Jonathots Daily Blog
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That Tell You Something Good is About to Happen
1. People are working
2. Children are singing
3. Everybody can laugh at themselves
Sit Down Comedy … December 27th, 2019
Jonathots Daily Blog
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There’s that split second right before the reveal.
The last little piece of tape is peeled back, and the gift is in our hands.
Let me be clear—no one under the age of ten actually offers an immediate disappointed reaction to a Christmas present.
We have been taught to be cool. Detached.
Yes—the cool detachment of the Christmas season.
If the present is to our liking, the reaction usually contains some form of profanity
“Oh, shit!”
“Jesus Christ!”
“Oh, my God!”
When you hear these words, though inappropriate, it’s a great response to your selection.
If the gift is not favored, you may hear one of the following:
“Oh, neat. I was curious about these. So this is what it looks like.”
“What a thoughtful gift—certainly something I would never have gotten for myself.”
“After all the morning activities, you’ll have to sit down and explain this to me so I can enjoy it even more.”
“You sure topped yourself this year!”
“What a unique gift!”
These statements fall off our lips when we are confused or distraught with this year’s offering.
Yet we try to maintain our cool detachment.
Truthfully, as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey is safely put away for making sandwiches, we are already considering to what degree we’ll allow ourselves to become involved in the holiday of newborn kings, elves and magical sleigh-riders.
It’s difficult to overcome the fear.
Like the fear of singing Christmas carols. It seems like a proper idea, and then you get in the middle of the second verse and everybody has a different interpretation of the words, and sometimes it ends up stopping dead while someone Googles the lyrics.
And oh, yes. Part of that cool detachment is the terror over being the person to actually beginning the Christmas carol. Maybe you feel the spirit’s right, or a friend nearby says, “You’re musical. Why don’t you get us started?”
There are so many things that can go wrong. Your voice can crack, or you can pitch the carol too high or too low, leaving all those who joined in trying to change the key in the middle of the chorus.
There is a great consensus with this cool detachment to emphatically insist that “Christmas is for the kids.”
Do we really want to believe that? We may love our children, but why would we sacrifice such an exciting adventure to their often-snotty attitudes—not to mention unwashed hands?
A creepy, cynical false humility can also cause us to cough up the phrase, “I don’t need anything…”
(First and foremost, this response to “What do you want for Christmas?” is unhelpful and annoying. And having watched each and every one of us shop at the store, buying countless items that we do not “need” means that we are open to excess. We’re not fooling anyone.
Next, I know it’s not politically correct to say this, but here I go:
Hanukkah–literally–cannot hold a candle to Christmas.
Jewish people know this.
It’s like going to a National Football League game and talking to the star quarterback about your son beginning Pop Warner Football. There’s no equivalency—therefore, there should be no competition.
Let me see—what’s another part of this cool, adult detachment? Here’s another one. We all must moan about the pressure to “get everything done.”
If America couldn’t bitch about how busy we all think we are, I’m not sure we could even carry on a conversation.
The cool detachment.
The reminder by a sullen friend that we must be careful not to be too rambunctious in our celebration, since “some people find Christmas to be a sad time.”
Or that religious fanatic you know, who insists that “Christmas is too commercial” and want to declare war on the devil.
Or your favorite atheist, who laments the inclusion of religion in our normal commerce.
I just fear that along with our insincerity about the presents we receive, we have developed a grown-up press release, which we offer to limit the joy of Christmas, turning it into a tedious act we perform for the good of family—especially “them young’uns.”
So, hark the herald, angels sing…
Christmas is one month out of the year when “good will toward men” is not a joke, but rather…
A heavenly demand.
Cracked 5 … December 15th, 2018
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Things to Do When They Start Singing “The Twelve Days of Christmas”
A. Fake a heart attack
B. Belch out “Five Golden Rings”
C. Mess with the words so they send you out of the room
D. Clap your hands like there’s a beat
E. Vomit
art by smarrttie panntts
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Good News and Better News… August 14th, 2017
Jonathots Daily Blog
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For some ridiculous reason, I occasionally get embarrassed by being happy. I give in to the pressure to act adult, disgruntled, and get tempted to complain about my problems. This is not my nature–I normally have a bubble in my soul which releases a fresh batch of ooey-gooey jubilation.
