Jonathots Daily Blog
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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There was an old gospel song that used to get the hometown folks clappin’ and snappin’. It had a lyric which proclaimed, “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.”
I grew up in a small town that believed, like most small towns, that if the world behaved like they did, there would be eternal peace. But since the world didn’t behave, all the children needed to be careful going into the big city, or worse yet, into the world.
Matter of fact, like most small towns, over half of my graduating class still lives within ten miles of the place where they got their first kiss.
It’s easy for people who have religion to attack the world. Matter of fact, there are many preachers who wouldn’t have anything to share if they couldn’t criticize the world, sin and the souls around them. Even those practitioners of philosophies which portend to have more open-mindedness will still gladly join into a conversation of discussing how damnable things are on the planet.
Sometimes I wonder how it’s possible to be so in love with God and so hateful of the home He’s given us.
Now I remember. I forgot the lyrics: “This world is not my home.”
It makes me wonder why Jesus prayed that heavenly things be done on Earth.
God is a good Father. As a good Father, he knows His children. And the Earth is filled with His children.
He understands that the world is stuck in a rebellion resembling a sixteen-year-old: snotty, bratty, selfish, indulgent, unappreciative–but certainly unwilling to go anyplace else. That’s a sixteen-year-old.
So maybe we should walk away from our gospel songs and even our theology and take a careful look at what Jesus said about the world.
Two things:
1. “In the world you have tribulation.”
I suppose you could blame God for that–not because He steps back and lets things happen, but because He gave us free will. Honestly, if I had created beings that possessed as much intelligence as humans, I would have curtailed free will.
It doesn’t make sense. For people to have imaginations from the time of their youth, but for those musings to be generally evil, doesn’t bode well for blessings to flow across the land.
But it was God’s way.
He made us smart, with the ability to choose to be stupid.
Therefore, at one time or another, somebody is always being stupid, which makes it seem like all matter is about to fall apart. Jesus called this “tribulation”–a sense that things never find peace or settle down.
Now most religionists love that particular verse about tribulation in the world. Matter of fact, they stop right there and use it as a platform to preach against every sin that comes to their minds. They never factor in the second thought that Jesus had on the world:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. And He didn’t send His son into the world to condemn the world, but so that they could choose to be saved (paraphrase).
Of course, the key coupling there is “so loved.”
Not a passive appreciation.
Not a duty of being a parent of something you wish you could abandon.
But a deep emotional commitment, free of condemnation.
So here’s the truth of the matter, although I don’t want to anger some gospel song writer: this world is my home, for the time being, and I am passing through.
My job is to have good cheer when I see the tribulation, and make sure, through my face, my actions and my tenderness, that those around me know exactly how much they are so loved.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
(3010)
G-Pop watches and listen intensely.
While confident of his intelligence, he still realizes that rich wisdom can be attained through great observation.
Once again the political parties meet to do battle, contending that the one left standing is superior simply because he or she has not been vanquished. Promises are made in the midst of an avalanche of accusations, tossed back and forth with a disregard that foretells ignorance of the beauty of consolation.
How many different things can we insist we’re going to accomplish, so as to make our opponent’s list seem puny? But once elected, every President of any party immediately discovers that life takes over–and the stumbling blocks that have been permanently established in the lethargy of legislation forbid much progress to pass through the gates. After all, in regards to Congress, any organization that operates by Parliamentary Procedure is in no hurry to achieve its aspirations.
So how should G-Pop’s children evaluate who to place in the position of prominence for our land?
They must look for the candidate–whether male or female–who:
1. Handles disappointment with grace.
Since we live in a democracy, nothing of original purity will ever pass muster without being manipulated. There will be disappointment. How that is handled will determine meaningful outcomes, especially if a split second of frustration causes our leader to take his or her eyes off the prize.
2. Discovers the better way to navigate reoccurring surprises.
After all, some of us fare pretty well if one blip comes on our radar screen, but when they start popping up all over, a disgruntled spirit can cause us to forsake our more clever and intuitive parts, and succumb to our more Neanderthal attitudes.
3. Has a great sense of humor.
What we “take personal” becomes personal–even if only in our minds. Once we feel we have been targeted, we tend to seek revenge. The President of the United States cannot have vendettas.
So even though a promotion of ideas is constantly flooding through stump speeches, once the election is completed, these wishes will have to take a back seat to the daily tribulation that the world threatens to afford.
