Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Love's Only Hope...


Love's only hope is a vessel like us
to work through and reach out
So that people can trust
Who we proclaim as our God
and King
But to show proof through Love
Is a difficult thing
We desire to change others
to be more like us
But acceptance and grace
Is the ultimate must
We out of habit
Think that there's only one way
To minister God
In this world today
Exclusive and closed
Is what we can't be
God has created
His children to be free
So let's make it a point
To keep Love Alive
Through words and kind acts
And reaching outside
To the hurting and lost
To the needy and grieved
It's the only way
That people can see
Jesus Alive
in
You
and
in
Me...


Bonita Jones Knott 11/22/11

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A Wonderful "Aloneness"

I just completed the third run of my one woman show “from the thorn of rejection...To the Rose of Restoration” last Friday night and I must say this is a subject that just keeps speaking to me...

I am truly in awe of how God will allow us to go through the very thing that He will use us to minister on. I'm in awe because many of us parents try desperately to protect our children from trials because we are petrified that they may damage them beyond repair...but not God. Our All Wise Father knows exactly what we need to bring us to a life changing place of understanding. He knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the very thorn that prods our flesh on a daily basis, serves as a catalyst for change in our lives that produce the Rose within. God's infinite wisdom, love and immense nurturing are the very things that walk us through unimaginable pain and suffering. Rejection mars the soul like no other experience and when it goes untreated it multiplies itself in a variety of behaviors that can span a lifetime. Moses was rejected, Paul rejected Christians and then faced rejection as a Christian. Stephen faced rejection unto death following the One who was rejected on behalf of all of us, Christ. Stephen and Christ's response...”forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do...” I have forced that statement out of my lips on more than one occasion hoping that the heart behind the sentiment would soon follow. “Forgive them Lord...but I am still in pain...”is what has often followed. As understanding as He is, the second prayer is just as acceptable to God. Because of the depth of research that it has taken for me to get to the core of this subject, it has been necessary for me to walk with God in a whole new way. It is not a popular way but it is a necessary way for me to understand what dying to self truly means. I love the solitude that allows me to hear my Fathers heartbeat in exchange for all of my woes. I love the days when His only request is to sing to Him from my heart, while He responds with tangible peace. It is ironic and brilliant that in order for me to be delivered from the pains of rejection, He would hide me away in His secret place and keep me to Himself. I trust I am not “alone” in this wonderful alone-ness... Am I, friend?  


The search

begins from a hollow place

a missing moment

a broken promise

a separation

anxiety sets in

I must belong to someone

why did they give me up?

Why was it so easy not to want me?

The disconnect is overwhelming

the hollow place

expands in my heart

profuse beating echoes

to the four empty chambers

who or what will fill it?

I must belong to someone

Don't I?

Rejection mars my soul...

God am I yours?

“The Hollow Heart” Bonita Jones Knott © 


Reviews from "Rose of Restoration..."




Bonita,

I very much enjoyed your performance Friday night.  It was filled with a rainbow of emotions it made the evening a truly powerful experience.  I was particularly taken with your last piece and loved that you used Satie's  GymnopĂ©die to complement it - the perfect choice since Satie's music creates an ethereal atmosphere.

                                                    Mark Havlik - Author



Bonita
                                             enjoyed your reading immensely...
Don Cook - Playwright


It was awesome Bonita...truly blessed.
Onward and upward!
Brian Daye - Actor - Director - Playwright





Sunday, October 2, 2011

You are NOT a bad girl...


Last night I attended a play entitled Stigmata and its message sparked a plethora of internal dialogue that I would like to share...

The play was about a high profile Wall Street mogul named Carmen Ruiz who awakens in prison without any idea of how she got there. Her only means of communication with anyone is with a hand that provides her with personal requests and clues about her life through an opening at the bottom of the door in her cell. The room is stark with cinder blocks, a wooden bed and pillow, a bench and a simple table and chair for eating. The set was brilliant for the message that Stigmata was about to relay to us.

