God's Implanted Dna: A Journey to Deep Happiness and Health

By Don Johnson

Everyone starts out life relying on others. Usually, these are family members, and its not uncommon for people to depend on them well into their twenties.

But ultimately people must search for something more meaningful. The fortunate ones move toward caring for others, an impulse that is part of the DNA that God planted in humanity. This group includes people such as Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Schweitzer, and many others, some of whom are featured in this book.

Author Don Johnson admires these people because they made a conscious choice to care for others. It is the same decision he made years ago when he was struggling to find a direction in life. After a lot of prayer and soul-searching, he decided to become a minister.

In Gods Implanted DNA, Johnson recalls what it was like growing up in a Baptist family and then starting a family of his own; he also shares his thoughts on Gods teachings. Join him as he explores how much good can result when people give themselves up for the sake of others to find true happiness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Aug 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466949614

Book preview

GOD’S

IMPLANTED

DNA

A JOURNEY TO DEEP HAPPINESS AND HEALTH

DON JOHNSON

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© Copyright 2012 Don Johnson.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-4960-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-4961-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012913385

Trafford rev. 07/20/12

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CONTENTS

Preface

Definitions

Chapter 1

A Place To Begin

Chapter 2

Context Of Caring For Others

Chapter 3

What Do We Mean By Caring For Others?

Chapter 4

Examples Of Those Who Have Discovered Caring For Others As The Essence Of Life

Chapter 5

Giving Ourselves Does Not Mean Ignoring Our Own Needs

Chapter 6

Ramifications Of Not Caring For Others

Chapter 7

God’s Implanted DNA And Health

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Endnotes

PREFACE

This book is based on the assumption that everyone is born with energy from the day he or she is born until his or her death. We decide how our energy is to be invested every day. It may be conscious or unconscious, but the fact remains, we are investing our energy in one way or another.

We must ask ourselves the question How can I best invest this energy? We will expend this energy one way or another. The understanding of this book is that the Mystery (God) has created us in such a way—the generosity of our creation—that we are destined to spend this energy for others. This does not mean we neglect ourselves; rather, we need to be consciously aware of our destiny to care for others. This is the DNA the Mystery (God) has implanted in us and what the Mystery has intended for our creation.

Obviously, we do not live for others all the time, but this does not change the DNA that the Mystery has implanted in us. Giving ourselves to others is the cornerstone of our creation. It is unchangeable and the essence of our creation. There are consequences for living for others and for not living for others. I will use articles from books, newspapers, and magazines; conversations; TV programs; and personal experiences as experiential evidence of this reality.

This book is about observations and affirmations that confirm that when one gives oneself to others, there is a fulfillment in life that cannot be had in any other way. Our culture teaches us, through advertisements and other means, to invest our energy in living for ourselves, which will result in emptiness and a void. Only when we embrace God’s implanted DNA will we experience fulfillment in life.

DEFINITIONS

When I write that God’s implanted DNA is caring for others, it is a very broad thrust of energy. God’s implanted DNA is the energy Bishop John Spong is referring to when he writes, To enhance life, to enhance love, to enhance being is to do the work of God’s realm.¹

The single word love as found in 1 John 2:10—He who loves his brother (sister) abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling—is the same as God’s DNA implanted in us. Another term that is used for God’s implanted DNA is working for the common good. When we act on behalf of everyone in the world, we are working for the common good. That is God’s implanted DNA.

There are different ways we express the universal nature of God’s implanted DNA. We use terms like force field of goodness, generosity, kindness, justice, peace, nonviolence, and care for each other and nature and the entirety of all that is.² These terms are a part of this broad definition of God’s implanted DNA.

Using the liturgical terms of God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit, or the spirit of Christ as it relates to us personally is affirming God’s implanted DNA. I recognize that the other side of church tradition states we are born in sin, as found in the book of Genesis. If this means we are prone to move away from God’s implanted DNA, I understand what the church is saying. However, that does not diminish the fact that we are created with the implantation of love and are designed to give ourselves to others at our creation.

As I conclude these definitions of God’s implanted DNA, I hope you understand that the author is referring to a broad and wide open caring for the world, whatever you name it.

Chapter 1

A PLACE TO BEGIN

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

—Matthew 22:37-39

If we are going to find the common understanding of all human beings and what makes them happy or fulfilled, it is important to find our own common beginnings. I was born April 1, 1928 (April Fool’s Day), to John and Victoria (Thalen) Johnson. I had nothing to do with my conception and birth; I just arrived.

After my conception and birth, I was nurtured by a caring father and mother. I remember sitting on an armchair with my mother reading Old Testament stories of Daniel in the lion’s den and David encountering Goliath. I remember my mother holding me in the midst of a hailstorm as the hail broke through the windows, landing on the carpet. I remember being held and nursed after I fell from the second-floor banister onto the steps and broke my collarbone. I was told—for I don’t remember—that I was almost run over by a car, the car just touching my fingers, and that I fell into the neighbor’s goldfish pond and almost drowned.

I attended a normal training school (a high school program training teachers to teach in rural schools) and public school kindergarten through fifth grade. I attended sixth grade in a new school building just one block away from my home. During that time, I took piano lessons for about two years.

Our neighbors, John and Cora Taylor, brother and sister, became an important part of my life. They received the Sioux City Journal newspaper in the morning before my dad brought it home from his office in the evening. I went next