Uphill climb	Monday, March, 15, 2010
by John Fischer I am out of reasons; I am out of time. I am out to make it in the uphill climb. - John Fischer from the song, "Time for You" Chandler and I went mountain biking this weekend. I'm not really into this sport; I just borrowed my daughter's bike and ventured out with just a little trepidation. After checking out the best trails on the Internet, we set out to find the trailhead. I selected a canyon trail thinking it would be the least challenging. I imagined us meandering along the canyon floor among low-lying bushes and scrub brush and an occasional gnarly California oak. Instead it was up and down—mostly up, going in, since we were moving away from the ocean into the hills. I could have thought of that had I given it any consideration beforehand. There were some uphill sections that were too much for even my 18 gears. I needed 19. Here's what I found out about going uphill on a mountain bike. If you stop anywhere along a steep grade, forget starting again. You're walking the rest of the way until the trail levels off. Your only hope of staying in the saddle is to keep the momentum going. I think that says something about perseverance. When you're in an uphill climb in your life—perhaps you're trying to kick a bad habit, or you've got barriers to overcome, keep going. It won't always be this hard, but you will get though it faster if you keep pedaling. And if you get to a point where you just can't pedal anymore, it's okay. Don't lose heart. It just means you will have to get off the bike and walk. Push the bike until you can get on it again when things level off. Just don't quit. "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:11-14)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

A better way	Friday, March, 12, 2010
by John Fischer Do this and live, the law commands, But gives me neither feet nor hands; A better way his grace doth bring, It bids me fly and gives me wings. The law is no one's friend. Nothing wrong with it. It's all good and right and holy. King David, in the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119 (176 verses), does nothing but extol the virtues of the law. He loved the law. He delighted in it and meditated on it day and night. But it was nonetheless not his friend. There is nothing in the law to help us obey it. It is just there—the standards and precepts of God—waiting for someone to come along and do them. But no one can. And this is why the law is also a taskmaster, or as Paul wrote, a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ (see below). And a rather harsh one at that, for as good and right and holy as the law is, it also condemns those who don't follow it. Well I don't know about you, but I'm usually coming up way short. But someone did eventually come along who fulfilled all the requirements of the law as a man—the man, Jesus. And along with him came a better way for us. By putting our faith in him, everything he's done as a man counts for us. Whatever he's done, we can do. Whatever he has overcome can be overcome by us. Whatever he has earned is ours to claim. And should he want us to fly, well, we will find that we already have wings for that. We are sons and daughters now. "But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:23-26)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 1 Available]

Grace on the line	Thursday, March, 11, 2010
by John Fischer "Hi, John, it's Grace. Just wanted to let you know I was down here." It was 5:30 a.m. and even earlier than that in my time zone to which I was returning. There was no way Grace could have known how significant a statement her words were for me at the time. She was merely following through with her assignment to pick me up at my hotel and drive me to the airport for my early morning flight home. She was a part of the group I spoke to that weekend and had volunteered for taxi service. I hadn't even remembered her name until she said over the phone, "Hi, John, it's Grace. Just wanted to let you know I was down here." Those simple words hit me in an entirely different manner than she could have intended. For her it was a casual statement, probably her first words of the morning except for ordering coffee at the 24-hour market on the way to my hotel. But for me, those words were the words of God, breathed to me over the in-house telephone line of my hotel by the Holy Spirit, catching me totally by surprise in their directness and disarmament of worry and guilt: "Hi, John, it's Grace. Just wanted to let you know I was down here." I had only been awake for half an hour, yet I had somehow managed in that short span of time to put myself into a guilt trip that was taking me down. Baggy eyes and regret were starting a new day off on the wrong foot already. That's when the phone rang, and a voice from out of nowhere said, "Hi, John, it's Grace. Just wanted to let you know I was down here." How about you? I bet you could use a phone call like that, this morning. Go ahead. Pick it up. It's probably just Grace on the line letting you know she's down there. She always is.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 12 Available]

Comic reality	Wednesday, March, 10, 2010
by John Fischer Well someone suggested that one way we could get rid of the self-conscious, image-conscious church scene would be for everyone to don robes before we go to church so that we would all look the same and no one could judge someone else by their looks. Chandler goes to a school that requires uniforms for this very reason. Actually my wife is already a step ahead on this one: Everyone wear black. That's all she has in her closet—black dresses. Black dresses to soccer games, black dresses to work, black dresses to church. If she ever asks me what should she wear on a particular occasion, I always say, "Wear the black dress." Actually church should be now what it's going to be someday—a ton of people experiencing joy, not from a worship song, but from the joy found in I John I:1-4—from having seen, heard and/or felt the Lord. Then all kinds of believers would be in big bear hugs cause it wouldn't matter if you saw Him, heard Him, or sensed Him. No one would have a better story than anyone else, and it would not matter what you wore. The church that most approximates this is a church we went to where everyone was a card carrying member of a dysfunctional family so everyone accepted you for who you were, because it was a given you were blowing it in some area, and it didn't matter which one. Marti's recommendation is that everyone wear around his or her neck a mirror instead of a cross. One look at the image there and you would either cry because His 'why' was so great, or you would laugh at the comic relief He must find in our hiding. Comic relief… or maybe comic reality.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 13 Available]

Silent questions	Tuesday, March, 09, 2010
by John Fischer "I can't go to church today; I don't know what I'm going to wear." I wonder how many times thinking like this has kept people from finding the love and support a group of believers could provide. "I don't want to iron my good slacks, and besides, I've gained so much weight, I'm not sure they'll even fit anymore. I'm just so sure everyone is going to be looking at me!" Where do these kinds of thoughts come from? Is there any truth to them? What do church and clothes have to do with each other anyway? Why do we have to have our best foot forward in church? Why do people feel like they are being sized up in church? Are they? "Which pew shall we sit in? I want to sit near the back." How many people come to church to hide? Why bother coming if you are only going to remain isolated? But who wants to come out of hiding when there is so much judging and evaluating going on? What must we do to change this? "I'd better pop in a stick of gum, I had garlic last night!" This person is bordering on paranoid. Got to reach out and find people like this. We have a lot to overcome in order to make this a place where everyone is truly welcome. "I'm not going back there for coffee; going straight for the car." You know people like this. They look like they know exactly where they are going and how to get there. You wouldn't want to interrupt them now, would you? Well I hope so, if you care. [Thanks to Kimberly for the painfully truthful questions.]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 13 Available]

Chopin's heart	Monday, March, 08, 2010
by John Fischer This weekend Marti and I spent an enchanting evening with Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849), the Polish composer and virtuoso pianist who is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music. Through the magic of theater and the artistry of actor and musician Hershey Felder, Chopin came alive and kept us spellbound for over two hours of music and dialogue. He even fielded questions from the audience towards the end of the play and took it all in character. One of the last stories he told was the story of his death to tuberculosis at the young age of 39. Before his funeral, and in keeping with Chopin's dying wish (which stemmed from a fear of being buried alive—something not uncommon in that day), his heart was removed and preserved in alcohol. (Our onstage Chopin was careful to point out it was actually fine cognac.) Aware of his sadness over not being able to return to his native Poland, his sister took the heart in an urn to Warsaw, where it was sealed within a pillar of the Holy Cross Church beneath an inscription from Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." It is still there to this day, though it was removed for safekeeping during World II when the church was bombed. Our Chopin revealed to us that it was, surprisingly, a Nazi soldier who removed the urn, and later brought it back when he heard the church was being rebuilt. This is yet another illustration of how the closer you get to those we tend to categorize and demonize, the more human they appear. Christ told us to love our enemies. That may not be as hard to do as one might think.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

The long and longer way	Friday, March, 05, 2010
by John Fischer What should have been an eleven-day trip for the children of Israel to get from the Red Sea to the crossing of the Jordan River into the Promised Land ended up taking them 40 years in the wilderness. As someone who grew up in church, I can attest to the fact that this story really preaches. "How to turn an eleven-day walk into 40 years wandering aimlessly in the wilderness." And always, the lesson has been to obey God, because look what happens when you don't. The implication being that the children of Israel could have greatly shortened this time had they not grumbled against Moses and God. It's a powerful message, which, unfortunately, sends many people home depressed. Either they have children or loved ones who are disobediently wandering around in their own wildernesses, or they themselves feel the sting of the hot desert sun. Who of us can say they haven't disobeyed the Lord? Who of us hasn't grumbled or complained to God about the way He has been running things? I'm not even sure the eleven-day trip is an option for anyone. Now I know a lot of you are suffering due to desert experiences—yours or someone else’s. Yes, the children of Israel wasted a lot of time wandering around for 40 years on a trip that should have only taken eleven days, but here’s another way to look at it—God got them to the Promised Land nonetheless, didn't He? I believe this is much more the message of this story than "obey God and things will go great for you; disobey Him and eat desert dust." Desert experiences are not always our fault. Sometimes they are sent to strengthen our faith. Faith that is defined by the good life is not going to stretch anyone very far. In fact, it can get us into a lot of trouble when we assume that success is God's blessing. Hardship, on the contrary, is definitely underrated. It teaches us patience and builds character. Faith when God seems far away and everything seems to be going wrong is a faith that truly means something. The desert is not always the long way; it is sometimes the only way. So here's something to think about: There’s the long way and there’s the longer way, but they both arrive at the same place. Yes, we can make the long way longer, but God will always be faithful to get us where He promised. This is something to hold onto, for you, and for those you love, who, in spite of everything, belong to Him. God does not abandon His own. “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 13 Available]

Space defenders	Thursday, March, 04, 2010
by John Fischer Yesterday's Catch about going underground on either side of the culture wars brought out a number of book and film recommendations from a few of you. This is apparently not a new idea. The most interesting one to me was Jim and Casper Go to Church, suggested by Laura from Lubbock. It is the story of a Christian and an atheist visiting mega churches across the country and discussing what they found. According to Laura, the real value of the book is found in the friendship they develop. Given the rarity of Christians and non-Christians in relationships to begin with, that would seem worth the price of the book alone. Then she pointed out an important transition that occurred in their relationship—a transition from "defending the faith" to "defending the space." That space is described as a relational space allowing for "authentic, respectful dialog and friendship between believers and nonbelievers." I'm thinking about what that space might represent and I can think of a number of things. Space to grow, space to respect, space to fail, space to disagree, space to change, space to stay the same, space to believe, space to not believe. This is a space worth cultivating. It is a space worth fighting for. It's a space that will ensure that a relationship can be born. Such a space will face opposition from either side and that's why you will need to defend it. Possess this and you have a rare and special thing that God can use. For that is the most important reason for this space—room for the Holy Spirit to move.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 10 Available]