Carmen knew for certain who she had become. She knew of her wealth, her influence and her climb to success on a ladder made of the necks of her colleagues and lovers. She knew that she was bold and intimidating and that her name held power. Power over everyone accept “the hand”, who did not respond to her threats and fits of rage while demanding that the door to her cell be opened. She banged, kicked, cursed and even pleaded at some point but to no avail. The door was barred with no chance of being opened. Carmen was indeed imprisoned.

The continuous refrain throughout her dialogue in describing herself as a child (in which she slips into character as throughout her monologue) was that she was bad. That she knew, more than her official identity which the world had come to know. She was bad and it began a long time ago with an incident that she recalled at first with sketchy detail until the end of the play. The incident caused her mother to shame her and lock her in a closet everyday after school as a small child until she was old enough to hold a part time job and earn her own money with which she used as a ticket to freedom. Her mother would use this incident to tell Carmen that God did not like her or want to speak with her ever again. Carmen was cut off from the love and freedom that comes from knowing God through her mothers judgment.

Throughout her school years Carmen capitalized on the only reputation that she had come to have – a bad girl with power. The life changing tragedy that defined her as a child resulted in: the death of her older brother (who was beaten and kicked to death while trying to defend her), a demoralizing reputation filled with continuous taunts and innuendos that no child should ever endure, and a need for hunger and power over any and everyone that would try to stand in the way of the freedom that she so desired.

She lived angrily and illicitly. Her lust for power and success was coupled by the natural lust that she had come to know as the only communication that she would have with the opposite sex. She was a woman without friends and the only family that she cherished was her father who she lovingly referred to as Papi, who left her one letter on the day of her departure for college. The letter was full of love and remorse about the way that Carmen had been treated by her mother and others all of her life. Her father included one statement to Carmen which could come across as a clue to freedom to anyone listening: “I hope that you come to know Carmen that you are not a bad girl...” (paraphrased) That would be the last communication from her beloved Papi.



The fact that Carmen was Hispanic in a time where racial diversity was not on the table for discussion in America let alone Corporate America was just another reason for her to be hard nosed and resilient at the same time. Carmen was trapped in an endless cycle for more because she was filled with an emptiness in her soul that she could not articulate...until this beloved prison experience.

I need to interject my own thoughts with this one dramatic point that draws the whole play to Carmen's redefining moment: The key to Carmen's breakdown was when she opened a well known magazine to see herself listed in an article entitle “The top four people in America that we love to hate.” And there it was, after years of climbing and working so hard to become successful in America's eyes, Carmen was hated. Just like she was in childhood and all through her adolescence. Carmen had the same reputation.

After acquainting us with the details of her life from childhood until present (with the help of symbolic offerings or clues from “the hand”) Carmen is now about to come face to face with the last offering that would redefine her entire existence. It was this scene that caused me to grip my chair and fight back tears and guttural moans that were rising from deep within me. As Carmen is huddled in a corner by the door feverishly going through her private discourse “the hand” slides a black box through the opening of the door. All of the other offerings were placed straight ahead of the door for Carmen to retrieve on her own. But this box, this ticket to her freedom was purposely slid through the opening and placed next to Carmen in the corner giving her no choice but to open it or forever remain in her prison. In retrospect the deliberateness of the playwright was simply brilliant. His vision was prophetic.

The black box contained lilacs that Carmen had been picking behind the church after her first communion. They were the lilacs that she would hold out to Father Michael as a showing and partial offering before he would brutally sexually assault little Carmen right there in the grass on the church grounds. In fact Carmen would still be holding the lilacs as her innocence was being stripped away and her mind assaulted as well with the unfathomable details that she would soon learn to hate. Carmen was now bad and she would treat everyone with the same over powering contempt that she was treated with as a result of her childhood rape. Carmen would be blamed by her mother and sentenced to days on end in a closet, with no God and no means of repentance or forgiveness as she was told. Rumors would spread like wildfire throughout the community and Carmen would be taunted and hated by people who should have been her peers.

