Voice Actor Jonathan Cotton: directed by God
Updated: Sep 12
Sometimes it takes a leap of faith. Literally. It was a leap with no real landing spot for this creative genius when he packed his vehicle and headed off to the entertainment capital of LOS ANGELES. His only destination for sure was a storage unit there for his possessions. His wife and five kids were dropped off with friends in Redding and he was headed for a God inspired adventure into the wild world of acting....voice acting. No home, no job, just a promise from God that this was where he needed to be. God's never wrong.
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Jonathan listened and responded to the call, in faith, and is now a successful talent in one of the most competitive industries in the world. His cast of character voices, set him apart from most, and his "story teller" voice is smooth, natural and able to relate any story with ease. Bible verses, book readings and musical vocals he does it all. In this episode you will hear his work, get to know this warm and loving Christian man, and walk away inspired by his life story and Christian Journey. Jonathan Cotton and his story are indeed AMAZING!If you are struggling with a major life decision or have taken your own leap of faith at some point...you will be able to relate to what listening and responding looks likeWhat's next for Jonathan? We asked. I loved his answer. ___________________________________________________________
Also in this conversation we mentioned another voice talent we talked to in Episode #12 , Melissa Disney.We briefly brought up another actor who has become the voice of the Bible on the YouVersion App, Max Maclean, our guest on Episode #24. #voicetalent, #Jonathancotton, #voiceactor, #amazon, #jeffBezos,#animation
JONATHAN COTTON AT A GLANCE
Los Angeles Voice Actor • Pastor • Musician • Former Amazon Advertising Creative • Father of Five
Topics
Voice acting • Amazon • Faith • Jesus • Animation • Advertising • Bible narration • Audiobooks • Hollywood • Pastoral ministry • Calling • Trust
His Faith Journey
Preacher's kid → Runs from home and faith → “Professional prodigal” → Crisis and surrender to Jesus → Learning sonship and grace → Hearing God's call into voice acting → Waiting through hardship → Breakthrough in Los Angeles → Voice actor and ministry
This Episode Explores
Jonathan's unusual path from animation to Amazon advertising
Working near Jeff Bezos during Amazon's early growth
The prayer that preceded his unexpected call into voice acting
Meeting producer Clem Daniels and beginning his voice career
Character voices, including Max the Dog
Narrating Christian books and Bible-related projects
Growing up as the son of two ministers
Running from God and returning to Jesus in 1996
Learning to see God as Father rather than transactional
Moving to Los Angeles without knowing how it would work
The long season of waiting before his voice career took off
How obedience and trust shaped his journey
Questions Answered
Who is Jonathan Cotton?
What did Jonathan Cotton do at Amazon?
How did Jonathan become a voice actor?
How did Clem Daniels help launch his voice career?
What is Jonathan's Max the Dog character?
Has Jonathan Cotton narrated Christian audiobooks?
Did Jonathan grow up in a Christian home?
What happened when Jonathan ran away from God?
How did Jonathan return to Jesus?
Why did Jonathan move to Los Angeles?
How did Jonathan finally break into voice acting?
What does Jonathan believe about God's calling and trust?
Podcast Transcript: Jonathan Cotton on Amazon, Voice Acting, Faith & Following God's Call
Amazing Greats with Ric Hansen
Meet Jonathan Cotton
Ric Hansen:Hi, Ric Hansen here, back with another episode of Amazing Greats — an opportunity for us to share with you an audio experience with somebody who's got an incredible life story and an amazing Jesus story.
Today we're talking with Jonathan Cotton, a Los Angeles voice actor, a pastor, a musician and a father of five.
So here we go with Jonathan Cotton.
Welcome to Amazing Greats. This is Ric Hansen, along with my special guest today, Jonathan Cotton.
Jonathan, great to have you here. Jonathan is a Los Angeles voice actor, a pastor, a musician and a father of five.
That's enough for an amazing great story right there, because there's got to be something interesting going on.
