SENSITIZE 31
Every morning, Mr. Cring takes a personal moment with his audience.
Today: “Dem’s fightin’ words!” Jonathan talks about “unique freaks.”
Click the picture below to see the video
PoHymn: A Rustling in the Stagnant … March 16th, 2016
Jonathots Daily Blog
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I Am Common
I am common
Don’t blow smoke
I can be an ass
Quell your sermon on esteem
Teach me to be honest
Escape the perils of self-worth
And find the worth of true self
I am common
One with all
All within my one
For snowflakes may be unique
But never travel alone
A drizzle, flurry, blizzard
Do you catch my drift?
I pursue no culture
Just human blood
I possess no country
Merely a searching soul
I see you
It is my mirror
For you are common, too
Separation creates the anger
Segregation invites the danger
Nationalism destroys our peace
Religion vacates the heart of compassion
I am common
No better, no worse
I believe, not bound by verse
I clear my eyes
To give window to my soul
I scourge my mind
So half can become whole
I am common
And so are you
The sooner we appreciate this
The quicker we will know
No one is better than anyone else
Please, help me grow
I am common
So I come as a man
Will you meet me in the middle?
Doing the best you can
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Dear Man/Dear Woman: A Noteworthy Conversation … January 30th, 2016
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Dear Woman: A couple of days ago I read an article in a magazine…
Dear Man: You’re just trying to impress me with the fact that you can read.
Dear Woman: Actually, I’m trying to impress you with the fact that I read something and retained enough to have a discussion. Anyway, in this article it said that men and women should appreciate their differences because it grants each of them a “unique perspective.”
Dear Man: A unique perspective?
Dear Woman: Yeah, that’s what I geared in on too. What does that mean?
Dear Man: That means I have a way of looking at things that’s different from you, and you would garner great insight by listening to my feelings on the issue.
Dear Woman: Do you think that’s true?
Dear Man: I was taught it was true. Matter of fact, I grew up believing that relationships were 50-50. Somewhere along the line, that got pooh-poohed, and now we believe that it’s gotta be 100% and 100%. It’s the me plus me equals us.
Dear Woman: We don’t believe that. It’s a war with an unsettling truce. Men pretend that women are smarter while still retaining the power.
Dear Man: Well, how do they do that?
Dear Woman: By telling you that you have a “unique perspective” which they value hearing and enjoy ignoring.
Dear Man: So what you’re saying is that telling someone they have a unique perspective is not a positive?
Dear Woman: Absolutely not. It’s never positive. Saying that someone has a unique perspective is only two argument points away from the classic, “We’ll just have to agree to disagree.”
Dear Man: So you believe that’s why we have so many stalemates in discussions between men and women?
Dear Woman: Yes. Every idea has a genesis and an exodus.
Dear Man: Explain.
Dear Woman: That wasn’t very clear, was it? What I’m saying is that the word “unique” is a genesis, but as the word “unique” goes through the human experience, it changes to other words. And by the time it evolves, our emotions interpret it in a much different way.
Dear Man: So you’re saying that “unique” doesn’t really mean “unique” to us?
Dear Woman: Exactly. “Unique” is translated in our brain as “different.” And different is not something we enjoy. It’s something we tolerate. And we always tell people they need more tolerance.
Dear Man: So how do you build a relationship on tolerance?
Dear Woman: You can’t. You kind of end up faking it.
Dear Man: So let me try my hand at it. After “unique” becomes “different” in our heads, “different” can quickly become “alien.” In other words, people from Mexico have different customs than we do, so therefore we view them as aliens.
Dear Woman: Very well said. And of course, once something is alien, we stick it in Outer Space. It’s not really allowed past our borders, is it?
Dear Man: So if I convince myself that your feelings are unique and therefore different, which makes them alien, it’s very easy for me to turn a deaf ear and view them as intrusive.
Dear Woman: Yeah. I’m an intruder on your girl power.
Dear Man: And I’m an intruder on your macho.
Dear Woman: So we end up tolerating each other to get what we want.
Dear Man: And when we don’t want it so much any more, we decide to get rid of the intruder.
Dear Woman: So as long as we look at each other as unique, instead of finding common ground, we will focus on the differences, become alien to one another and eventually, in a bit of disgust, consider each other intrusive.