Yet this seems to bother those who wonder if I have any sensibility about the pain in the world or the suffering in some country they are barely able to pronounce.
I have been called to “brighten the corner where I am.” I am not in Afghanistan. I am not even in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Yesterday I found myself in Haines City, Florida, at the Lamb of God Lutheran Church with Pastor Joe, sitting and sharing with some of God’s wonderful flock.
I was not sheepish. I shepherded these dear souls through a journey laced with the human essential of good cheer. Say what you will about church but it has one function and one alone: find other human beings on the journey and fellowship with them.
Therefore, the byproduct of every experience taking you into into the House of God should be good cheer. For in the world, you only have tribulation, so we need some place to go where we can be of good cheer. It must be the church.
We must stop thinking that the arrival of Cring & Clazzy was a “breath of fresh air,” but instead, understand that stale air is not acceptable.
We cannot go from sucking in oxygen to inhaling fumes. As a congregation, as people, as children of God, as sane humans, we must stand up and demand good cheer:
- Good cheer in the singing
- Good cheer in the liturgy (if you have it)
- Good cheer in communion
- Certainly good cheer in the sermon
- Good cheer in the benediction
And even good cheer when you reach the vestibule and discover that your favorite donut has already been eaten by the kids, who were released too early from children’s church.
I talked to some of the most intelligent, caring people you’d ever want to find. I just wonder whether they have the gumption to demand that the church be what it was meant to be–a safe place where we encourage one another, even so much more as we see the world going crazy around us.
The good news is that the world is full of tribulation, and therefore offers no harbor.
The better news is, we can be of good cheer if we start demanding purpose instead of settling for anemic programming.
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Good News and Better News… November 28th, 2016
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Yesterday–for the first time all year–I did not go to a church and share my heart for a Sunday morning worship service.
I am officially on hiatus for the Christmas season. I think the obvious questions would be, how do I feel about not ministering and performing. Did I miss it?
Actually what I felt was nothing.
Although some people would consider that to be a negative statement, “nothing” is the most positive position in which we can find ourselves.
Several years ago I was prompted in my spirit to close letters I wrote to a friend with the phrase, “without nothing.” I think she was a bit confused by this departing phrase, but it’s quite simple. Without nothing, something has no chance of happening.
The best way to ensure that you will not pursue anything of new value or creativity is to constantly claim, “I’m busy.”
Busy smothers the better parts of our soul
Busy convinces us that we have no time.
And busy shuts out others in preference to a pre-arranged party-goers.
When we finally stop being busy, we can arrive at nothing, which then offers the possibility of something.
If we don’t have enough time on our hands to be nearly frustrated by the time on our hands, then we’ll never use the time on our hands to take our hands to create.
- Without nothing, there is no something.
- Without a void, there is no filling.
- Without loneliness, no new relationships.
- Without grumbling over the absence of a feeling, there is no seeking innovation.
So as I sat in my chair Sunday morning, thinking for a moment what song I might be singing or story I might be telling under normal conditions, I was suddenly flooded with the assurance that God uses nothing to get my attention to do something.
That’s the good news.
The better news is: I found something.
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Scratchy… December 30, 2013
Jonathots Daily Blog
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It had been nearly four years since I had been visited by the common curse of a cold. Even though I am around thousands of people who tote germs like little six-year-olds carrying backpacks to the first day of school, I am blessed with an immune system which bunkers me in safely to health.
That is, until I spent four days living in the same house with my children and grandchildren over Christmas. I followed this toxic exposure with a 900-mile drive to Houston, Texas.
So sometime on Thursday, right after I ate my Subway sandwich, the left side of my throat began to itch and tickle, radiating up to my ear.