The disarming humanity of the enemy	Wednesday, March, 03, 2010
by John Fischer In her book, In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey Into the Heart of the Evangelical Church, Gina Welch, a lifelong atheist, goes "underground" in Jerry Falwell's Lynchburg, Virginia congregation to try and understand the evangelical movement from the inside and gather observations for this, her first book. In a review of that book in the Los Angeles Times, however, Laura Collins-Hughes concludes that it is Gina Welch who comes off as the villain in her own research—a liar and a faker (she even fakes a salvation experience) whose questionable motives contrast the vulnerable trust her subjects place in her. In her concluding paragraph, Collins-Hughes writes: "With a youthful blend of cynicism and naïveté, she (Welch) approached Falwell's flock as if they were the enemy—thereby setting herself up to be totally disarmed by their humanity. In this minor skirmish of the culture wars, score one for the evangelicals." I'm not surprised. I have noticed this to be the case whenever someone crosses over for an unbiased look into the camp of a perceived enemy whether it's religious, political, racial or any other form of prejudice, what they find out is always how human and like themselves, the so-called enemy is. Like in the 2005 movie, Joyeux Noël, when on Christmas Eve during World War 1, members of the German, French and Scottish armies declare a temporary truce and end up in a fleeting moment of brotherhood, burying their dead, celebrating mass together, and playing football. What if we went underground into the world? What if we disguised ourselves as unbelievers, would we find out the same thing? Undoubtedly. We would find out how much like non-Christians we are, and how little there is that separates us. We might even be surprised by how much we like these people. And we might find out we understand why they don't believe, which would help us greatly when we talk to them as those who do, knowing what kind of obstacles to belief are in the way. So how about it? We can stay on our sides, shoot at each other and believe all kinds of lies about the other guys, or we can try and make peace, bury our dead, celebrate mass together, and play football. Which will it be? "An evangelical? Not really," by Laura Collins-Hughes, Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2010, p D7.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 11 Available]

Work out; work in	Tuesday, March, 02, 2010
by John Fischer Michael from South Carolina wrote after yesterday's Catch, "I constantly struggle with the intersection of human initiative and God's grace. I'd appreciate your reflection on that." Well, about the best I can say is that it's a mystery and a paradox wrapped into one. Any attempt to make it make sense is going to compromise one or the other. The truth is they both work together in ways unknown to us. It's not one or the other; it's both, together. I can look at my life and see seasons when one dominated over the other. Early on, it was all about what I did for God. Faith was legalistically tied to doing the right things and not doing wrong things. Then, as I became a young man, I came to be mentored by a group of pastors whose mantra was the New Covenant ministry based on the saying, "Everything from God and nothing from us." Though I understand this was not the intent, it soon became a convenient way to absolve you of responsibility. That's why as of late, I've been asserting my responsibility again. The verses that put it all together for me are Philippians 2:12-13: "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." How many workings are there here? Two—mine to work it out, his to work it in. This is the mystery: it's really both of these together. "Live as if it depended on you; believe as if it depended on God."
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

In the bleachers	Monday, March, 01, 2010
by John Fischer They gathered in the bleachers of the high school football field—about a hundred moms, dads, and kids with skateboards and bmx bikes to register their support for a skateboard park in Laguna Beach. And Chandler and I were among them—Chandler on the new bike we got him after his accident. Chandler is now into all the tricks he wants to be able to do on his bike. His favorite TV channel is Fuel TV, featuring skaters and bikers and the death-defying, anti-gravity tricks they somehow are able to pull off. I never cease to marvel at the impossible feats these kids are able to perform on their bikes and boards; and like we just saw in the Winter Olympics, every impossible trick done today, will be outdone by someone tomorrow. Isn't it amazing what the human mind and body is capable of? It doesn't seem to matter how difficult it is, someone will eventually do it. But you've got to want it. Think of the will and desire that pushes some athletes beyond the barriers that stop others. You can't possibly be an Olympian without a huge, almost insatiable need to be the best. And I have watched kids on their skateboards try one trick over and over and over again with the same result: crash! But they get up and try yet again. What makes someone do that? They want it. They really, really want it. They want it more than the next guy. So far Chandler has seen things he would like to be able to do on his bike, but I don't see him practicing them, at least not yet. He wants to be able to do it, but he doesn't want it bad enough yet to do whatever it takes to get there. What do you want in life? What do you want from God? You've got to go after it; it won't just come to you. I used to think that it did, and it's gotten me into a lot of trouble.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

A few reflections on window washing	Friday, February, 26, 2010
by John Fischer It's not just a window I'm cleaning, it's a lens, and since it's a lens to the outside, I feel like I'm cleaning the whole world. That's all that's necessary, you know. We're not going to clean up the world, but we can clean up the lens through which we look at the world and others who live in it. "He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it" (Proverbs 11:27). A lot of people are looking for evil these days. Is it any wonder that they are coming up with it? I think we could stand a bit more window cleaning and a lot less demon hunting. It's amazing what a little Windex will do. We're always trying to fix up somebody else's place, while neglecting our own dirty windows. Pretty soon, someone's going to notice how dirty our windows are and suggest to us that this might be why the world looks so bad. "He who seeks good finds goodwill." Jesus found it in the most surprising places: in a young boy who desired to share his lunch, in a Roman soldier's faith, in an outcast Samaritan woman, in the sinners and tax collectors at Levi's house—in the madmen and lepers and lame and numb and dumb—in you and in me, he found goodwill. "Peace on earth to men of goodwill."
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 5 Available]

You, me and God	Thursday, February, 25, 2010
by John Fischer Caryl of Florida wrote after yesterday's Catch: "I'm submitting a request: will you, in a future Catch, expand on upon what you meant by 'reaching for and experiencing God from the standpoint of my whole self has been nothing short of revolutionary.' I need that revolution in my life!" I'll try, Caryl. That statement came out of a lifetime of dissecting every little thing in my life to determine whether it was of the flesh or of the Spirit. It came from too much teaching and too little action. It came from too much introspection and not enough connecting outside of myself. It came from a superficial worldview that arranged everything into sacred and secular compartments. It came from too much comparing spirituality. The revolutionary part was in discovering I didn't need any of that—I just needed a heart for God. God wants a relationship with people who want one with him. It's not much more complicated than that. What is "love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength," if it isn't loving God with your whole self—flesh, spirit, dysfunctions, unconfessed sin… This is for those who have over-analyzed themselves and their spiritual life. God's in the business of simplifying. Children get this much more easily than we do.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 12 Available]

This skin I'm in	Wednesday, February, 24, 2010
by John Fischer My Christian background and training had a tendency to create disconnected individuals at war in their inner selves. We learned to distrust anything human, blame everything on our sinful natures, and long for heaven when this conflict will finally be over. As a result I grew up out of sorts with my humanity. Poor wavering soul on the brink of sin; Will he get out? Will he give in? Flesh and the spirit warring within… What will he do? How will he win? If only he could grab hold of his chin, Unzip himself, and step out of his skin. But alas, he finds, through thick and through thin, That skin is the stuff he will always be in. It is for this reason that singularly reaching for and experiencing God from the standpoint of my whole self has been nothing short of revolutionary. This is me. This is all me. Grab it; pinch it. This flesh is me. This spirit is me. When I sin, it's me sinning. When I glorify God, it's me glorifying. I'm not viewing—from a disconnected, irresponsible distance—the disembodied shell of myself; it's me here and I am choosing all the time what I am going to do with me. I am responsible. Cut my heart open and you won't find a throne-room with a miniature devil and angel playing musical chairs, you will find a heart beating for whom it wants to beat. For when it comes down to it, there's really only God and me and what we do with each other. The more I mess with the simplicity of this basic two-part equation, the more excuses I end up making for myself not to burn with passion in my love for him, not to wrestle with him, not to lay hold of that for which he has laid hold of me.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

The way it is	Tuesday, February, 23, 2010
by John Fischer It first comes on as humorous (I found it in the Sunday morning comics), but then something profound starts to set in. It's a one-line strip called "Mutts," by Patrick McDonnell, and last Sunday's version featured one of its characters as a television news anchor. He's sitting at a desk straightening his papers with the word NEWS overhead. First frame: "…and now a world update…" Second frame: "The sun rose. The birds sang. Rivers flowed. Grass grew. Flowers bloomed. Snow fell. The stars twinkled." Third frame: Nothing… just the anchor sitting there, with his papers. Fourth frame: "And that's the way it is." Actually, humor aside, these things make for great news. This is the kind of news that is going on all the time; it just rarely gets reported. With so much bad news dominating, isn't it nice to hear something positive for a change? And though these things are assumed, that does not make them any less profound. Imagine a morning where the sun didn't rise, birds stopped singing, rivers ceased to flow, grass stopped growing, flowers never bloomed, snow never fell and stars stopped their twinkling, even on a clear, moonless night. Any one of these things would turn our world upside down, yet God, in his infinite wisdom, holds it all together. Thank God today for something obvious that normally escapes your notice. Something huge. Something we rely on every day but would fall apart without it. This is God's nature, to maintain the world we live in; he's the one holding it all together. And that's just the way it is.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 8 Available]

Hard to love sinners	Friday, February, 19, 2010
It's hard to love sinners when you are trying so hard not to be one. I'd be willing to go to the grave known as nothing more than the guy who came up with that sentence. So here it is again… It's hard to love sinners when you are trying so hard not to be one. This statement captures so well the struggle between good and evil in us all. But it is also the struggle between the Old Covenant (the law) and the New (grace). The Old Covenant is all about not sinning. "Thou shalt not…" And if any one of us could actually pull off the Old Covenant, then we would have the right to say anything we want against sinners. We would have the right to only respect those who earn it. We could even despise those who don't, because our righteousness would vindicate us every time, and condemn them. But alas, the law has condemned us all, so that no one can pass judgment, and no one can earn anything. The law was given, not so that we could follow it, but so that we would break it, and find out who we really are. We are those who can lock arms and sing along with Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash and anybody else who might want to join in: "Lord help me, Jesus, I've wasted it so; help me, Jesus, I know what I am." The Old Covenant—the law—teaches you that. It teaches you what you are really made of. And those who spend their life refusing to believe that, and trying to follow it instead, are going to have a hard time loving sinners. And they will have a hard time loving themselves as well. And all those Christians who supposedly got saved by the New Covenant and then go back to living like the Old one were possible (if, indeed, you can do that), well, they're going to have a hard time showing respect to anyone, because… well… it's hard to love sinners when you are trying so hard not to be one. "But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe." (Galatians 3:22 NASB)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 9 Available]