Dear Man: It’s kind of funny. Because if either one of us found ourselves stuck in the jungle, we would quickly learn to adapt–find our inner monkey–instead of insisting that the monkeys have a “unique perspective.”
Dear Woman: You should never consider yourself a monkey.
Dear Man: You know what I’m saying. To survive, we find commonality. To fail, we focus on differences. That’s just life.
Dear Woman: Except when it comes to men and women, right? Then we think we’re so damn clever by highlighting the uniqueness.
Dear Man: So you don’t think I have any uniqueness?
Dear Woman: Yes, I do. But it has nothing to do with you being a woman. It has to do with your experience. Your faith. Your charity. Your hope. Your sense of humor. That’s what makes you fresh to me.
Dear Man: So how did it get all screwed up?
Dear Woman: I guess the way it always gets screwed up. One night, one member of the sexes didn’t want to listen to the other one, so he or she decided that the other gender was unique, and therefore incomprehensible.
Dear Man: So I am going to give you a blessing. You are not unique. You are not different. You are not alien to me. And you are not an intruder. It’s my job to figure out how the culture screwed us up … and how we can get back to the Garden.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity
The Alphabet of Us: X is for Xerox … May 18th, 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.
“It was my idea.”
A very popular sentiment. Most people enjoy believing that they are powerfully creative, needed and intricately involved.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that.
Yet when the sense of uniqueness eliminates the ability to receive counsel, take advice, observe excellence and improve your situation, then it is a dangerous piece of stubbornness that can leave you desolate.
So how do we know when we should “go solo” and when we should collaborate?
Growing up, I was introduced to the Xerox machine. It was nearly a god in my world. Having escaped the rigors of mimeograph and carbon paper, we suddenly were able to create a copy of something by pushing a button.
Of course, Xerox machines are nearly extinct today. With all the digital possibilities, the old apparatus has been slid into the corner.
But the need to copy valuable material still exists.
So how do we know what we should Xerox in our lives and what is required to be an original presentation?
1. Copy what is clear.
There was always one rule of working with a Xerox. If you started off with an original that was unclear or fuzzy, the Xerox would be even worse. I often nearly despair over the realization that as bad as politics and religion are today, the “children” of those practices will be worse.
2. Copy what is important.
There is no need to have two of something that’s meaningless. That goes for Democrats, Republicans, Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Establish the quality and integrity before you start spitting out duplicates.
3. Don’t copy a copy.
It’s one of the problems we have in religion. Rather than using Jesus as an example in the Christian faith, we are settling for commentaries and doctrinal books to establish our faith.
They are copies. And when we copy a copy, we end up with a third generation of confusion.
It is important to copy.
Over half of who I am is based upon the wisdom I’ve attained through watching.
Please remember that wisdom is not possessed nor contained. It is acquired through continuing to learn, updating your files and mingling that information with your own experience.
Human beings are meant to be creative, but we’re also intended to be Xerox machines, which copy what is clear and important, making sure we commence our emulation … by honoring the original.
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Jesonian: Expressing the Light … December 14, 2014
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“This little light of mine
I’m gonna let it shine…”
I do have a little light.
And surprisingly, it’s not as tiny as I think. But how do I let it shine?
A fellow named Paul said that the three greatest forces on earth were faith, hope and love.
My faith is in God, the Father. Not just God, who is like a boss who might fire me at the end of a particularly unfruitful work week. No, He is my Daddy and is joyfully stuck with me.
My hope is with the Kingdom of God within me. If I spend all my time evaluating my efforts, I will become depressed. If I spend too much energy trusting that God’s grace will cover everything, I become lazy. Because of an experience called being “born again,” I have been restored with the benefits and blessings of the original Garden of Eden, if I choose to put my hope in that direction. I don’t look for God to be my crutch. My hope is with the Kingdom of God within me.
And love is for everybody else who have the image of God deeply impressed within their beings. When you give your love just to family, there’s nothing unique or unusual about you. We’re all brothers and sisters. Until we realize this, we will look at our fellow humans as competing enemies.
Possessing a light is a wonderful gift as long as you know where to point it.
I do not put my faith in religion or people. It is in God the Father.
I don’t hope for the best unless I allow myself to be involved in the process, to use the gifts that have been given to me to create fresh opportunities.
And I’m learning to let my love be given freely to all of those, who just like me, were created in the image of God.
This is how I shine.