In the final scene that I just described Carmen had an epiphany that could only have happened in her prison. It was not her fault, it was Father Michael who disgraced and debased her. She was not a bad girl...she was not to blame. The transformation was displayed in Carmen's ability to talk to God without contempt for the first times since childhood. At her final request the door to the cell was opened and Carmen walked out. As we the audience applauded the powerful performance given by Divina Cook, I sat there entranced in the depth of this message not fulling knowing how many lessons that would come from this play or the wee hour of the morning that God would wake me and begin speaking them to me...



Some of us...most of us... are Carmens in one way or another. We have had one defining moment that would change the course of our life and spin us out of control while taking down everyone in our path. Some of us are reformed Carmens who have met “the hand” of God in our prison cell of depression, anxiety, guilt or whatever occurred in the breakdown of our souls that caused an inward collapse. We sat huddled in a corner of desperation until God provided the clue that would turn us face to face with our past and the truth that went along with it, therefore becoming the key that unlocked our cell. The light poured in from the outside and we walked towards it.


Others are Carmens that are still imprisoned, living the same patterns over and over again. Drowning everyone in their wake with the tide of confusion that constantly rolls over them. The voices of blame and shame are ever present in imprisoned Carmen's life. She walks at a fast pace, so that no one can catch up to her, or no one can out step her. This Carmen has no idea of her true capacity to love because hate is ever present. She is petrified of true intimacy and often confuses it for lust. The first touch is the most powerful impression, so if the first touch was one of lust, then most relationships are played out that way. She is hard outside but crying on the inside. She is a willing loner but intensely lonely. She appears to be a leader but really has no direction that could offer anyone a decent chance at life. She pushes and refuses while screaming and crying in silent anguish. Do you know this Carmen? Are you this Carmen?

Sister, friend, mother, wife... God hears your cry. He knows the origin of your pain even if you have told yourself that no true pain exists or have blocked out any related memory of your past. I awakened at 4:50 am for you, crying in my pillow and writing this blog in my mind out of love for you, and I am only human. Can you imagine what a perfect God is doing on your behalf right now? Can you imagine how much He loves and hurts for you? You may already be huddled in the corner of your mind grasping for a bit of reality to make sense of things or you may be heading there shortly. Because I know God and how much He loves us and wishes none of us to be lost but all to be saved by His mercy...your prison cell experience is inevitable. God will remove all of your comforts and hiding places and allow you to suffer the pain of the cell in order to cash in on the offering that came from the pain of the cross. Dear sister, take it, don't refuse the experience, it's the only way out and it may be your last chance at freedom. I am praying for you now as I write this blog but more importantly, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession on your behalf... Carmen, the hand of God is waiting for you....



Bonita Jones Knott (c) 10/1/2011

Friday, September 30, 2011

My gift, my words, my thank you...


I ask God almost yearly
When can I be a blessing to the people in my life who have given time, kind words or tended to my needs so sweetly? When can I give back all that has been given to me and more? What can I do for the people that you have blessed me with?”

His reply:
Use your words”

My words Lord, seem so inadequate for all of the gifts that I have received from others throughout the years. My words seem not to be enough for all of those who have touched me so deeply with their kindness.”

His reply:
Your words are the gift that I have given you to the world. To heal, to bless, to set free, to love...
How is my gift to you insufficient? When used properly your words fulfill your assignment on the earth and gather gems in heaven that will be placed in a crown for you to wear. I count them and I count on them to represent me in this earth... Daughter...use your words...”

My words to you who have been faithful friends:

May you always know the richness of His mercy as the sunrise of your day. May you always feel the warmth of His presence as His hand upon your shoulder. May you always sense the timeless nature that exist between you and God as the gateway to His Heaven... May you know for sure without a shadow of a doubt that you will crossover one day from this earthly life and join Him in eternity...



With words from my heart...My love to you all...
Bonita Jones Knott (c) 

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

"Hidden"

I'm on the verge of a breakthrough so powerful that I can hear the enemy of my soul gasping in disgust
because of the one that got away

Tucked safely under the wing of the Almighty
while sobbing with a wrenched heart

I can hear the voice of the Father take Authority over the evil one

Reeling from the pain of despair over being orphaned and rejected countless times

My heart lies like an open wound bleeding profusely with no end in sight

Breathless I pray for the strength to pray for those who count me worthless
and toss me aside with words of venom

Father please don't allow the venom to poison me with hate.
I choose to forgive although I can never forget.”