The beginning of respect	Thursday, February, 18, 2010
by John Fischer Well we kind of fell into this whole respect thing, and it has turned into a good discussion. I have been enlightened by your comments and aided by the clarification that has been needed along the way. So much so that I don't think we are quite ready to move on just yet. I think respect ultimately has to do with the value we place on another human being. Do we value someone's life regardless of how they choose to live it? A prisoner on death row has as much value as I do. It all has to do with value. God valued our lives to the extent that he would send his only Son to a horrible death he didn't deserve just so he could redeem us. Are some of us more redeemable than others, or are we all in this together. Susan teaches Math and Science in a charter high school in rural Arizona. She wrote us about how many of her students have been in and out of the probation system for bad choices. Most of them are considered "at risk" because of their home conditions. They tend to be disrespectful of teachers, adults, and each other. Some of this comes from a lack of self-respect. "It is easy to be angry with them and disrespectful," she wrote. "It takes more energy to be respectful to each student, realizing that God made them. I need God's love in me to show each student the same love and respect. Only when they have experienced respect from others can they begin to have respect for themselves. And if they do not respect themselves they will not respect others. Respect needs to start somewhere." There it is. We've been at this all week just to get to that. Respect needs to start somewhere; so how about with you and I… here and now?
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 10 Available]

A starting-point for respect	Wednesday, February, 17, 2010
by John Fischer Some of you wrote after yesterday's Catch that you were having trouble with the idea of respecting everyone. What about lazy good-for-nothings and deadbeat dads? What about criminals and gang members who kill over a pair of sneakers? What about sexual predators who prey on the helpless? How could anyone possibly respect someone like this? Don't you have to earn respect? I believe there is a basic starting-point for respect that comes with being made in the image of God. It's what everyone gets for being human. No matter how bad someone becomes, they never lose this. Besides, there is always the hope of redemption. People can and do change. Does that mean the redeemed person deserves respect while prior to their redemption they didn't? Do we respect one thief next to Christ on a cross, and not the other? Is there ever a time when we are justified in devaluing another human being? I have discovered that respecting others starts with me. It starts with knowing and embracing my own sin. If I weigh my sin against anyone else's, no matter how bad they might seem, mine will always weigh more. Why? Because it's mine. I know my sin. I know its depths and its intricacies. And I know how hard I work to try and forget this—to even focus on how bad someone else is so I don’t have to face how bad I am. And then I bring all this to the table and find out about God's mercy—that I've been forgiven, my slate has been wiped clean, and in God's eyes I'm righteous, in spite of all that other stuff I know about me. You see, once this has happened to you, you can never look down on another human being again. I know what a scoundrel I am, yet God loves me, then how can I not extend that same mercy to everyone else. So when Peter writes: "Show proper respect to everyone" (1 Peter 2:17), you go, "I can do that. I can look at everyone the way God looks at me. I can show them the mercy that he showed me." Who do I think I am if I can do anything short of this? "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst." – Paul, the Apostle (1 Timothy 1:15)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 26 Available]

Respect	Tuesday, February, 16, 2010
by John Fischer Well Presidents Day went off without a hitch, except for the fact that we don't know what to call it, or how to write it. I've seen it as Presidents Day, President's Day and Presidents' Day. It also depends on what state you are in. In Virginia it's still Washington's Birthday. When I was growing up we had separate holidays for Washington (February 22) and Lincoln (February 12). I remember this because I can still feel the excitement of knowing one holiday meant the other was close behind. In 1971 the Uniform Monday Holiday Act put a stop to all that by determining that the third Monday in February would be a good day to celebrate them both. In most states it has now expanded to incorporate a celebration of the office of the President in general, and all former Presidents in particular, and last but not least, our current President. But as I write this, it is still officially Presidents Day, and given that, I have a few more things to say about Presidents and the Presidency. It seems it has become increasingly popular, at least in my lifetime, to blame the President for whatever ails us as a country. Presidents always begin with pretty big approval ratings, but those dwindle rapidly into much lower percentages as they begin their term. We need to remember that we as a people—humble as we are—elected the man through the freedoms that have been won for us Whether or not you voted for him is irrelevant. We all elected him through our system of government, and he is our President. We need to honor him and pray for him, not bad-mouth him. Respect is a dying virtue in our society. There are those to whom respect is due by virtue of their office. We need to reclaim it for ourselves and everyone around us. "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king." (1 Peter 2:13-17)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 12 Available]

Presidents' Day	Monday, February, 15, 2010
by John Fischer Presidents' Day, Valentine's Day and my oldest son's birthday all combined into a single event as I took my family out to dinner yesterday. There are a number of art galleries in our town and after dinner we went through a couple of them just to see what was on the walls. In one gallery there was a print that looked as if it were made for Presidents' Day. The artist had rendered an imaginary gathering of past Presidents in someone's living room. It looked as if Abraham Lincoln had just cracked a joke and Eisenhower and F.D.R. were cracking up. Somehow seeing them all together in such a light made them all seem so ordinary and human—like any gathering of friends. It's hard to imagine that these men influenced the course of human history as much as they did by the decisions they made. And yet they were no different than any one of us, and no better either. We are, all of us, human vessels made to contain the Spirit of God. On one hand, we are common, made up of the same stuff; on the other hand, we contain the presence of God in the Holy Spirit who was given to us. We are ordinary; we are extraordinary. What we accomplish will come by faith and through the power of God as we are thrust into life. The more demanding the situation, the more opportunity to grow. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." (2 Corinthians 4:7) Treasure in a clay pot. Spirit in you and me. Whether you're the President of the United States or a clerk in the back office, the same elements apply. Hear, decide and act. You can change the world.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

Football and worship	Friday, February, 12, 2010
by John Fischer The testosterone level was off the charts. It was my last assignment before heading out to the airport to fly home. I was addressing all 44 members of the Malone University football team in Canton, Ohio. Was I intimidated? You bet I was. I told them I lettered in tennis in high school. I got a good laugh out of that. This was not originally on the calendar of events for my two-day stay on campus, but grew out of a conversation I had over lunch with the new football coach. When he said his goal was to mix worship and football, I connected with that, having always believed that remarkable athletic performances were cause for praising God for making the human body with such amazing capacity. So he invited me to come talk to his team and I accepted. I began by spending a few minutes on Romans 12:1 about presenting our bodies to God as living sacrifices which was our spiritual service of worship. Everything was going fine until I opened it up for questions and one of them wanted to know if anyone could be forced to become a Christian. At first I was a bit blind-sided by the question, but it didn't take me long to figure out where this was coming from. As a Christian university, Malone would have certain behavioral requirements that someone from outside a Christian environment would not understand. Indeed, there were a number of non-Christians on the team who nevertheless had to abide by the rules of the university. As others chimed in with similar grievances, I realized the mistake they were making. They were thinking they were being forced to become Christians because in their minds, being a Christian constituted abiding by certain rules of behavior. So I told them, no one is ever forced to become a Christian because a Christian is someone who responds to God out of the desire of his or her heart. They were only being forced to act like one in keeping with the policies of the university. Isn't it true, however, that most people think this is what a Christian is? It's a misconception that's as old as the Pharisees, but it refuses to die. That's because grace is so contrary to human nature. It goes against everything we know and have been taught. That is, in fact, one of the ways I know it has to be true. It's the most preposterously good news anyone could have not thought of.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

The responsibility box	Wednesday, February, 10, 2010
by John Fischer Last weekend, Chandler spent Saturday night at his big brother's and sister's apartment meaning Marti and I had the rare opportunity of getting a break from the animated features and talking animal movies that seem to dominate family appropriate viewing these days. So I chose Changling, starring Angelina Jolie as a single mother in Los Angeles in the late 1920s who has the Los Angeles Police Department trying to convince her that a boy they found is actually her son that had been abducted 5 months earlier. It's a true story about the L.A.P.D. forcing her to receive the boy even though she knows, and they know, he is not her son. Her refusal to play along with the whole scheme ends up bringing the corrupt department to its knees. It's a stellar performance that netted Jolie an Oscar. In the opening scenes, before the abduction, her son questions her as to the whereabouts of his father, and in an attempt to put adult matters in children's terms, she tells him that his dad received a big box marked "Responsibility" and chose to leave rather than open it. That struck a little too close to home for me—the whole idea about the responsibility box. Give me credit for not leaving, but I'm afraid I can't say the same thing about opening the box. In fact, the box is still here. It's in the middle of whatever room I'm in like that elephant we all know about. Something about that little story clicked with me. I think it might be the idea that it is a box waiting to be opened, and most boxes I know about that are waiting to be opened contain a present. Maybe this one does, too. My oldest son's birthday is today, and he will have some boxes to open that I'm sure will get immediate attention. Suddenly I realized I've been thinking about this responsibility box as a burden, when all along it's been a gift. The gift is the opportunity of becoming what I was meant to be by doing what I was meant to do. How foolish to leave a gift unopened. Have you got something in your life you've been avoiding? If you knew it contained a present, wouldn't you open it?
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 1 Available]

'Oh when the Saints…'	Tuesday, February, 09, 2010
by John Fischer It is fitting that the name for the NFL team that just won Super Bowl XLIV is the New Orleans Saints. The spiritual that inspired it, "When the Saints Go Marching In," is a song of resurrection. It was sung primarily at funerals and celebrated the hope of a better life than this one. For many, especially those in poverty and slavery, death was a release to be celebrated, not an end to be feared. You could say that the New Orleans Saints victory Sunday over the Indianapolis Colts was a similar death to life experience for the people of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina all but wiped out the city, and especially the poorer housing in the lower lying areas. Homes were lost; lives were devastated. Many actually wondered if the city could ever rebound. Much has been said and written about how this was more than just a football game for the city of New Orleans, and at the risk of being redundant, it was. This team came to represent hope, pride and the possibility of recovery. There was something almost spiritual about this. When priests slip on Saints jerseys over their vestments during Sunday mass and pray for the team, you know this is something special that is uniting the city. Everybody knew this, even the Indianapolis players. Colt running back Joseph Addai, was quoted as saying he was happy for the people of New Orleans. There is something about the human spirit that deserves celebrating. God created us like this. He let us experience losing and winning, and let me tell you, winning is sweeter to those who have tasted defeat. And perhaps buried in all this drama of good and evil, winning and losing, life and death, devastation and recovery is something about why God put us on this earth and allowed us to experience all of this—something for now as well as something for later. We can only imagine what Eden was like for Adam and Eve in their innocent state, but in spite of how idyllic that must have been, they never would have understood what it's like to go from losing to winning, death to life, devastation to recovery or guilt to grace. And one thing is for sure; their garden-variety life won't hold a candle to what heaven will be like when all the saints Christ has redeemed go marching in.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 4 Available]