What's the age range?
Jonathan Cotton:I have twin 17-year-old girls, a 13-year-old boy, an 11-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl.
Ric Hansen:And they all live at home still, I'm guessing?
Jonathan Cotton:Oh, yeah. Everybody's at home.
The 17-year-olds haven't left yet.
Our quiver is full.
Life With Five Kids
Ric Hansen:Indeed.
Just describe for me the dynamic of a family with five kids — a family of seven.
How do you fit in the same car? Do you all sit at the same dinner table? Do you have to take out a loan to go see a Disney movie?
Those kinds of questions.
Jonathan Cotton:Right. Yes, all the things.
We have an 18-passenger van. That is our primary vehicle.
That and then I have a motorcycle, of course. So when I go somewhere solo, I can take my bike if it's not raining.
We have an 18-passenger van. That's how we get around, how we get groceries, how we go to the movies.
So far we haven't had to take out a loan to go to the movies, but I can see it. It's getting up there.
We have a really big dining table. It fits all of us, plus two more, so we can have another small group — like a couple can come and join us if needed.
From Animation to Advertising
Ric Hansen:That is so cool, and I'm already in awe of that.
This is going to be a great conversation because there's so much more about your story that we want to find out about, and it gives us an opportunity to dig into your Christian journey as well.
But let's first start with your career story.
Your background is really advertising. You worked at advertising agencies, one of which was a standout in terms of notoriety — your involvement at Amazon.
Tell us a little bit about where that was and what your involvement was.
This was in 2008, so you were kind of at the ground floor, right?
Jonathan Cotton:I went to college and focused on media arts, or animation.
Traditional animation — hand-drawn, five-foot-tall stacks of paper.
A lot of us in the core group I was part of were always trying to push the boundaries of how we were creating.
We were forerunners in some of the new computer technology that was coming out.
We were transitioning from the old camera-down-page process — take a picture of one page, take a picture of another page, 30 pages per second — into some of the newer computer programs.
One of those was Flash, which was a brand-new thing, and it revolutionized what we were doing.
So I went laterally and started finding out as much as I could about some of these other computer technologies.
That ended up putting me on the radar of a big advertising agency in Seattle.
I had no plan to get into advertising at all.
I had a job. I was doing work for Paramount, Nickelodeon and others. I was doing animation and illustration work all over the place.
I got hired from that into an advertising agency as an art director, which was way out of my depth in a lot of ways.
But I found that I could move well in those waters, so to speak.
I worked really hard to do a good job.
After a few years, I got on the radar of Amazon.
They approached me several times in a year. They sent me four or five different invitations to come in, and I spoke with them several times.
Nothing really fit until finally they reached out with a project that Jeff was kind of passionate about.
I was one of three people hired to essentially kick-start their advertising department.
This was when Amazon had just stopped selling just books.
I think they were selling toaster ovens or VCRs or something else, too.
It was early on, before they really blew up.
Ric Hansen:And you were on a first-name basis with Jeff because you just referred to him as Jeff.
Jonathan Cotton:Well, his office was down the hall from mine.
If I didn't shut my office door, you could hear his enormous, booming laugh.
It would travel down the halls.
If we were having meetings, we'd have to shut the door.
It was great. Having the big boss laughing like that was a plus.
I never sat down and had face-to-face conversations with him that often, but yeah — he was Jeff.
What Was Jeff Bezos Like?
Ric Hansen:The laughter thing is great insight into what kind of a guy he was. He obviously had a great sense of humor.
Was he intense? Was the man focused and intense?
Jonathan Cotton:I think he was one of the most intense people I've ever seen.
Certainly beyond genius in his ideas and in the way that he fulfilled those ideas.
Even the thing he was doing with the team — with me and the other two people who initially came on — a lot of the other leadership at the time were in disagreement.
But one of the ways they functioned was that they would try things.
