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1. A complete and truthful understanding of the history of the United States
2. Proof that you have held a minimum wage job, had trouble paying your bills, and worked with people of different races and religions
3. Can openly describe five times when you were wrong and had to change your opinion
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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There is only one culture.
It’s called human.
It possesses two working parts–love and do:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Without this culture permeating the inhabitants of Earth, we naturally become adversarial, and therefore dangerous to one another.
All of that is terrific, as long as you’re willing to join the human culture, which is love and do.
And membership requires that you abandon certain ridiculous notions:
1. You are not exceptional. You are just part of a huge family.
2. You are not better than anyone else.
3. You have not been sent to earth to enlighten the other races and peoples.
4. You are not alone.
5. You are not persecuted, and if you feel you are, please let us know.
G-Pop wants his children to understand that to continue to promote cultural differences which also highlight irreparable schisms among us is to propagate the climate for war.
There is only one culture. The sooner we celebrate that common culture while appreciating each other’s diversity and customs, the better off we will be.
The more often we acknowledge that the only evil is the absence of the good of acceptance and humility, the better our chance will be of peaceful co-existence.
G-Pop speaks plainly. Don’t come to him with an insistence on superiority and think that you will be able to make a case for your uniqueness.
It is in commonality that we find our strength.
And until we realize that whether it’s male or female, Jew or Greek, black or white, Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu or whatever–our only responsibility is to love and do.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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That pretty much concludes everything. At least for now.
Every intelligent creature willing to move toward wisdom is learning. And all learning requires both a willingness to make mistakes and a desire to repent.
After billions of years, the process continues.
It’s not so much that we search for knowledge as that knowledge is waiting for true searchers. And what makes a true searcher?
That’s easy.
Not being afraid to be wrong–or at least mistaken.
Good will come. Evil will challenge. Kingdom will rise against kingdom and nation against nation.
Those who get caught up in the temporary conflict of the moment will soon be forgotten.
The earth is stronger than any of its occupants. The universe has more purpose than any poet can imagine.
But when all has been said and done–and that is unlikely to happen soon–the desire of the heart of the Creator is to bring us back to the Garden.
So how can you make sure that you’re moving toward the Garden instead of glorifying the arid desert?
1. Find enjoyable work.
Stop hanging on the cross, trying to suffer for being a grownup. Once and for all, a crucified man set us all free. Anything you do that avoids joy is wasted breath and exhausting effort.
2. Be equal partners.
Avoid those who make distinctions between men and women, colors and races, religions, sexuality and just general preferences. Equality is the only form of humility that has everlasting power.
3. Honor nature.
The Earth brings forth fruit of itself. Stand back in awe. You are not absent from the process, but rather, included. Don’t abuse your Mother and expect your Father to stand idly by, approving.
4. Meet your Creator at the end of the day and enjoy the cool of the evening.
Life is not a perpetual prayer session nor is it a fit of anger, shaking a fist at the heavens. It is understanding that there is a time for work and a time for commiserating.
5. And finally, choose life over knowledge.
As beautiful as knowledge can be, and as essential as it is to your well-being, it is life that brings you abundance.
So I speak to you:
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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The words are quite stunning.
Though if you stop and think about it, it not only makes sense, but sets in motion a way of thinking, a passage of human heart and a philosophy of life which challenges us to excellence, while providing a plain path.
“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Although this phrase is contained in the famous Lord’s Prayer, and often receives no more notice than other lines within the structure, it really is the heart and essence of the mind of Jesus.
Think about it. What is my job?
To find out what heaven is going to be like and do my best every day to construct a prototype in the life provided around me. In so doing, I achieve two goals:
Where it gets complicated is in trying to summarize heaven to a few ideas instead of getting all caught up in “streets of gold, gates of pearl” and ten thousand years of praise and worship.
I made an attempt. And since I’m in Gatesville, Texas, this weekend, I thought I would share with them the three aspects of heaven I feel are transferrable to earth:
1. God.
I don’t think I want a heaven without God. Gee whiz–I think I could get universal agreement on that. The problem is, God has a speckled reputation. Some people think He’s mean, some would portray him as the hall monitor of morality, and others find him ethereal–floating in the clouds. But after all that gets done, the most universal thing I find about God, and certainly played out through his son, Jesus, is that God is love. Any attempt to portray Him with different light is a dilution of His power.