The Spit 'n' Argue Club	Monday, February, 08, 2010
by John Fischer I caught an intriguing article yesterday in the Los Angeles Times, part of an "L.A. Then and Now" series ["At these debates, expectorations were great," February 7, 2010, p. A36]. It was about an informal open-air club that met daily next to the Long Beach pier to chew tobacco, whittle and debate. Someone observed that they did nothing but spit and argue, and thus the Spit 'n' Argue Club was born. That was somewhere in the 1880s, and remarkably, the tradition lived on for over three-quarters of a century, finally succumbing to talk radio in 1972. It was a quiet death and few noticed. It's no coincidence either that the 1970s marked the end of civil debate and the ushering in of an era of choosing sides, demonizing the opposition and shouting without listening. We could sure benefit from some spittin' and arguin' these days. The Times article reported: "profanity and alcoholic beverages were banned, as well as bathing suits. It seemed almost blasphemous to debate the existence of God while wearing swimwear." It's good to have a few ground rules when you meet to debate important things. My favorite comment was from a columnist in 1935 that made the observation that "when you know a thing, you merely speak it, but when you are rather doubtful, you must assert it so loudly as to overwhelm all opposition." This certainly applies to the truth we know about the gospel of Jesus. No need to shout just set it forth plainly, because the power is in the message, not the delivery. Simple statements, simply spoken. The truth doesn't need help. Would that we could have our own Spit 'n' Argue Club—a safe place where anyone can talk about anything without prejudice or judgment. A place where all questions are welcomed and encouraged. A place where loud assertions are not necessary. But anyway, if you can't form a club, you can always be one. Act this way and you will create an environment of civility around you. God only knows how much we need that right now. "…we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." (2 Corinthians 4:2)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 4 Available]

No place to hide	Friday, February, 05, 2010
by John Fischer I'm writing today's Catch with one ear to the 10 o'clock news in case I might have the opportunity to catch my son in action. Apparently he made an arrest today with television news cameras on hand. An attempted robbery and a threat upon a fellow LAPD officer brought out a huge show of force as over 50 officers converged on the suspect who had fled into a culvert that runs under one of L.A.'s major freeways. Christopher and his partner had positioned themselves where they thought the suspect might surface and ended up being the ones to spot him hiding in a storm drain, talk him out, handcuff him and bring him in. Pretty exciting for a first year cop. Pretty exciting for a first year cop's dad. As it turned out for the suspect: You can run but you can't hide. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. [from Psalm 139]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

The universe next to me	Thursday, February, 04, 2010
by John Fischer I was on the first leg of my flight home from Rochester, New York yesterday when I sat next to a very nice lady I guessed to be somewhere in her 70s. She was flying alone and had been to Rochester for the funeral of her sister. She had a long trip home to a small town near Yosemite National Park in central California. The flight we were on went to Chicago and then she was going to L.A. and connecting from there to Fresno, getting in around midnight and then having to drive a couple more hours on top of that. She seemed pretty spunky, but I wondered if she was up to all this. As we got ready to deplane in Chicago, I realized she was going to have a bit of a challenge making her next flight. There was only about 25 minutes for her connection and you couldn't have picked two gates further apart. She would need to take the shuttle short cut and I knew from experience that was hard to find and navigate. Luckily I had plenty of time for my connection so I told her I would help her get on the shuttle. That turned out to be harder than expected. The line was long and they only took 18 people at a time. There were at least three busloads ahead of her. No way. Could she walk all the way around? Not and carry her heavy bag. She obviously didn't travel much or she would have had it on rollers. So I went to the head of the line, found a security person and told her they had to get this woman on the next bus. I last saw her looking back at me with a thankful look on her face as she descended the stairs to the waiting shuttle outside. I wonder if she made it. Though I never even got her name, I got strangely attached to her throughout this brief encounter. And as she faded out of view, I was suddenly aware of all the other people in the airport, and for an instant, I felt all of their own stories. It was as if I caught a glimpse of what God sees as he keeps his eye on this world. It was overwhelming. Everyone had their own issues and they all seemed so important. Who would make it and who wouldn't, and what about those who had no one to help them? Someone once said that when a person dies, we lose a universe. I glimpsed a universe today, and I was amazed.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 26 Available]

'Resist the evil; seize the good.'	Wednesday, February, 03, 2010
by John Fischer "I look on this world as a wrecked vessel. God has given me a life-boat, and said to me, ‘Moody, save all you can.'" – Dwight L. Moody, 1877 "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign Lord of all, does not cry: ‘Mine!'" – Abraham Kuyper, 1880 I obtained these two quotes from Richard Middleton, a professor at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York, where I am currently speaking. I was a guest in his Worldview class yesterday when he began with these two quotes, which represent two completely different worldviews within the same general time frame and the same faith in Christ. To one, the world is a wreck with little worth saving, save the people in it. To the other, every inch of the world is the domain of Christ. Actually it may be that both are true. For the early part of my ministry/career I was closer to Moody's worldview as we were very much influenced by the belief that we were in the last days and our focus was to get as many people saved as possible while there was still time. But as time has passed, I have come to see more from Abraham Kuyper's point of view. The emphasis is still on the souls of people but their physical well-being is also important. Issues of justice and equality should be our concern as well. Before Christ died to save us all from our sins, he spent three years healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, setting the captives free and delivering the oppressed. If the only important thing was the eternal condition of the souls of men, why did he bother? Because everything matters. This world matters. The Lordship of Christ over every sector of society matters. Ah, but wait, the good professor had one more quote up his sleeve. It is a quote from C.S. Lewis that states: "There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan." Yes, there it is—both perspectives are true at the same time. By taking either one of these points of view over the other, we actually imagine a simpler world. For instance, if the world is already a wreck, we don't have to do anything about it. And conversely if the world is already dominated by Christ, we don't have to try and save anybody. As it is, there is a struggle of ownership, and we are in the middle of it—indeed, the struggle is over us. It is all around us as well as in us. And here is the conclusion: "Resist the evil; seize the good."
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

More than just choosing sides	Tuesday, February, 02, 2010
by John Fischer The gospel always calls us to do more than just choose sides. There are so many issues dividing our country right now—abortion, gay marriage, capital punishment, gun control, universal health insurance, taxes—and in Washington, our legislators are divided right down the middle on everything according to party lines. But this is exactly what the problem is with politics: there are only two sides to everything. Any thinking person knows this can't be true. There are nuances, subtleties and compromises everywhere, and yet the choice still comes down to one side or the other. Too much is at stake to cross party lines. And with little kindness and civility in the middle, the hope for gentle debate and reaching a more complicated, but equitable consensus is unlikely. Where do Christians, or more importantly, where does the church fit into all this? Well, unfortunately the church has taken sides along with everyone else and lost its authority to speak into the deeper levels of these issues. The gospel, which values every human being and every human being's right to freedom, justice and equality has lost its middle ground. While the truth should be speaking into both sides, it is being heard only in one. But this doesn't mean you and I can't be wiser as individuals and act more responsibly with the truth. We need to always go deeper than just choosing sides. This will allow us to reach across the middle and value those who would otherwise be our enemies. We must remember these are real people we are talking about—people who like us, need Jesus. Making an enemy of someone for whom Christ died is not consistent with the message of the gospel. This may not be able to be accomplished on a large scale but we can make a difference on a smaller personal scale where we live and work. We can reach across and value those on all sides of an issue. We can represent the love of Jesus to everyone. And we can listen and learn even from those with whom we might disagree. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." (Luke 6:32-36)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 13 Available]

The gospel of Jesus happens	Monday, February, 01, 2010
by John Fischer Last week I had the unexpected privilege of hearing Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking whose story was dramatized in the movie by the same title staring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. She's a short, spunky woman with a passion for justice and a story of how God dragged her into a life-changing relationship with a prisoner on death row. She tells the story of how one of her colleagues encouraged her to write a letter to a prisoner, which she did, thinking little of it. Then she went on to explain how that letter had altered the course of her life. She put it in the simplest terms: he wrote back, they developed a relationship, and the gospel of Jesus happened. I was immediately captivated by the simple thought that our relationships are the place where the gospel of Jesus happens. I believe this is true, and I believe it can happen in many different ways and on many different levels. When does the gospel of Jesus happen? Any time someone is affirmed, any time value is attributed to a human being, any time forgiveness is extended, any time love is spoken, any time you remove a speck from someone else's eye because you just had a log taken out of your own, any time patience wins out, any time justice is done, any time the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, and the good news is preached to the poor. In the case of Sister Prejean, the gospel of Jesus saved a guilty man for eternity, and set her on a course to reach many others is similar circumstances. Be looking for how the gospel of Jesus might happen in your life today and the lives of those you touch.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

Heartburn	Friday, January, 29, 2010
by John Fischer Two men walking down a road. Stuff's been happening. Big stuff. They're trying to sort it all out. Suddenly some other man joins them. They've never seen him before. Wants to know what they're talking about. The first two look at each other funny. "Are you the only one around here who doesn't know?" "Know what?" says the new guy. And so as best as they can, they try to bring him up to speed, wrestling the story back and forth between them in a mental tug-of-war of recollection. Suddenly the new one is talking and it's soon clear that he does know what's been going on… knows it better than either one of them do… knows it as if he was there. Maybe he was. Then he starts telling them about all the events leading up to this, and connects the dots across a few hundreds years as they make their way along the countryside. They walk and talk for hours but it seems like minutes. Where on earth did this guy come from and how does he know so much? And what's the deal with my heart? Stupid thing is burning right here in my chest. They get to their village and persuade the new traveler to stay. They sit down to dinner and he just keeps on talking and their hearts keep on burning. Wait a minute. Stop everything. They HAVE seen him before. And in an instant they know… It's the Lord! And in another instant he is gone. "Man! Did your heart burn while he talked to us?" "The whole time." (See Luke 24:13-32) Marti loves this story. She loves it most for the passion—the burning hearts. She also loves it for the walking along the way and talking as they go. Marti says that's the way people find out about Jesus. We walk alongside them… and our hearts burn. Sometimes we know something's happening. Sometimes we don't. Marti is a little put out with God for not letting her in on more of this. She wants to know now. She says it's like a tapestry of people's lives being woven together, and we can't always see it. But he can. That's why we just keep on walking and talking… and burning. "Walk with me and you will see why I need the Lord," Marti says. The "why I need" part is really important there. It's what makes this work. Transparency. Feel your heart burning. Walk with someone, and Jesus walks with you.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