They would invest in trying something, and if it didn't work, they considered that extremely valuable because they would learn a lot from trying and failing.
I don't know what it's like now, but that was how they did so many things back then.
I thought the guy was a genius.
When Faith Changed His Career
Ric Hansen:You worked in advertising, you worked at Amazon, and then in 2016 you decided to freelance.
You were probably making good money in a good, solid position, and that had to be a big decision.
Tell us how that came down.
Jonathan Cotton:This is where my faith journey interweaves through all of these things.
In 2014 and 2015, my wife and I, along with the leadership in the church that we were part of, had really been seeking the Lord about some things — as a large group, as a congregation, and then as individuals.
My wife, Carrie, and I felt like something was coming. Something that the Lord was leading us toward.
We had no idea what that direction was.
We had zero specifics.
We were waiting on Him.
We felt like there was an answer right around the corner, but it just wasn't happening.
We didn't know if we weren't hearing it, or if He wasn't saying it out loud.
We weren't really sure what was going on.
It got to a place of real desperation before the Lord.
We were saying, "God, we want to hear what You have to say to us. Will You speak?"
One night, as we were going to bed, we prayed together.
I said, "God, please forgive the audacity in my saying this, but please speak. And if possible, speak without riddles. Just give me — tell me exactly what You want. I'll do it. I promise."
The next day I went to work.
I had started at the agency I was working at doing scratch reads for ads.
They knew I was a musician, so they said, "Oh, you're a musician. You probably have a nice voice. Can you come in and sit down?"
A scratch read is the read for a commercial before they hire the talent to actually read the commercial.
I was doing that a lot.
The next day I had a really important one. It was a big potential contract for the agency, and a VP sat in and directed me for the scratch read.
After it was over — remember, this was the day after we had prayed — this VP came to me and said, "Hey, this was great. Do you do this professionally? Voice work? Do you do voice work professionally?"
I said, "No, I don't."
He said, "Well, you really should."
I'm thinking, "Oh, thank you."
And he said, "I'm not complimenting you. Are you an idiot? Why aren't you doing this professionally?"
It was like a stern older uncle talking to me.
Later that afternoon, the president of the agency was walking past my desk.
He stopped and said, "Hey, this VP — did he say to you that you should go find out about doing voice work?"
I said, "Yes, sir."
He said, "Did you do it?"
I said, "No."
He said, "Stop everything you're doing and call this number."
He gave me the phone number of an agent in Seattle.
I called her, and through that I met this wonderful man, Clem Daniels.
That literally kick-started the process of me going into voice acting.
I went home at the end of that day and said to my wife, "I think I got the answer."
I think the answer came, and it was clear as a bell.
It hit me upside the head almost.
No riddles.
From Advertising to Voice Acting
Ric Hansen:No riddles. It was just there in front of you.
A lot of clarity.
And Clem Daniels is the producer and editor of this podcast. He's a good friend of mine from our years in radio.
That's how I found out about you and then found out about your amazing career.
You have a gift for not only having a nice voice for what we would call a good voice read for a commercial, but you're a character voice actor as well.
You do a variety of characters.
We're going to take a pause right now because Clem said, "Give me a break in the podcast so we can drop in his audio reel."
Go ahead, Clem. Take it away.
Jonathan Cotton's Voice Reel
Jonathan Cotton:Hello, is Jonathan Cotton there?
One moment, please.
Okay, I'm coming.
This is Jonathan Cotton.
This is Jonathan Cotton.
This is Jonathan Cotton.
Voice Reel:I love Jonathan Cotton. You're beautiful!
Jonathan Cotton:For thousands of years, the Arctic muskox has relied on the unique characteristics of its purpose to survive the unimaginably hostile conditions of the Canadian—
Finally, after years of failure, disappointment and underfunding, I'm on the precipice of the money.
Two concurrent life sentences with no possibility for parole.
During the reign of the Babylonian king, a commander, a golden image was built, and the king commanded all to bow down and worship it.