Eagerly I await His reply

But in His Sovereignty I receive much more

I receive his hand

I see Him lift my mangled heart and place it in His chest
and retrieve for me a new one

Whole and healed beautiful in form and hue

It's beat is strong and it is covered with the aroma of myrrh

He holds it out to me
as I walk toward this gift

And in an instant I am transformed within His marvelous light
Under the power of His mighty touch

All past pain
All past sorrow
Gone from my today
Never to reach my tomorrow

Yes I am on the verge of an incredible dawn

Where I will dance in the sunlight
Free from all of yesterdays wrongs...


Hidden” Bonita Jones Knott © 9/20/11




Sunday, September 11, 2011

"Ever Present"


In my America

Babies are supposed to laugh and play with careless ease in their mothers arms

Time is measured by work or lunch or soccer games and dance recitals

News no matter how big or breaking never stops my America

Until that day

That day babies hushed on mothers hips

And time gave up it's right of way
to smoke and glass and endless tears
As lives were stolen from our countries hands

And all of us
suburban, city, rural, coastal folk
gazed speechless into an unfolding mass of horror

Too terrified to say aloud what we saw to our children

How do you say to a wide eyed child
America stopped today...”

And where do you get the strength to admit to your own self
how very vulnerable you feel when tucking little ones in
and turning off the lights

As you wonder to yourself
What else can happen while we sleep tonight?

But God who is All present even in the midst of mans demise
Made Himself known to me in silence
As I reluctantly closed my eyes...



Ever Present” by Bonita Jones Knott © 9/11/2011






Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Shedding it All...

You named me “Butterfly” and I was born on a Summers morning after a Winters heartbreak and a fallen Autumn

The weight of life's cocoon
encased me and I was mummified
into thinking that I could never fly

Because I was too unique to fit the mold

The truth is, I had never met a me
like me before
So I conformed

And thus the layering began
The image
The status
The need for facade
The need to belong
To the hologram we call life

I sang from a place that was distant
And danced without music
And used meaningless words – so as not to offend

It seemed to work
For the passionless world
that I existed in

Held in mid breath
like a fetus yet to develop
I stayed
Living off of an unhealthy heartbeat

I cried silent cries and pleaded for help
In my muted night

Until I was too weak and too tired to ignore your response

You were telling me to twist
out of the bindings
until the layers that held me
would break
And anything and anyone that supported those layers were gone

I knew instinctively that it had to be
I knew...always knew
That you did not call me out into life
To live without passion or purpose
To dance in a gray meadow
Or drink from a stagnant stream

It was time
My time
To shed it all
For the beautiful moment
That you had been waiting for since my inception

It was time to claim my name
Expand my wings
And become Your Butterfly...

Shedding it All” Bonita Jones Knott © 9/5/2011


Thursday, June 16, 2011


I am a composite
of every good thing
and every bad thing
that has occurred in my life from birth till now

The once blank page that I fill
is covered with erase marks from God
Removing the evidence of the things He's called forgiven
While keeping the scars for remembrance sake

The scar on my left side
that goes from my hip down to my leg
is where He removed the fractured frame within me
That caused me to lean so heavily on others and limp so badly

Now I stand erect before the Son

The burn mark near my ear is nearly faded
but reminds me of the times that I was drawn away
by believing the enemy's lying whispers of more

Now I can hear the still small voice of God more clearly
and the voice of a stranger I will not follow

The jagged gash that surrounds my heart
is where God had to perform emergency open heart surgery
because I handed it over to the wrong source 
which was choking the life out of it

Now I have a new heart which is connected solely to the Spirit of God
Which beats to the sound of surrendered worship

I am a composite of every good thing
and every bad thing
that has happened in my life

And upon the artist completion
This masterpiece will be framed and hung in Heaven's Corridors

For All of Eternity...

“Composite”
Bonita Jones Knott © May 18, 2011