What do you want?	Thursday, January, 28, 2010
by John Fischer God wants an interactive relationship with us. He wants a relationship with someone who wants one with him. We're all a big part of this. The reason I know this is because he extended an invitation to us that calls for our participation. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7). Come on, God is God; he doesn't have to do this. He could just as easily say, "Here's what you get, here's what you're looking for, and this is where you're going," but instead he asks: What do you want? What are you looking for? Where do you want to go? It's amazing to me that God wants to engage us in this manner. I've always got him so big and me so small as to be basically irrelevant. But here God is making us part of the action. He's coming to our level. He's involving us in the process. How about it? Could you answer these questions? I'm not so sure I could. What do you want? What are you looking for? Where do you want to go? Jacob once found himself wrestling with his fears all night and then realizing, half asleep and half awake, that he was wrestling with a form, and then a man, and then in the light of dawn, he saw the man's face and it was the face of God. And a soon as he recognized this, he grabbed on even harder and said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." And God did.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 5 Available]

The book of Marti	Wednesday, January, 27, 2010
by John Fischer I promised you Marti would be leading us into action this week and so far it's turned out to be more about passion. However I'm not so sure she sees those as two different things. For her, I think they are so connected as to be almost the same thing. If you have passion, you will act. It's the driving force that moves you to do something. It gets you up out of your folding chair, it gets you going in the Spirit, it compels you to give, it pushes you out beyond yourself. The Book of James says faith that doesn't manifest itself in works isn't faith (James 2:14-17). In much the same way, the book of Marti says passion that doesn't manifest itself in action isn't passion. And exactly what action are we talking about, you ask? I don't really think it matters. As long as we are moving, God can direct us. God can't direct the steps of someone who never takes one. I'm going to let you enjoy Marti's description of when the passion began for her. Perhaps it will help stir something in you. I was not born a Christian like John. I attended my first Christian conference when I was 25. My group was asked to write down what we may have said or done that harmed others. Having failed the "First to the Verse" contest, I naïvely thought, “If this contest is based on the number of wrongs needing to be made right, I think I am going to win this one!” Looking up several times confirmed my good thinking. Having finished before me, the others were waiting. Still working on my list and already clearly ahead of everyone, I declared myself the winner. The leader hardly looked as pleased with me as he had been with Mr. First to the Verse. In fact, he was not even smiling. He indicated I would go first to the fire and throw in my list. I do not know if anyone else followed me in setting their wrongs on fire. I was too captivated by my crimes burning before my very eyes until there was nothing left except the smoke, which God breathed in as I let go. The fire that night never died. That passion for God remains alive today. It is forever relevant.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 8 Available]

'Standing Outside the Fire'	Tuesday, January, 26, 2010
by John Fischer Marti likes country music. It's kind of an odd match if you know her since she is such a New York City lady. She has one pair of jeans and I honestly haven't seen her wear them in over two years. She has a closet full of dresses, mostly black, that she wears every day, even when working at home, which is most often the case. So when this city-slicker starts quoting country music it causes you a little hesitation, except that there is this other side of her—this down-to-earth devil-may-care sort of gustiness—that maybe does find a connection in the immediate accessibility of country music and it's honest, starkly human themes. So if she has somehow managed to pull a devotional thought out of Johnny Cash and June Carter's "Ring of Fire," maybe it won't be that much of a surprise that her next thoughts come from the pen and music of Garth Brooks, "Standing Outside the Fire." It doesn't take much to see the correlation she found: a song that celebrates falling into the fire, and one that laments staying out. Standing outside the fire Standing outside the fire Life is not tried it is merely survived If you're standing outside the fire There is a certain element of people who observe, comment on, have advice for, but stop short of truly living life. Marti calls this the folding chair Christian, who goes about with a notebook and a folding chair, ready to sit down and take notes at a moment's notice. And she most frequently paints a picture of a group of these folks all in their chairs around the cross, notebooks out, feverishly writing down what makes this such a significant place to be, while resurrection power is waiting to be discovered for all those who would embrace the cross and walk on through to their new life in Christ. Then there is another group too proud to jump in the fire having interpreted strength as being total self-reliance. These are those who resist any show of weakness—any loss of control. The same ones immortalized in the song: We call them strong Those who can face this world alone Who seem to get by on their own Those who will never take the fall The loneliest people in the world are those who don't need anyone. And finally there are the "weak" ones, gloriously drawn into the passion of knowing and following Christ and being directed by his Spirit. These are the ones who have fallen for the Lord and are living in the fire, letting it burn through every part of their life—everything that they do. We call them weak Who are unable to resist The slightest chance love might exist And for that forsake it all They're so hell bent on giving, walking a wire Convinced it's not living if you're stand outside the fire. Well they're right: it's not. You can stand next to the fire, feel its warmth and see by its light, but you never will know what it can do until you abandon your notebooks and your hold on yourself and jump in.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

'Ring of Fire'	Monday, January, 25, 2010
by John Fischer Marti sent me an email last week with suggestions for a Catch. I replied that she had at least a week's worth of Catches in that one email so this is going to start what I expect to be a Marti week, and let me give you a little window on what's in store for you. Expect this week to be all about ACTION. You see, Marti and I have just understood one of the reasons why we act so differently and what is the source of most of our conflicts. She is all about ACTION, and I am all about DOCTRINE. Marti became a Christian a few years before I met her and immediately began sharing Christ with just about everybody she met, started an international organization of Christian airline personnel with a chapter in Los Angeles, and led a Bible study of flight attendants. Later I might tell you what she did the second week after she was saved. I, on the other hand, grew up in a good evangelical home and church where everything was all about doctrine, i.e., everything hinged on what you believed. If you had all the doctrines of scripture right, you were a great Christian. In fact, one of the unspoken skills you want to develop as an evangelical preacher is learning how to fire people up during your sermon so that they are all enthralled with new things about the truth, while sending them home with nothing to actually have to change in their lives that might upset the afternoon football game. It's difficult, but it can be done and developed over time if you really work at it. Evangelicals are masters at getting people spiritually pumped without having to DO anything. So this week we're going to hear from Marti and it's going to be all about becoming action-oriented believers. There is a famous town in Missouri called Branson some of the most intelligent and talented people Marti has worked with live. They are hard working people who live by their values, offer up genuine hospitality and always over-deliver on their promises. Unlike the sad songs of regret and indecision that characterize so much of Nashville's country music scene, Branson sings to stir the heart to action with passion. Once when visiting Branson, Marti and I were privileged to hear Johnny Cash and June Carter sing their trademark song, “Ring of Fire,” and it is that song that Marti turns to for inspiration today. Love is a burning thing And it makes a fiery ring Bound by wild desire I fell into a ring of fire Though it comes on like a song of how they met and fell in love, there is much more to it. We saw June and Johnny late in their careers, when so many of the sorrows and pains of their lives separately and together were etched on their faces, but it was very evident to all that the fire was still burning strong. Marti sees a real faith as something like a ring of fire. It will burn you, purify you, inspire you and sear the self right out of you. The ring of fire is where life is lived and experienced fully from its heights to its depths. In the fire you are aware of the Spirit of God in you. You are on alert—eyes wide open and completely alive. You see everything and act on what you see. You see your sin more easily too and that makes you quick to forgive. Here you live beyond what you have grasped. There is an existence that looks a little like life but has none of the fire. It can have all the right doctrine, but no one gets burned. Here you are more likely to comment on life than live it. Values such as safety, control and being comfortable prevail. Step into where God is. Step into the fire. Action has to begin with passion. It's all about jumping into the fire.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 13 Available]

Close to the bone	Friday, January, 22, 2010
by John Fischer 36 men who attended a men's retreat I spoke at last week in the Pocono Mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania are joining us today. Welcome, gentlemen! At that retreat, I sort of coined a new phrase I've never used before at least in this context. I talked about living close to the bone, and by that I mean living in such a way as to have little to hide. Not that we broadcast all of our dirty laundry, but when there are at least some people who know all about our struggles and temptations, then everyone gets the benefit of a more realistic, humble person. Men especially live under the weight to perform flawlessly as a husband, father, spiritual leader, problem solver and expert on just about everything. And if we can't pull any of this off, or if failures crop up in any of these areas, we hide them and fake the rest. This may work for a good period of time, but sooner or later, the cover-up breaks down and we are found out usually through something catastrophic like an affair, an addiction, divorce or a nervous breakdown. You can't live a lie forever. If our faith is going to have any substance at all, it has to be built on principles that transcend the failures and the weaknesses we all have but seldom admit. And the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it is exactly suited for that—something that transcends our failures and weaknesses, allowing us to embrace them and not run from them, while at the same time giving us strength to make progress toward fulfilling our roles as leaders. This is what I mean by living close to the bone, and had more spiritual leaders found out how to do this, there would have been fewer moral breakdowns. In the new Christmas movie "Everybody's Fine" starring Robert DeNiro (you'll have to wait for the DVD; it lasted all of 2 weeks in the theaters), DeNiro plays a newly widowed father who while in the local supermarket stocking up for an expected holiday visit from his three children announces repeatedly when questioned about his family: "Everybody's fine." Of course the rest of the movie is the discovery that behind the scenes, everybody is actually far from fine. In his review of the movie for Christianity Today, Gordon MacDonald links this same charade with what commonly passes for fellowship in most Christian circles. "All it would take is for a few people to say 'we're not… I'm not… fine' and the simple but dazzling grace of our Lord Jesus would start to take over." There it is. That's living close to the bone—close to where the grace of God works because, well, nothing else is working out.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

What really matters	Thursday, January, 21, 2010
by John Fischer Well I really like what Bob wrote in his comments and it will help clarify why I brought the whole language issue up in the first place. Many of you seem to want to make this into a moral issue. My desire for all of you in this has nothing to do with morality. To me, that's another discussion for another time. It has only to do with loving people and having our eyes opened to barriers that might exist to doing that so that we might remove them. So here's what Bob wrote: "I've served as a pastor in the most affluent suburb of Los Angeles, been a truck driver among largely uneducated men, worked in a Christian bookstore outside Boston, cleaned bathrooms in the dorms at Harvard, grown up in the locker room at the YMCA in downtown Washington D.C., played hoops (sorry: "pick-up basketball") in suburban and urban/"ghetto" locales. I've had to learn a lot of languages, all of them considered American English in some form. And each of which can so easily offend the ears of those who don't share the dialect. As followers of Christ we are called to live among all sorts of people, and not take offense at what is not intended to offend." This actually sounds a lot like Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23: "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings." Paul's desire for everyone to know the saving grace of Christ surpassed everything, even his need to be or not be law-abiding, to be right, or to be strong. All agendas to him were subservient to one thing—that as many as possible through Christ might be saved.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 15 Available]