Commercial Voice:Luckily, Amazon's Subscribe & Save program can help you face your fear. With Subscribe & Save, you pick what you want, how many and how often.
The Voice of Max the Dog
Ric Hansen:So there you have it. That is what Jonathan is all about.
Jonathan Cotton, you are amazing.
What is your favorite character to perform?
Jonathan Cotton:Oh gosh.
There are many that I do on a regular basis, but probably the one that's a favorite — certainly of my kids — was a character I did several years ago.
It's a dog. His name is Max.
It was a dog that a squirrel had taught how to text.
I did many episodes of this dog, Max, communicating with his favorite person, who was his boy.
I don't know why I picked this voice.
The producers handed me a stack of scripts and said, "We need to get some reads in the room for mic settings. Give us Max the dog."
So I just came out with this:
"My favorite thing about my boy is he's the best owner in the whole world. I mean, look at him. Look at what he does."
He's so talented and beautiful and great, and he gives me cake every time I ask for it sometimes.
It was wild, energetic and crazy.
I thought it was hilarious doing it.
There were a lot of pauses for laughter in the studio while we would do it.
My kids love that character.
So that's probably one of the greats.
Building a Character Voice
Ric Hansen:Is he still alive and well? Have you used him in anything recently?
Jonathan Cotton:It's funny.
Pat Fraley, who is an OG — the guy is amazing — has this teaching about having voices in your pocket as a character actor.
You have voices and you're able to add or subtract things when you get into a situation and need a character.
I have this standard voice that I think of as a kind of caricature of a New Yorker accent.
That was what I thought of.
Then I just pushed it all the way to the edge, all the way to the limit.
I just added something to a baseline character that I already have ready to pull out when I need it.
From Character Voices to the Bible
Ric Hansen:From scrappy dog to Bible reading is a pretty big jump.
Have you done voice work on the entire Bible?
Jonathan Cotton:I have not done the entire Bible.
I keep doing more continually.
I'm continually doing more, but I haven't done a straight read-through of the whole Bible into my microphone.
Ric Hansen:Let's listen to what your Bible reading sounds like.
Jonathan Cotton:"You do not have because you do not ask.
Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.
This is the confidence that we have toward Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him."
Narrating the Life of Jesus
Jonathan Cotton:I'm actually working on a project right now where I am doing the life of Jesus.
There are individuals in that story, and I'm tasked with being some of them — some of the disciples, for example, and some of the other characters in that story.
In those cases, I'm trying to be a character.
But when I'm just narrating, the voice I most often get hired to do is what I think of as my storyteller voice.
It's not my natural voice.
It's lower, slower, deeper, more raspy — a narrator, a storyteller.
Jonathan Cotton:Very slow, very calm, very serious at times, but it can also laugh if needed.
So that's my narrator voice.
Audiobooks and Christian Content
Ric Hansen:Have you been asked to do audiobooks? Is that something you've done or are interested in doing?
Jonathan Cotton:Yes, many.
Most of the ones I've done have been on the Christian side of things.
I've done a couple of secular fiction books, but it's been mostly Christian fiction, Bible teaching books and that kind of thing.
So yes, several.
Are you familiar with Max McLean?
Ric Hansen:I don't think so.
Jonathan Cotton:He's an actor in New York and has done the entire Bible.
Ric Hansen:He's got a very — I don't think it's his normal accent — but he uses an English accent and it's very biblical sounding.
He does the Bible readings on the Bible app.
Jonathan Cotton:Okay.
Ric Hansen:You also know Melissa Disney, another voiceover actor who has been a podcast guest of ours.
You've crossed paths with her, right?
Jonathan Cotton:Yep.
I've crossed paths with her many times and done some work with her too.
Growing Up as a Preacher's Kid
Ric Hansen:I want to go way back in the Wayback Machine.
Did you grow up in a Christian home?
Jonathan Cotton:I did.