Every once in a while, things calm down long enough that you might be able to fix a highway, start an after school program, or keep the country a little safer.
But most of the time, if you are President of the United States, you’re trying to maintain the purpose of our nation and the dignity of our freedom–in a world gone crazed.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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I want to be seen and heard
I bet you do, too
I want to be forgiven
Look at you–nodding your head
I want to laugh at my mistakes
Can we chuckle together?
I want to discover ways we are similar
Do you agree?
I want to learn to do better
Do you think about your better?
I want to consider the lily without being flowery
Noses to roses
I want my belief to show on my face
Shall we declare a war on frowns?
I want to be simple
Come, untangle the web
I do love you as I love myself
I just don’t love myself very well
I do believe in heaven
The kind that chases away the hell
I shall pursue mercy
So it’s easier for you to grant me the same
While I am learning to live to give
I have decided to give to live
For it doesn’t take the whole world
To change the earth, you see
Just a heart that includes one other
Beating inside you and me.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
(2365)
We are not the bread, we are the yeast.
We are not the world, but rather, the light.
We are not the meat. Salt, we are.
We are not the soil, but seed to be sown by the sower.
We are not the wineskin. Behold, new wine.
What does Planet Earth need?
Jesonian is not a religion, a belief, a system of worship or a moral code for judging others. It is when we add our lifestyle of effort, mercy and love to what is available.
It transforms entertainment into inspiration, business into creativity, faith into living works, politics into compassion that counts the cost, family into an every-growing inclusion of our brothers and sisters, and relationship into eternal connections.
We are not the bread.
We have not come to be served … but instead, to serve.
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The Sermon on the Mount in music and story. Click the mountain!
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Jonathots Daily Blog
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Pictured is my son, Jasson, mercifully and tenderly holding his ailing boy, Johann.
When the photograph arrived, I was not only moved because of the closeness of family connection, but also in the fact that I realized that it was a snapshot of humanity.
For to become a complete person, you must understand that you will play both roles at one time or another. You will need to be the comforting father, concerned for a struggling friend, holding him close to infuse strength. Yet you also need to be prepared to become the tired, limp, struggling child, who collapses into the arms of a heavenly Father, or an earthly surrogate.
I believe the reason that many people fail in their human journey is because they become reticent, determined not to move freely between these stations. It is a truth that I will find myself needing to be a defender of others–protecting them from the onslaught of the angry horde, but it is equally as powerful to understand that at times, through my own weaknesses, I need to be protected, sheltered and isolated from the avenging crowd.
The world tells me to be strong and never show weakness. In doing so, I am unable to overcome my demons, but merely discuss wrestling with them until they pin me to the ground and destroy me.
Religion promotes the doctrine of weakness, hoping to magnify the strength of God by displaying the useless efforts of our human talent.
Damn them both.
Damn them to the hell they have created for our species. Because sometimes I am a defender; other times I must surrender.
I consider three ideas:
As life moves, so must I.
At times the blowing of the wind will fill my sails and push me forward. At other times, the same wind will just be a storm.
What a beautiful picture of us as people, as my son tears up over his fragile offspring and the little boy, equally as intelligent, gives over all need for resistance to protective arms.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
Jesus and me are going to Flint
Jesus is mighty smart
Me is trying to learn
Jesus is looking for people who care
Me is working on trying not to be careless
Jesus loves everybody
Me likes most
Jesus wants to save the lost
Me is struggling to keep from getting lost
Jesus demands repentance
Me needs some of that of my own
Jesus pursues the least
Me still favors the most
Jesus is willing to die for the world
Me wants to live a little bit longer
Jesus doesn’t worry very much
Me doesn’t need much to worry
Jesus knows the hearts of people
Me does a lot of guessing
Jesus believes in good cheer
Me likes to joke
Jesus knows Flint has struggled
Me understands struggle
Jesus made the lame to walk
Me walks a little lame
Jesus is coming again
Me is leaving sooner or later
Jesus was human
Me, too
Jesus was tempted
Me, daily
Jesus was touched by sickness
Me, just last week
Jesus will appear in Flint through Spirit
Me will show up in the flesh: lots of it
Flint, I wish I could offer you more
But for now you are stuck with me …
This troubadour
The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity
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A voice writing in the wilderness
Jonathots Daily Blog 