A new law of the land	Wednesday, January, 20, 2010
Yesterday's Catch led to a volume of comments. It appears that we could spend weeks on this topic and still not arrive at the bottom of it. Just going over the comments will give you a good deal more than I brought up to think about and talk about with your friends. I don't wish to have the final say on swearing or using coarse language as Christians. In fact, it was not my intent to deal with the language we use as much as it was to think about how to deal with the language others use. Many people in their comments wanted to talk about the language we use as Christians. That's a good discussion to have at some point but it was not the one I intended. I meant only to think about the language others use around us and how we respond to it. My concern, as it usually is in the Catch of the Day, is how we as Christians relate to those around us who may not be believers. It was in the interest of their need for the gospel of Jesus Christ that I asked for us to rethink how we deal with the moral condition of unbelievers. The whole point of yesterday's post was what we hear, not what we say. If we spent more time climbing into the shoes of those around us and seeing things from their perspective, we would be less bothered by other things. And, as always, the goal is love. "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4:8). Love: the new law of the land.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 26 Available]

Getting out	Tuesday, January, 19, 2010
by John Fischer Before Christmas, Marti used the sh-- word in a Catch describing what was undoubtedly spread over the floor of the stable into which Christ entered the world. As you might imagine, we received a number of comments, most of which were positive, by the way, and one of my favorites was from a reader named Lynn: "I think the word usage was appropriate, but then what do I know? I hear so much swearing from people I am around that I am beginning to think I am odd for not swearing. I loved your post. I really would like to know if anyone became a Christian because they were tired of swearing? That just never seems to be the important issue that one needs to be saved from. I usually end up with people talking about their pains, losses, and emptiness. They want a new life more than a new vocabulary." I especially think Lynn's comments about being around so much swearing that she doesn't notice it anymore is worth noting. If we truly love people, this will not be a big deal unless we choose to make it one. And why would we? Why would we ask people to change their behavior based on our standards? That's like traveling to a foreign country and insisting on everyone speaking English when they're around us. Actually the foreign language argument is a good one. Imagine reaching out to kids in the inner city where the "f" word is as common as breathing. If we're going to truly love people where they are, we need to take them as they are, and if that means we need to desensitize ourselves to swearing then so be it. Is anyone any more holy for what they don't hear? I would go as far as to say that a Christian who is offended by swearing isn't hanging around non-Christians enough. Come on, people, you need to get out!
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 44 Available]

Weak and strong	Friday, January, 15, 2010
by John Fischer His strength; our weakness. Will we ever get it straight? I am getting to where I pretty firmly believe that God does not reach anyone through our strengths, only through our weaknesses. Our strengths only bring us glory. His strength in our weakness makes him the star. By the time Samson shared the secret of his long hair with Delilah, he had most likely made the assumption that his strength was his. He had become one with it. What difference did the hair make? His hair might have brought him strength in the beginning but that was just to build his self-confidence. He could handle himself now. Go ahead, lose the hair. The strength is mine, you'll see. I'll just get up as I always have and wipe out these guys. Or so he must have thought. Why else would he have revealed his secret? And then, in the end, blind, humiliated and imprisoned, he called out to God for the strength to perform one final feat—one that would cause more destruction to the enemies of Israel than all the others combined—and this time it was God's strength through his weakness. He knew it and so did everyone else. Your life is useful to God not because you are getting it right or setting an example of how everyone is supposed to be, but because you are living in an open and honest way so that others can see God at work in your not-so-perfect life. God's ministry through us requires us to be stripped of pretense, religiosity and self-reliance. It's not that he can use us even when we are down to the raw bone of who we really are; he can use us only when we are down to the raw bone of who we really are.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 4 Available]

Character development	Thursday, January, 14, 2010
by John Fischer I know I've used this before but I can't help it. Never have I witnessed a part, a character or a situation as a dramatic production that is closer to my deep-seated fears and misassumptions than what I find in the character played by Peter Facinelli in the movie The Big Kahuna starring Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito. I keep coming back to it because I have quotes from it in my speaking notes and when I go on the road and prepare for a new talk I run across them again and sometimes I find something new that didn't hit me as strongly as it did before. Probably because I wasn't ready for it. Truth is always like that. Peter Facinelli, who plays Bob in this movie, is a perfect example of a kid who grew up Christian, went to a Christian college, took on all the trappings of what a Christian is supposed to be and do, and truly means it, but when thrust into the real world with two seeking individuals who to him would simply be non-Christians, the holes in his character, the missing links of humanity, the inability to connect with what should be naturally human become glaringly obvious. So much so that towards the end of the movie, Phil (the Danny DeVito character) makes an observation, "Your problem, Bob, is that you haven't lived long enough to regret anything." To which Bob replies, "You're saying I have to go out and do something bad so I'll have something to regret?" (Exactly what I would have said, by the way.) Phil: "I'm saying you've already done plenty of things to regret you just don't know what they are." Ouch! That's the part that always nails me. But then he goes on to say: "It's when you discover them (the things you regret), when you see the folly in something you've done, and you wish that you had it to do over, but you know you can't, because it's too late. So you pick that thing up, and carry it with you to remind you that life goes on, the world will spin without you... Then you will gain character, because honesty will reach out from inside and tattoo itself across your face." This adds new meaning to "pick up your cross and follow me…" Instead of dragging around some imaginary bloody beam of wood, what if Jesus meant for us to face into the failures, disappointments and mistakes of our lives and own them instead of excusing them or skating over them, and let them become a part of who we are and are becoming? Pick them up and carry them around as reminders of why there had to be a cross in the first place. So many Christians are like Bob: they're trying so hard to be good Christians that they wouldn't recognize their own cross if they tripped over it. Their cross is all the things they should be regretting but don't know anything about. Believe me, I can speak with certainty about this because I'm an expert at it. Picking up your cross then would mean moving on in spite of your mistakes, failures and regrets. It would mean growing through regret and forgiveness, and finding hope on the other side of the cross.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 10 Available]

Being who you are	Wednesday, January, 13, 2010
by John Fischer All you had to do was to be what you've always wanted to be. Welcome back to the love that is in your heart From the song "Welcome Back" by the group Love song Sounds like a simple thing to be who you are, but it is not. It's an illusive goal. It seems like the harder you try to be somebody, the further away you get from being who you are. Marti and I listened to some of my early music last weekend and I found out, through her ears, something I hadn't heard before. My very first songs were the most pure, unpretentious and original of all of my music. They were the most "me." I never noticed this before because I always heard the music in terms of the production quality, which improved greatly as time went on. But from the second album on, you can hear something else taking place—influences from somewhere other than within. There's the Judy Collins sound, the "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" intro, the James Taylor guitar, the Billy Joel arrangement… and every time I sang, I tried to match the musical influences the arrangement took on, and somehow, it wasn't me. But you hear the first album and, as hokey as it has always seemed to me, I can't deny the innate beauty of the fact that it isn't trying to be anything but what it is. And in that same manner we all find out who we are by not trying to be anything else. That's why Love Song is onto something when they marry true identity to a kind of homecoming: "Welcome back to what you knew was right from the start." Though we can't always be it, consciously, we know who we are. A relationship with Jesus involves a total acceptance of who we are through an unearned, uncluttered reality. Lord give us grace to walk forward, unmasked... vulnerable… liberated.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 13 Available]

Someone who believes in you	Tuesday, January, 12, 2010
Do you have anyone in your life that believes in you so much they see what you can't see about yourself? In fact they see it so clearly that they get exasperated with you for not seeing it. The way I see it, you can do one of two things about this. 1) You can choose to ignore them and continue on selling yourself short when it comes to opportunities to grow and expand your influence. Or 2) you can step out on the strength of what someone else sees, even when you don't, and start believing what they believe about you. This one is certainly more risky—less safe—but who ever promised us safety? Adventure, abundant living, maybe, but not safety. Discovering and becoming all of who we are and are meant to be is one of the main reasons we are alive. If not, then what are we here for—to wait out our time until eternity and have nothing to show for it? It's all about our gifts and our contributions that have a lasting effect on our corner of the world however large or small that corner may be. Thank God for others who believe for us and care enough to tell us what they see. And if you are unaware of anyone like this in your life, you aren't alone. God is there, and He is the one who has been behind you all along.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

I believe in you	Monday, January, 11, 2010
by John Fischer We're going to start off this week with a really encouraging twist. It's a twist because we are used to hearing this expressed the other way around. For as long as I can remember, the emphasis spiritually has always been our belief or lack of belief in God. But what about God's belief in us? Is there such a thing? What would it do for you if you knew that God believed in you? Well, he does. One of our readers shed some light on this in a recent comment, pointing out that by Jesus saying to the twelve, "Come follow me," he was placing faith in them. It was common for rabbis in that time to pick their students, and they typically chose only the best. That's why for Jesus to choose a bunch of common fishermen and a tax collector to be on his team, he was turning the system on its head. By this he was saying, "You're my best; I believe in you." If you are a believer today, it's because God believed in you. He picked you out of a crowd and said, "Come follow me." He wouldn't have done that if he didn't know that you could cut it. What a vote of confidence we have! What strength of character that can give us! Think of it today when you need fresh courage to overcome a barrier or tackle something new. Think about the fact that God believes in you. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29-30). See what I mean? You can do this. So can I. This is what I needed.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 12 Available]

Charlie's Angel	Friday, January, 08, 2010
by John Fischer First let me clear up a little something about yesterday's Catch where I related some of Marti's experience at a shooting range with our son who is now an L.A.P.D. officer. Some of you were concerned about the references to stereotypes such as "rednecks" and "gun-tottin' members of the N.R.A." These stereotypes were intentional and made to point out the lesson of why we often feel judged, because we are so good at judging others. We know what we're doing, so we fear everyone else is doing the same thing to us. Marti avoids these traps by talking to people and making every attempt to get inside their shoes. I can imagine her getting right in with the "boys" at the shooting range. In fact, when they made fun of her in her dress and high heels, she just smiled and told them she was one of Charlie's angels. I've seen her cross barriers like this many times. She's actually much more at home with down-to-earth Missourians than with us flakey west-coasters. The real lesson here is that all stereotypes exist only in our heads. No one fits totally into a stereotype. God made us too complex for this. Every single person we get to know will bust the stereotype we are so prone to put on him or her. Marti knows this better than anyone. And should there be subsequent visits to the shooting range, you can bet she will come back with some stories from the boys, but this visit was just for focusing on her son. One of our readers made that very observation when she commented, "I suspect that the positive attitude Marti is having about shooting has mostly to do with the pleasure of doing this with her son and her pride in his expertise and his taking the time to be with her." Bingo! Here's what Marti wrote in an email to Christopher: "I think I finally made a connection to the happiest time I ever had as a child when I was with my grandfather on his farm shooting duck before the sun was up. Thank you so very much for such an experience. I just hope we can do this again. Thank you for your patience, willingness to show up with your mom thinking she was a Charlie's Angel, and making me conscious of keeping my finger off the trigger. I have always loved you, but I cannot express how brave I think you are to show up at a place like we were at, with someone like me! I had the time of my life." I think that's about the sweetest thing I've read in a long time. And I think that it is a fitting conclusion to a week focusing on relationships over the long haul. Best to stay conscious of keeping your finger off the trigger.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