In fact, both of my parents were ministers.
My dad was a pastor, so I grew up as a preacher's kid.
And an attentive one, too.
I knew the Bible really well. I was very studious — not necessarily well behaved — but I was very studious.
So yeah, I grew up in a Christian home.
The Professional Prodigal
Ric Hansen:Did you have a moment somewhere along the way, maybe as you matured and got older, when you had more of a relationship with Jesus?
Did that come about in an instant, or was it a growing thing?
Jonathan Cotton:Yeah, I did.
In fact, when I was in my late teens, I ran away.
I ran away from home, I ran away from God, I ran away from all of the things that I knew.
I lived for several years as what I refer to now as a "professional prodigal."
I did all the things.
I never stopped believing in God or in the God that I understood from growing up.
I just stopped following the rules as I saw them.
There were many years of crisis in my faith because while I believed, I knew I was not living at the standard that I felt like I should, and I didn't really know how to get back to that place again.
In 1996, I had kind of hit the bottom and then crashed through the floor of the bottom into a sub-basement of the bottom.
I was in a very rough place.
I had an opportunity to leave where I was living at the time and go visit my parents.
When I was with them, they brought me to a big Christian men's conference.
In that place, I could sense the invitation of the Lord — "Come to Me."
And I said no.
I said no because I'd done this many times.
I would want to return, and then I'd come, draw near for a day, a week or a month, and I'd always go right back.
I'd fall down again.
So in this moment of calling, where it was so clear and so beautiful, where I could really sense the Lord beckoning me to come near, I said, "No. I want to, but I can't. I'm not capable of doing it."
A couple of days later, in the middle of the night, I had another moment where I felt the closeness or presence of the Lord.
His invitation was so strong.
I said, "God, if You can change me — if You're capable and willing of changing what I see as brokenness in myself — then I'll do whatever You want. I'll be Yours 100%."
Some people came alongside me in the next few weeks and showed me truths about the Lord that I did not know.
They showed me aspects of His character and mine that I was not aware of.
I very much had a view of God and my relationship with Him as being transactional.
I thought, "I give You my good behavior or my good deeds, and then You give me Your affection, Your love, Your mercy and Your forgiveness."
I found out from people coming alongside me that this was an incorrect posture before the Lord.
I was, in fact, His son, and He wanted to be my Father.
That changed my life.
It radically changed my life and brought me onto this new direction that has ended with me sitting in this dark room talking to you.
Learning to Trust the Calling
Ric Hansen:It's been a wonderful journey.
Let's review maybe a couple of other significant moments where God showed up career-wise along the way.
You've made this dramatic decision to go freelance and get into voice work.
How does that appear today on a day-to-day basis?
Jonathan Cotton:Where am I at today? What am I doing today?
I'm working full-time as an actor.
Full-time meaning eight to ten hours probably a day, depending on how well I manage my days.
I'm working right now on two nine-month-long projects, kind of back to back.
One is secular and one is faith-based.
In addition to that, I'm working on a video game right now.
I'm also working with a secular meditation app, doing regular work with them.
Then I have a smattering of other things.
I just take what I can.
I'm trying to manage success, especially having moved to Los Angeles.
The entertainment business in Los Angeles is the entertainment business in Los Angeles.
Everybody is in the business.
Almost everyone is either in the business or serving in the business in some way.
I know a lot of working actors, and everybody is hustling.
When I say hustle, I mean everybody's working hard.
A lot of people are driving for Uber. They're extras on one show or leads on another.
Everybody is working really hard.
I've certainly pushed into those moments.
I've gone back to my design work at times to support what we're doing.
But last year and this year have been times when I'm primarily doing acting.
Ric Hansen:Have you ever wanted to act on screen?
Jonathan Cotton:I actually grew up doing not on screen, but on stage.
I grew up with theater, improv, stand-up comedy and things like that.
I've considered it.
I've been an extra in a couple of things, and I've considered doing some on-screen work.
