is that if we become involved and have a sense of history, we will learn that it is individuals who create the change.

Not committees.

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Populie 2: Everybody’s a Winner … February 5, 2014

Jonathots Daily Blog

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When popular opinion yearns to promote an idea pleasing to the masses, that generates “warm and fuzzy feelings, ” then politics, religion and entertainment get behind the notion, propelling it forward, even if it’s necessary to create a lie or two in order to maintain the enthusiasm.

Thus, Populie.

And one of the most interesting presentations of this phenomenon is the abiding, insistent and seemingly heavenly energized commandment that “everybody’s a winner.”

• Politics loves it because it makes the electorate feel content in itself.
• Religion embraces it because everything can be drenched in the grace of God, and congregations don’t have to be challenged to excellence.
• Entertainment imbues its plots with the precept because it allows them to always have the delightful Hollywood ending.

I call it “emotional marijuana.”

Put up the smoke screen of equality based upon “just what we’re doing and nothing more,” in order for everybody to munch Fritos while watching reruns of Star Trek.

But let me take you on a brief journey. May we call it a Tale of Two Stories? They are found in the Good Book. Listed twice, some people think they are the same parable being perceived by different authors. But I don’t think so.

The first rendition is a revelation about a king who goes off to a far country and leaves money behind for his servants. Each one receives–well, let us say $1,000. He gives them no instructions; merely entrusts his finance to their good care. But upon returning, they discover that he had thoroughly anticipated that they would take the funds, invest it wisely and bring back dividend.

The second story is similar–but this traveling monarch selects to give $5000 to one fellow, $2000 to another and $1000 to the remaining servant, based upon their abilities.

So here’s what I derive from these two delightful tellings:

Everyone is born with life. No one is better than anyone else.

Then culture comes along–circumstances, abuse, blessing, passion, discipline, parenting, neglect, and all other factors involved in the process of human beings growing to adulthood. It is in this phase that we develop both our abilities and our predilections.

So the truth of the matter is, if we don’t teach people to be adequately competitive, energetically involved, avidly pursuing betterment, they will make the same error as the folks in these parables from the Good Book, who hide their lives and talents due to fear of failure.

So we have a two-step process which needs to be promoted if we want to improve the planet:

1. We need to admit that No One is better than anyone else. By birth, our Creator made us equal by giving us life.
2. Then we must understand that without inserting a voracious desire to be successful and to use that benefit to enrich our own lives as well as the lives of others, we stall people–not only in their finance, but in their emotional, mental and spiritual ascension to the best that earthly life can offer.

The Populie is, “Everybody’s a winner–even when they lose.”

The truth is, “Everybody’s a loser if they don’t at least attempt to win.”

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity

Click for details on the SpirTed 2014 presentation

Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about scheduling SpiriTed in 2014.

click to hear music from Spirited 2014

Parallel Universe … October 21, 2013

Jonathots Daily Blog

(2042)

“What are the cool kids doing?”

I thought that question would be a phenomenon of high school and would disappear, or at least dissipate, in importance when I entered the unknown realm of “Grown-ups-ville.” Now that I’ve occupied that territory as a resident for several decades, I will tell you that we are still oppressed, possessed and obsessed by “what the cool kids do.”

Perhaps the most annoying factor in this scenario is the process by which we determine who the cool kids ARE. Normally three ingredients:

1. Popularity
2. Money
3. What they get by with

So much to my chagrin, as I travel across the country, I see perfectly wonderful, kind people under the spell of a temporary haze of confusion by a political arena that is back-biting and ferocious and a spirituality which only offers flavors in bubblegum and castor oil.

It is most unfortunate.

It is rather doubtful if we will be able to deter people from chasing the ways of the cool kids. Our only hope would be to change the roster of that particular group of people.

Yes, to a certain degree we are all victims of this quandary, in which we have a tendency to imitate the people in our society who have power, money and who get away with things, performing it in our own little homespun three-act play.