Hardheaded woman	Thursday, January, 07, 2010
by John Fischer Well I'm in big trouble now. Marti went shooting with our son yesterday… and loved it. This is the mother who refused to let that same son own a toy gun when he was little. At some point squirt guns were allowed for the fun of water fights, but that was a big hurdle to cross. Now that same son has two real guns of his own as a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, and yesterday he took one of them along with his mother to a shooting range to teach her how to fire it. After yesterday's Catch, is it any wonder I'm a little uneasy about this? I wish I could have seen it. They'd been trying to arrange for this to happen for some time and finally were able to work it out by meeting at the range—Marti coming straight from a business meeting. That meant she was in a business dress and heels which provided no small entertainment for the mostly redneck clientele at the shooting range. At least Marti was aware of the looks she got, and the perceived snickers. As we discussed this later, Marti had to face the fact that her presumption of being judged by the other shooters was mostly due to her unconscious judging of them. And isn't that how this works all the time? It may even be part of why we are so reluctant to be more forthright about our own shortcomings: we fear the judgment of others because we are so well acquainted with our own tendency to judge. Picture this: a well-dressed, high-heeled, gun-control favoring Democrat from upstate New York popping off a police hand gun at a shooting range surrounded by hard-headed gun-tottin' members of the N.R.A. Maybe it was the memory of going duck hunting with her grandfather as a small child, or maybe it was the pride and pleasure of being expertly and so thoroughly instructed by her own son, but she loved it. Hasn't stopped talking about it since. I'm okay with this, just as long as she doesn't bring one of these things home. I've got enough to deal with in light of the self-defense course she signed up for—not good news for a frog (I mean prince) like me.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 8 Available]

The princess and you-know-who	Wednesday, January, 06, 2010
by John Fischer Like any princess, I love stories but always miss the point of them unless they involved one dragon (slain), one princess (from tower, rescued) and a grand wedding at the end. [That opening should be a telltale sign that I am not doing the writing today. We got to thinking that perhaps Marti would be the perfect follow-up to my confessional Catch yesterday. This is her offering. Don't look too deeply here, except to find the grace to smile at our flaws and foibles.] Our life in the Fischbowl, is like the The Frog Prince, a Brothers Grimm fairy tale of a spoiled princess who reluctantly befriends a frog only to have him magically transform into a handsome prince. Although in some versions the transformation is invariably triggered by the spoiled princess kissing the frog, or the frog spending the night on the princess’s pillow, in the original Grimm version of the story, the frog's spell was broken only when the princess violently threw it against a wall in disgust. [I know the feeling.] Miraculously, she suddenly comes to realize an internal side to her self. Upon this realization, the frog returns to the real image of a man or in this case, a handsome prince with kind eyes, like John. But since John chose full disclosure in his last Catch, I must push the story a little further, as you will find that the story goes into a Dark Time. There is not a lot to say about the Dark Time except that there is no starlight. For my part, I should be in a more, shall we say, luxurious confinement somewhere else, as befits a damsel in distress—a princess without a country and a threat to things going on in countries far away. In reality, however, this is when John tiptoes, because the princess is contemplating dire and momentous matters. He knows that when her glory dims she will sooner or later emerge with that radiance that comes from somewhere or other, but if he takes a wrong step or speaks too soon on days like this she may eat him whole. To his credit, John sits on the bed and tickles her toes and then immediately wraps her in her bedcovers and holds her until a few moments later when she is ready for coffee. John, as you can see, is a very brave man. He watches her carefully though he does not let her first morning hour be too serious. What is called for today? Perhaps today should be quiet, he wonders, so that she can garner peace and strength. Plain dress and quiet in the castle. Later she may work in her gardens and think. Or perhaps she needs to strap on her jewels and fabrics and take up her duties to be reminded of her strength. John is wise not to speak too soon; he will watch. First he will hold her a little, then she will suddenly throw him off commanding him to stop that at once and putting on her cross face. Ah, there's the spark. The lady—the princess—is awake.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

We've only just begun	Tuesday, January, 05, 2010
by John Fischer Last night, Marti and I celebrated 35 years together. It sounds like a big deal when really it's not. Like I wrote on her card, "We've always been." The years roll off either way. It could be 40 years or it could be 5. And yet, even though that expresses the solidity and inevitability of our relationship, in many ways I feel like we've only just begun, and that has nothing to do with the fact that the Carpenters rendition of that song made it the most popular wedding song when we got married. We are seriously only just beginning because I am just waking up to what a jerk I've been for the last 35 years. I will spare you the details except to admit that I am a very selfish, self-centered person who has resisted fully embracing what it means to be a lover, provider, protector and guardian of my household. My household—the Lord—and anyone else available were supposed to take care of me while I was out doing the Lord's work, at least that's what I chose to believe. Now I'm finding out that the Lord's work starts at home. And why am I telling you this? Because I wanted to share our anniversary with you, but not without telling the truth. Those sweet little stories like the one about how a fine wine improves with age just don't apply to us. Perhaps they once did, but I used up all those stories in the first few years of our marriage. Truth be told, we haven't let wine sit very long; we've needed it to get through. And I'm telling you this because I don't want you to think that everything is just working out great because we are Christians. We are probably still married because of that, but I wouldn't go much farther than that. You can be a Christian and still be a jerk. There aren't any guarantees except for heaven, but the last time I checked, this was earth, and heaven is still on hold. And I'm telling you this because we're in this together, and I need you. I am learning a bunch of very basic, practical stuff late in life and I don't have much time. I'd like to have something to retire from before I retire, and I think you may be a part of that. And I'm also telling you this because it's never too late for something new to begin. I'm actually excited about this. It's also a real break for me that my wife has the patience of Job to stick this out. And it also doesn't hurt that she's still the most beautiful woman in the world. Well then what's to be the reason for becoming man and wife? Is it love that brings you here or love that brings you life? And if loving is the answer, then who's the giving for? Do you believe in something that you've never seen before? Oh there is Love, there is Love. – from Noel Paul Stookey and that other famous "Wedding Song"
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 25 Available]

The spirits did it all in one night	Monday, January, 04, 2010
by John Fischer Every Christmas, we enjoy two or three versions of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol. Whether it's Albert Finney, Patrick Stewart, Bill Murray, Jim Carrey, or someone whose name I've forgotten from a community theater performance, it doesn't seem to matter. It's always an inspiring story of transformation wrought by visitations of the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future—a transformation I think we all desire in some form in our lives. At one point Scrooge wants to know why all three ghosts can't visit him all at once and get it over with. I would gladly take them one at a time if I could experience as thorough of a transformation as Ebenezer makes in one night. I wish it were that easy. Realistically, our transformations are much more gradual. We need to learn to be more patient with the process. The hardest part of change for me is the fact that I have to do it. I would much rather have it happen to me—to wake up, as Scrooge did, and find myself changed. If you don't mind my sticking with the story, I think I might be able to solve my own problem. In the story, Scrooge gained a new vision of himself—a new idea of who he could be, and, indeed, wanted to be, and it was this that moved him to action. Giving to the poor, buying his clerk a goose and raising his salary, attending his nephew's Christmas feast, and seeing to it that Tiny Tim got the treatment he needed—Scrooge did all this and more, but these new behaviors sprang from a changed heart and a new idea about himself that compelled him to make them happen. You and I need to find out what, in the name of Christ, is big enough to move us forward and overcome our own barriers to change. It may be our spiritual gift; it may be forgiveness; it may be our new identity in Christ, it may be a missionary call… whatever it is, real transformation isn’t going to happen until we are in its grip. For Christ, it was "the joy set before him" that compelled him to endure the cross and its shame (Hebrews 12:2). What will it be for you that will transform you so much that it affects what you do and say? What will it be for me?
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 4 Available]

Charlie's Angel	Saturday, January, 02, 2010
by John Fischer First let me clear up a little something about yesterday's Catch where I related some of Marti's experience at a shooting range with our son who is now an L.A.P.D. officer. Some of you were concerned about the references to stereotypes such as "rednecks" and "gun-tottin' members of the N.R.A." These stereotypes were intentional and made to point out the lesson of why we often feel judged, because we are so good at judging others. We know what we're doing, so we fear everyone else is doing the same thing to us. Marti avoids these traps by talking to people and making every attempt to get inside their shoes. I can imagine her getting right in with the "boys" at the shooting range. In fact, when they made fun of her in her dress and high heels, she just smiled and told them she was one of Charlie's angels. I've seen her cross barriers like this many times. She's actually much more at home with down-to-earth Missourians than with us flakey west-coasters. The real lesson here is that all stereotypes exist only in our heads. No one fits totally into a stereotype. God made us too complex for this. Every single person we get to know will bust the stereotype we are so prone to put on him or her. Marti knows this better than anyone. And should there be subsequent visits to the shooting range, you can bet she will come back with some stories from the boys, but this visit was just for focusing on her son. One of our readers made that very observation when she commented, "I suspect that the positive attitude Marti is having about shooting has mostly to do with the pleasure of doing this with her son and her pride in his expertise and his taking the time to be with her." Bingo! Here's what Marti wrote in an email to Christopher: "I think I finally made a connection to the happiest time I ever had as a child when I was with my grandfather on his farm shooting duck before the sun was up. Thank you so very much for such an experience. I just hope we can do this again. Thank you for your patience, willingness to show up with your mom thinking she was a Charlie's Angel, and making me conscious of keeping my finger off the trigger. I have always loved you, but I cannot express how brave I think you are to show up at a place like we were at, with someone like me! I had the time of my life." I think that's about the sweetest thing I've read in a long time. And I think that it is a fitting conclusion to a week focusing on relationships over the long haul. Best to stay conscious of keeping your finger off the trigger.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 1 Available]