But really, this is where the Lord has guided us for now, so this is where I'm putting my energies.
I do get requests, but I usually move them to the side depending on what they are.
When the Answer Was Silence
Ric Hansen:It's a question I always ask our guests because it's the other side of all the great things God has done in your life.
Everybody, I think, experiences at one time or another the unanswered prayer.
"Where is God in this?"
Do you have a moment in your life that you can share with us?
Jonathan Cotton:Absolutely.
As I said, in 2015 and 2016, the Lord gave us this new direction.
I did not immediately begin to work as a full-time actor.
In fact, I did one job.
I was a cow in a Dairy Gold commercial.
The studio manager came up to me afterward and said, "You're amazing. You have all these incredible voices you can do."
My demo was brand new, and Clem had produced it.
She said, "It's great. It's really great. But you will never find work in Seattle because Seattle really is a commercial market."
She wasn't being mean. She was straight-shooting, which I appreciated.
I had left my agency, not to do this, but because we were pushing into some other things.
I'd left my full-time job, and we didn't really know what we were going to do.
I was driving. I was delivering pizzas.
I was working at Home Depot in the morning and delivering pizzas in the evening.
And I was asking God, "God, what in the heck is going on?"
I felt like I'd heard You.
"Did I hear You? Am I doing what You want me to do?"
And it was silence.
Or I knew He was there, but it was quiet.
So I thought, "Okay. Just keep going. I've got to pay the bills."
After about a year of that, I got a call from that same studio manager with a project that was about 15 months long.
I was in the studio Monday through Friday, many hours a day, doing character work like Max the Dog.
Ric Hansen:Yeah.
Jonathan Cotton:I was an amateur professional actor at that time.
I didn't really know how anything worked, so my pay was commensurate with that.
It wasn't enough to live on.
I was still delivering pizzas and still asking questions.
Then after a while, we felt the Lord leading us to move to Los Angeles.
We didn't know anyone in Los Angeles.
We didn't know any place.
What we knew about Los Angeles was mostly what the rest of the world knows — what we'd seen on TV and in movies.
I'd been to Disneyland, but that's about it.
We really felt like that was what we were supposed to do.
So we packed up a moving van and drove to L.A.
I didn't have an address to drive to.
I drove to a storage unit and dropped my wife and kids off in Redding, Northern California, where we had some friends and connections.
They stayed there for a month while I came down to L.A. with my motorcycle, stayed in a hostel and tried to find a place to live.
It was very hard.
As anyone who's tried to live in Los Angeles knows, it's hard to find a place to live.
Through all of this, we had this guidance that we felt was from the Lord:
"I want you to push into acting as a career."
I didn't feel like anything was happening from it.
It was frustrating and frightening.
We finally found an apartment and had my wife and kids in this brand-new place where we didn't know anyone.
We didn't understand what was happening around us.
We didn't have an income.
We were getting eviction notices every month.
I'm thinking, "God, what is it? Just again, tell me. Tell me what You want. I will do it."
The Voice That Opened the Door
Jonathan Cotton:I finally, very accidentally, ran into one of the top teachers and directors in town.
I'd been invited to a church meeting that was industry-only, invitation-only.
During the sermon — which was an excellent sermon — the pastor was talking about two characters in the Bible who were in their old age and still fighting giants.
I quietly turned to the guy next to me and said something like, "I've been fighting giants in these hills for 45 years."
I wasn't trying to heckle. I said it quietly.
He laughed quietly, and I laughed quietly, and the rest of the sermon continued.
Afterward, in the lobby, I was talking with a few people.
Suddenly this important-looking person swept into our midst.
He was wearing a suit and looked like a Hollywood mogul.
He came right up to me and said, "Were you doing an old prospector voice during the sermon?"
I said, "Sir, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to disrupt anything. I hope that didn't—"
He said, "No. Are you a voice actor?"
"Yes, sir."