So if heaven exists with a God of love, it is my mission on earth to bring that love–to myself first and then to others.
2. Unity.
I have good news. There will be no political parties in heaven. No denominations. No races. No religions. All that will survive in the place of Supreme Reward are those who have faith and mercy.
No race. No religion. No politics in heaven.
So it stands to reason that if I want to make a little piece of heaven on earth, I should replicate that in my interactions with my brothers and sisters. I have found a quick way of phrasing that phenomenon. I tell everyone I meet that “NoOne is better than anyone else.” Yes, I bring a bit of eternal life every time I eliminate the differences between people and replace them with similarities.
3. Joy.
Since God will dry all our tears in heaven, it is safe to believe that the greatest gift of eternal life is joy. So I believe it will be the mission in my life–however long I am allowed to stomp about–to teach happiness, live happiness, share happiness and be happiness.
Yes. “Be of good cheer.”
Verily, verily I say unto you, sadness and worry do nothing to aid our dilemmas–just start the misery early.
So I believe heaven will be a place with God, unity and joy.
This morning, in Gatesville, Texas, I will tell people that God is love, and any other representation is afoul.
I will insist they understand that “NoOne is better than anyone else.” To build little boxes for people is the busy project of the devil’s workshop.
And I will certainly espouse joy and tell the dear folk to “be of good cheer.”
It is not of much value to bring earthly fear to earthly creatures who are basically a little lower than the angels and a bit higher than the monkeys.
Bringing heaven is allowing the God of love to unify us in good cheer.
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I was wearing an old pair of running pants and a stretched out T-shirt, certainly a bit askew of GQ.
I was sitting in my chair, waiting for the final tally of the groceries I had selected, when two young boys came walking by, one of the lads poking his friend in the ribs, pointing at my protruding belly and laughing. The other young man seemed completely uninterested, so they scampered on their way, with the first little guy maintaining his chuckle.
There was a time in my life when I was quite aggravated by such youthful assaults. But on this particular day I didn’t give it another thought. I realized that the reason I did not give it much attention was not that I had “grown in maturity,” but because it has lessened in occurrence. Yes, over the years, as a fat man, I have observed less giggling from bored youngsters than once was the case.
I was suddenly struck with a great wave of gratitude–because in this time, when people are complaining so ferociously about all the difficulties and “simmering pots,” it is nice every once in a while, to look back and realize that we have made some human progress.
For instance, it used to be in this country that people of different races couldn’t date, marry or be together without receiving ridicule and persecution. Not so much anymore.
In our history–quite recent, may I add–it was a favorable thing to segregate and even do harm to those who did not exactly match our skin hue. Not so much now.
Catholics and Protestants in Ireland massacred one another at one time, in the name of Jesus Christ, to establish the dominance of their spirituality. Not so much.
Water supplies in towns across America were questionable in their quality because there were no restrictions on certain contaminants. Not so much.
Litter filled the highways with trash as a scar on our nation’s landscape. Not so much.
Politicians were able to get by with numerous scams and scandals without ever being caught by a press corps that was often in the back pocket of big corporations. Not so much.
Religion was blindly accepted for all of its inadequacies instead of being questioned and challenged to be productive in the human environment. Not so much.
Children were to be “seen and not heard”–set aside and basically ignored unless they were extraordinarily accomplished or equally in the other direction, naughty. Not so much.
Catsup was considered to be a vegetable by national leaders, who were gradually turning all of our children into guinea pigs for commercial poison. Not so much.
I just paused as I sat there and waited for my groceries, which are now so easy to purchase and much simpler to carry in their bags than they used to be, and was grateful that the little boy who ran by me with his ridicule was in a minority. Somewhere along the line, we have taught our children to be more tolerant of human space.
That’s good.
So in the process of trying to change our lives and improve the lot of the American populace, let us occasionally stop off at an altar of gratitude and realize that much of the crankiness, bigotry and controlling attitudes that once permeated our adult culture have been decimated by mercy, knowledge and appreciation for one another.
Am I optimistic? Don’t push it. But today, I am grateful.
And I can say this about stupidity: not so much.
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A voice writing in the wilderness
Jonathots Daily Blog 