I knew what this meant. I attempted denial, but when the right side of my throat joined the party, I knew I was in the first throes of incubating a common one.
Here’s the problem: I needed to share on Sunday morning at Bay Harbour United Methodist Church in League City, Texas.
I wanted to do a good job. I know everybody says that, but I like to use my talents at full speed, full throttle and full passion. They are my arsenal–to apologize for a mug that couldn’t win a beauty contest versus a coffee cup.
I was about seventy per cent. So what was I going to do?
Obviously, play to my strengths. For instance, talking is easier than singing.
Also, address the three demons that attempt to invade our foxhole in the midst of battle:
- Excuses
- Fear
- Disappointment
Excuses are the pavement on the road to failure. Fear is the rope that strangles the life out of hope. And disappointment is the drug that puts our effort to sleep.
- I didn’t make excuses. The audience never knew.
- I wasn’t afraid. For after all, the worst thing that could happen was that I talked and played the piano, without singing. That’s just not that bad.
- And I wasn’t disappointed because I got sick. Remembering how mortal we are is what helps us assist other humans.
As it turns out, I had a little more than I thought–maybe 78%. It was a glorious morning.
I don’t like getting sick. I fight it. But if I’m going to lose my faith, energy and direction every time I sniffle, I will probably not be worth very much and will snuffle out my possibilities.
Excuses, fear and disappointment–they arrive like a scratchy throat, making you believe that they’re here to stay.
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Stepping Away… October 19, 2013
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Elder Ralph was working on a crossword puzzle he had hidden in his Bible.
Deacon Dan was dozing on the third row.
Martha, the church piano player, was thumbing through a Life magazine.
The teenagers sitting around me were passing notes, giggling and trying to time their levity with the jokes infrequently being offered from the pulpit, as Pastor Norm continued to preach on a subject matter which no one seemed to care about.
Suddenly in the midst of this ongoing Sunday night antipathy, it struck me. It was so phony, so contrived and so meaningless to my sixteen-year-old mind.
I quietly rose to my feet, moved past a few of my friends and headed toward the back of the church. Everyone thought I was going to the bathroom. Some people probably thought I was headed to the fellowship hall to see if there were any treats to eat after the service. But actually, I passed on both of those opportunities, headed out the door and walked home. Even though I still believed in God, I had lost confidence in the system that was arranged to represent Him.
For three months, I stepped away.
- I didn’t go to church.
- I didn’t stay in contact with the people.
- I also didn’t go out, get drunk, smoke grass and curse the heavens because of my disillusioned condition.
Various emissaries from the conclave of the righteous were sent to me during the ninety days to tell me how I was missed or what I was missing or how it was absolutely necessary for me to be there–otherwise I would fall into iniquity.
I joyously ignored them.
Instead I took my stepping away hiatus to accept a role in a play at the high school, as Joe Ferrone in Up the Down Staircase. I also worked on my piano playing, which had become as rusty as my Grandpa Ford’s barn door latches, and I practiced singing. (I had convinced myself I was a bass, but actually had enough range to be a tenor. Why not both?)
During my stepping away period I discovered I could do things–yet realized they were more fun when I was tapping the mind and spirit of God to achieve them.
Eventually one of my friends from the youth group came to see me and said, “Jonathan, you may not need us, but we need you.”
Those were the magic words.
It wasn’t an issue of ego–it was the fact that I could no longer attend church because I was afraid not to. I couldn’t go to church because it “made me a better person.” And I didn’t want to go to church to fake it, in order to get heavenly tickets.
I took my newfound drama talent, my expanded singing and my better piano playing back to the “house of people”–to simply enjoy my heavenly Father.
I stopped looking around the room to see what Elder Ralph, Deacon Dan, pianist Martha and all the other kids were doing.
When I disagreed, I chose to simply live differently. And if it got boring, I challenged the ideas.
That three months of stepping away sowed the seed of the man I have become. It was a season of time when I realized that I don’t need to be in church to find God.
But the church needs me ,,, to make sure we don’t lose Him.
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