"Do you have a card?"
"I actually do have a card."
"Give it to me."
He took it and left.
That was it.
He just walked away.
The next night he called me and said, "Hey, give me your range."
My range?
He said, "You know, what are your voices?"
So I went from a baby to an old man and all the voices in between.
He said, "Okay, great. Somebody's going to reach out to you."
I've been working with them for almost five years now.
I'm a principal on one of their shows.
I think there's a principle of the Lord calling you to something and then commissioning you for something.
In between that moment of saying, "Okay, God, I will follow You into this thing You've called me to. I'll push into it with all my strength, all my heart, all my mind and all my soul," there was a period of learning.
I was literally learning.
I was being coached. I was taking classes.
I was doing $50 jobs, $25 jobs, free jobs and not knowing how I was going to pay my rent.
And now, praise God, sometimes I'm turning work away.
So I think obedience is a big key.
Ric Hansen:Talk about trust.
That's what it's all about, I guess, from what you just described.
I've never heard it said exactly that way — from the calling to the actual commissioning, the time between is where trust is critical.
Jonathan Cotton:Yes.
Ministry Around the Dinner Table
Ric Hansen:You're doing a lot in pastoring and connecting with other people in a church setting.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Jonathan Cotton:We attend a church in Pasadena.
That's where we go. Our kids are all there. We're embedded in that church.
But we also have a dinner or meal that we host in our home once a month.
I was also a professional cook as part of my past.
I'm not a professional cook now, but I've honed that as far as I know.
From what people tell me, it's not bad.
I cook as big a meal as I can — a really special, big dinner.
We have between 20 and 30 people who come once a month.
We share a meal together, and then I'll share something extremely brief.
I'll say, "Here's kind of what I'm thinking. Here's something I want to share with you."
Then we'll have a time where we worship the Lord together.
I'm a musician, and there are other musicians who come as well.
We'll spend some time worshiping the Lord together.
In addition to that, my wife and I have many relationships with people we refer to as our sons and daughters.
They're not from our loins. They're not our biological children.
But they are sons and daughters to us.
We're speaking into their lives on a regular basis, weekly in many cases.
We very much have dug into the father-child dynamic of our relationship with God.
That affects what we receive, how we perceive God, how we perceive ourselves and how we perceive others.
That's something that's constantly flowing through our lives and through our home.
What Does the Future Hold?
Ric Hansen:What do you see Jonathan Cotton being five years from now? Maybe ten years from now?
What do you envision?
Jonathan Cotton:Wow.
I think I have a Bible verse for that, actually.
"We do not yet know what we shall be."
I don't know.
There's another Bible verse that says we are unable to ask or even imagine the things that the Lord has planned for us.
My wife and I have lived very intentionally and purposely the last 23 years of our lives together in the sense of asking:
"God, what is it that You're wanting us to do? What are You speaking to us?"
We want to hear Your voice and be led by You.
And He has led us.
I never planned — I never had any inkling — that I would be where I'm sitting today 20-plus years ago, when He invited me in that field in the middle of the night:
"Come to Me."
So that's a great question.
I don't know if this is a good answer or not, but I don't know.
I'm pushing into this.
It seems like there's been favor on it and some success.
So maybe further into this.
But who knows?
The Lord knows.
Closing
Ric Hansen:Let's leave it at that, Jonathan.
I thank you so much for your time.
Thank you for sharing your story.
I know this is going to reverberate with many of our audience members.
God bless you, God bless the work you're doing and the person you are.
I appreciate you being with us today.
Jonathan Cotton:Ric, thank you so much for having me.
I'm so honored that you would have me on your show.
Thank you so much, and God bless you.
Ric Hansen:Thanks for joining me, Ric Hansen, and our guest, Jonathan Cotton, on this rendition of the podcast Amazing Greats.
Have a great rest of your day, have a great rest of your year.
God bless you.
We'll see you next time on Amazing Greats.
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