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity
Click here for information on “567”–the Sermon on the Mount retold in story, song and music
All Wrapped Up… December 28, 2013
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The gospel works.
That’s why we call it “good news.”
On the other hand, our culture is not nearly as efficient. It is often a cult of cop-out convenience.
I don’t wish to become brash or harsh, but I do want to say that there is an ongoing danger of people wrapping the culture of our country in the pretty paper of the Bible, tying it up with the bow of “God and country.”
Let’s make some distinctions:
1. The gospel teaches “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Our culture, on the other hand, promotes the idea, “do unto yourself while including others.”
2. The gospel teaches that “NoOne is better than anyone else.” Meanwhile, back at our culture, it is promoted that we are all unique, and therefore different.
3. The gospel: “give and it will be given unto you.” The culture: “get what you can and give to others as you can.”
4. “Don’t judge others.” There’s the gospel. In the culture, we preach, “Don’t allow yourself to be judge.”
5. Continuing on with the gospel: “to he who is given much, much is expected.” We have a three-word cultural mantra: “cut yourself slack.”
6. And finally, the gospel teaches that “whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” Yet the popular philosophy in our culture is, “After we reap, we will get around to sowing” with a sidebar of, “It’s not my fault.”
So in an attempt to hold people in a church, we create a surrogate–impregnating faith with our culture.
- Our sermons are laced with grace, absent any responsibility or guilt.
- We teach that God has “a wonderful plan for our lives” in order to stay hip with all the fantasy and Hobbit movies.
- We insist that “God will supply all our need” without warning people that He does expect us to show up and be involved.
- We pretend we can love the sinner and still hate the sin.
- We literally screech that God’s salvation and grace is free to all, leaving us with believers who are bound to a culture, habits and lifestyles that are not fulfilling.
I don’t see anything wrong with wrapping the gospel up in what is culturally pleasing. You can use all the technology, all the music stylings and all available data to sparkle the message in a contemporary way. But when you start preaching the culture in the name of the gospel, you are flirting with disaster.
So how do you know when you’re in the presence of the gospel?
You’ll hear a message that teaches us to believe in God … while taking personal responsibility for your hunk of the kingdom.
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.
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So, Sow… December 19, 2013
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Everyone wants to be unique–yet no one wants to be peculiar.
Unique means “one of a kind.” To gain that individuality, you have to step away from the herd, chew your grass differently and end up producing fortified milk.
But in our society unique is defined as “doing what I want in the moment.” The absence of finding a position makes it unclear to those around where to find you.
Our culture teaches this ridiculous concept: let me reap and then I’ll sow–I promise.
In other words, “give me a reason to become excited and I’ll become excited.”
“Give me money and I’ll invest.”
“Give me a climate where everyone agrees with my philosophy, and I’ll embrace them with love.”
“Give me the funds for education, the books for reading and the classroom for receiving and I will eventually turn into a student.”
“Give me sex and I’ll consider love.”
“Grant me financial security and I will give my best impersonation of happy.”
“Take away hassle and I will try not to be grumpy.”
“Remove intimidation and bullying and I will show up to give you a better adequate performance.”
“Take away all the things that make life human and I will show you how divine I can be.”
This insipid thinking revolves around the word “unconditional.”
- Unconditional love: take me as I am and critique nothing.
- Unconditional faith: believe as I do and question nothing.
- Unconditional politics: be Republican or Democrat, swallow the pill and support the party.
- Unconditional romance: love me even though I have stopped loving myself by refusing to move in the direction of improvement.
- And on top of this, we use the dynamic of God‘s love, God’s grace and God’s mercy as the model for this ludicrous acceptance of mediocrity.
Let’s look at the way it was meant to be from the foundation of the world:
I promise to sow so I can reap.
There is nothing that will be harvested from our life journey unless we have first planted our seed.
There is nothing that is guaranteed without our focus and commitment.
And there is no way that reaping will occur before sowing–or the entire cosmos will implode.
I sat around a table last night with family and friends to celebrate my birthday. But we did not celebrate the passing of a year adding to my longevity. What we celebrated was my belief in the treasure of sowing … to reap.
Stop cheating yourself out of the joy of human life. You will never reap until you sow. No matter how much you plead and beg for a loan from the universe, the heavens will turn a deaf ear … until you can bring collateral.
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
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