So churches, organizations and even families are plagued with much more bickering, fussiness and dogmatic attitudes because we are told by our media pundits that this is the “way of the world” and is the best avenue for getting what you want.

It will take some awfully brave people to counteract this misery. Therefore I woke up this morning and asked myself: who do I want to be?

I guess I would like to have the strength of an ox.

I chose the ox NOT because of the age-old reputation, but because the creature is deliberate, mighty and uncomplaining. For I’m sure that an ox has aches and pains, but nothing will deter it from its labor.

For me, I want the mind of Jesus.

Why? It blends wit and tenderness, which will win the day if given the opportunity to perform.

I guess I would like to have the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.

For as you study his life, you realize he was a gentle soul with an iron will, a sense of humor and more questions than answers about his faith. There’s a healthiness to that which keeps your spirituality moving forward instead of settling into your favorite pew.

And emotionally, I would like to be the perfect merger of a child and a soldier:

The simplicity of a child’s curiosity and honest about my own needs, and the bravery of a soldier, who realizes that sometimes my wants are negated by reality, and I need to march on.

Where I see these attributes in my society, I will praise them. Where I don’t, I will avoid them.

• I want to be a strong ox
• with the mind of the son of God
• and the spirit of an emancipator
• while sporting the simplicity of a child and the courage of a soldier.

This creates my parallel universe to our present earth-bound logic.

If you’re looking, that is where you’ll find me.

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity

Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about personal appearances or scheduling an event

Flawed and Blessed… September 25, 2013

Jonathots Daily Blog

(2017)

A rather new phenomenon. At least, I think so.

I can’t remember a time in my four-decade career when people have led so persistently with their diagnoses.

Perhaps that’s a bit unclear. Here’s what I mean: when I meet new human beings, within a very short time they tell me what ails them, the name of their condition, their treatment, and sometimes even the conclusion.

Now, this is not limited to older people. Younger folks do the same thing, although sometimes it will be proffered from their parents standing nearby.

To a certain degree I think our society has become the victim of “diagnosis-hocus-pocus.” Rather than coming to the conclusion that we’re just human beings, and therefore an amazing collage of “flawed” and “blessed,” we are beginning to establish our distinction based upon the uniqueness of conditions.

I, too, received a diagnosis–actually, several of them–about eighteen years ago. I don’t share these. Why? Because pity in no way resembles respect, and sympathy is a horrible substitute for love. But if pity and sympathy are what you want, then having a nearly unpronounceable illness might be valuable.

I know this could be misinterpreted as an attack against the medical field, or some sort of assertion on my part that “we should not be so concerned about our health.” I do believe in modern medicine and am quite aware that ailments exist, even to the point of tormenting my brothers and sisters.

But I just think that how we feel cannot be the impetus for what we are.

We are all flawed–and if we develop a sense of joy about being alive, we can persevere and achieve blessing.

I, like all my fellow-travelers, could describe my aches and pains and keep you busy for a good hour and a half. But there’s a wonderful statement in the Good Book that says, “Let everything be done to the edification of all.”

I just don’t think anyone is edified by hearing me complain. I don’t think humanity grows by realizing my weaknesses.

Somewhere along the line, each one of us has to walk away from a diagnosis and move toward a prognosis of living on with a little hurt.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t take treatment–but I am saying that when treatment overtakes your desire to excel, multiply your talents and love life and the folks around you, you’ve already put one foot in the grave.

• Not every child who is hyperactive needs medication.
• Not ever skin rash is a sign that we are allergic to forty-four different chemicals.
• Not every headache is a brain tumor.
• And not every sore knee means that you should be wheeled into surgery and turned into an android.

All of us are graciously flawed and blessed–flawed in order to truly appreciate the value of our blessing; and blessed so that we don’t spend so much time thinking about our flaws.

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity

Please contact Jonathan’s agent, Jackie Barnett, at (615) 481-1474, for information about personal appearances or scheduling an event