Live and give	Thursday, December, 24, 2009
by John Fischer God so loved the world that he gave… (John 3:16) Now that just about says it all. He gave his only begotten Son, that instead of dying, we might live, and live forever, at that. That's Christmas. That's the gift that keeps on giving, giving and for-giving. In the middle of our frustration and disappointment… God gave. In the middle of our grief… God gave. In the middle of our confusion and doubt… God gave. In the middle of our rushing around trying to make everything just right… God gave. In the middle of our selfishness and sinfulness… God gave. God gave his only Son and that Son is now available to us so that we might start living right now—not tomorrow, not in eternity, but right now. Because God gave, we can start living and giving with the power of his Spirit to overcome our selfishness. Live and give. Live and give. That is what we are here for… to live and give. And it's all because God gave… "he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Right now. Please have a Merry Christmas. Hug and kiss your loved ones. Embrace every one in his and her own dysfunction because God in Christ has accepted you in yours. Have a joyous celebration of the fact that God gave. [Important notice: I will be taking off between now and the New Year to refresh and be with family. The Catch of the Day will resume on January 4, 2010. Until then, with whatever happens, live and give and rejoice in your life in Christ.]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 10 Available]

Good King Wenceslas	Wednesday, December, 23, 2009
by John Fischer Neil is an executive for a national financial institution located in Pennsylvania. He is a reader and regular supporter of the Catch of the Day. Just yesterday he told me a story of his own giving experience that resulted in a deeper understanding of what it means to give and receive. It seems that he and a buddy got wind of a single woman in their church who was having trouble keeping her house warm for her and her children. With the help of his friend, Neil determined to help this woman by driving a load of firewood to her house. Hearing him talk about the snowstorm that complicated their delivery made me immediately think about images from the English carol "Good King Wenceslas," about a king who braves a winter storm to bring wood to a poor peasant (see below). In the process, she asked which one of the services this week they were going to attend. (They are all part of a large church that puts on eight Christmas programs over the holidays mainly as an outreach to the community.) When they told her and asked her the same question, she said she was going to all of them. "I have 17 of my friends coming and 13 of them don't know Jesus." Suddenly Neil realized he was in the presence of a fellow believer who was herself in the process of giving, just like he was. This often happens in our giving. We think we are bettering someone's life only to discover that we are the ones who have the most to learn. That's why we must keep an open mind at all times. Look out: You never know what you're going to receive when you give. And like the good king Wenceslas, you always get blessed when you bless. Good King Wenceslas Good King Wenceslas looked out On the feast of Stephen When the snow lay round about Deep and crisp and even Brightly shone the moon that night Though the frost was cruel When a poor man came in sight Gath'ring winter fuel "Hither, page, and stand by me If thou know'st it, telling Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?" "Sire, he lives a good league hence Underneath the mountain Right against the forest fence By Saint Agnes' fountain." "Bring me flesh and bring me wine Bring me pine logs hither Thou and I will see him dine When we bear him thither." Page and monarch forth they went Forth they went together Through the rude wind's wild lament And the bitter weather "Sire, the night is darker now And the wind blows stronger Fails my heart, I know not how, I can go no longer." "Mark my footsteps, my good page Tread thou in them boldly Thou shalt find the winter's rage Freeze thy blood less coldly." In his master's steps he trod Where the snow lay dinted Heat was in the very sod Which the Saint had printed Therefore, Christian men, be sure Wealth or rank possessing Ye who now will bless the poor Shall yourselves find blessing
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

Unwrapped gifts	Tuesday, December, 22, 2009
by John Fischer So Marti sent me out today with an assignment to find a replacement bike for Chandler for Christmas. He's ready to get back in the saddle after his accident last September, but he's understandably skittish about it. A new bike and a new helmet could go a long way to providing the impetus needed to overcome his fear. So I went with pretty clear instructions as to what he wanted, deliberated in three different mega-stores, and came home with assorted size gift boxes, wrapping paper, tissue paper and ribbon… but no bike. And that's where we are in our shopping just now. We've got all the stuff with which to dress up our gifts… just nothing in them yet. It makes me think about how we can work so hard on trying to present ourselves as good Christians without ever giving the gift of Christ. Christ doesn't dress up too well. He didn't come with fanfare or pomp. He was born in a barn accompanied by the bleating and braying of farmyard animals—hardly anything fit for a king—and as such, he shows up best, today, in the unadorned nature of our daily lives. And yet we still try to box and wrap up what happened there and we can't. Marti had it right. It's the excrement on the floor of that stable that represents where the power of God works best. You don't want to wrap that up in finery; you want to present it as it is, and you exactly as you are—unwrapped and smelly yet basking in the presence of the Living God… that he would seek you out and be born in your life? Who would have thought?
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 1 Available]

Secret Santa	Monday, December, 21, 2009
by John Fischer 'All of the stories that have come in about giving have all had an element of risk about them. That's because giving is always risky. You're going to part with some of your money, your time, or your sweat and get nothing in return. You might not even be appreciated for it. You may not get any thanks. The recipient might not know whom to thank. You're going to better someone's life and slip away quietly out the back door, like a secret Santa that no one will ever find out about. Are you okay with that? That's probably a good test for whether you are truly giving or not. Can you live with being anonymous? Does it matter to you? Is it your genuine joy to see someone happy or doing better because of your gift? And what if you get taken when you give? Someone could be scamming you. And what if they are? What will you do? Become suspicious of everybody? Trust no one? Crawl inside yourself and never give again? No. You just keep on giving. Isn't that what God does? Jesus said that when we give, we shouldn't let one hand know what the other hand is doing. In other words, give in secret. We're not getting any credit for this, so it shouldn't matter. We're not doing it for credit anyway. When it comes to giving, remember what God does. Everyone I know has failed me Should I let them take that cross and nail me? That's what God does. That's what God does. That's what God does. Why can't we? …from "What God Does" by Skypark
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 2 Available]

The Holy Spirit's whisper	Friday, December, 18, 2009
by John Fischer Here is what the Spirit of God says to us: "Tell him I love him." It could be to a friend recovering from bypass surgery in the hospital; it could be to a homeless man, smelly and half nuts; it could to be your husband just going out the door for a few groceries—and never coming back; it could be to the lady who cut in front of you in line; it could be to your best friend the one you won't ever see again who left the party early to walk home by himself… In all of these situations, the Holy Spirit wants to have us stand in for him. He wants us to deliver the message. It's the ultimate gift, and it explains why God sent his son into the world, but it's less complicated than that. It's distilled into three words, one phrase, and it's the point of it all: "Tell her I love her" or "Tell him I love him." It's the Holy Spirit's whisper. He whispers it in our ear while we stand in front of someone it would be impossible for us to love otherwise. And he whispers it in our ear as we casually say good-by to the most familiar face we know. And why do I need to do this? She'll be back in just a few minutes. Will she? "Tell her I love her." Don't miss an opportunity. Because it's ultimately what the Father said to the Son when he watched them nail him to a cross and had to turn his back as he agonized alone, covered in sin that was not his and forsaking his only begotten: "Tell them I love them," God said. And he did.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 4 Available]

In-coming toaster	Thursday, December, 17, 2009
by John Fischer [Okay you guys… time for Marti to break in on our discussion. Though I need to warn you that this is a little like an encounter with the ghost of Christmas present in Scrooged, Bill Murray's clever adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol. She will dance around excitedly on her tiptoes, clap her hands with joy, sprinkle pixie dust on you and then bash you in the head with a toaster. You never know when it's coming. “Sometimes you have to slap them just to get their attention!” So here goes, and don't say I didn't warn you…] Not all experiences in giving are victorious. Spit and the smell of urine is very offensive, but wasn't the Lord of Lords born in straw poverty and shit? Good thing He wasn't offended. To recognize there is no difference between you and someone that is homeless is good, but to embrace that equality and rejoice together is to have an encounter with Christ. And then, to unite is good, but to respect differences, better. Looking into the eyes of someone lost is to find a beautiful reflection of you. The reason we are asked to walk together before the Son is so we can share equally in the cleansing and the refreshing cries of thanksgiving. It is ok to be glad when you are warm and someone else is cold, it is just not okay to keep him waiting. See a homeless person as an angel, and know he is watching. Greet everyone as a guest on his way to the banquet. If you are lucky, he might ask you to join him. Now, how about your neighbor? Did you hand-deliver a set of candles to brighten up his home? Did you invite him over for a game of charades and give him a chance to see you as vulnerable as he feels? The heck with walking the old lady across the street, take your own sack of bones and walk across the street to give your neighbor a merry note about how much you appreciate your him. Laugh out loud because there is more to find that is funny about you than there is about anyone else. Don't take yourself so seriously. The Lord, if He chooses, will use you when you are most vulnerable—just so the recipient doesn't get confused about who is the bearer and who is the Christ. [See what I mean? Like Marti says after she hits you with the toaster: "Sometimes the truth is painful, but it makes your cheeks rosy and your eyes bright!”]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 28 Available]

First run	Wednesday, December, 16, 2009
by John Fischer Our first day of sharing various giving experiences at Christmas has been a good one. To access the comments we received, click on the comment link below and scroll down to yesterday's Catch, "Time to give," and click "Read Comments" at the end of that day. Most of you related some kind of giving experience you have participated in over the last few years. Though these are good for giving us all some great ideas, they fell a little short on the personal experience quotient. This time, let us know what was difficult for you personally, how you overcame, and what you learned from the experience. Bridget pretty much nailed it: "Our church youth group recently collected socks and coats and blankets for the Mustard Seed (downtown Victoria, B.C.). I was feeling a bit intimidated about going with the kids to hand out stuff, it was out of my comfort zone. I am used to panhandlers on the street who are aggressive and in your face. But we took about 20 kids down there and helped people find coats that fit etc. We mingled with the street people, sometimes it was hard to know who was a volunteer and who was homeless. It was a great experience. I met all kinds of interesting people, and I saw them as people like you and me who just happened to be going through a bad patch. There was one fellow who has chosen to live on the street and he was so interesting. All of these people had stories to share about their lives. It changed my perspective and made me put a face on the homeless and realize that some of them just want to talk and have someone listen. Our teenagers loved the experience and are looking forward to doing it again in the New Year." Let's keep our stories current to this year and outside our usual comfort zone. Happy stretching!
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 13 Available]

Time to give	Tuesday, December, 15, 2009
by John Fischer Bono, of the Irish rock band, U2, starts us off today: "A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, 'You know, I have a new song, look after it… I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea…' And this wise man said: 'Stop. Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.' Well, God is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing. And that is what He’s calling us to do." This Christmas, we want you, our Catch readership, to see how you can turn what has become a "getting" holiday into a "giving" one. This is a challenge to stretch beyond what you might normally do into some new area of giving. What's your big idea? What are you willing to spend your moral capital, your intellectual capital, your cash, your sweat equity in pursuing outside of the walls of this cyber church? And we want to hear what you are doing. Report back via our comment link what you are finding out—good, bad and ugly. Help us all grow from your experiences. Let's not just take notes on our Christianity lets move into where it counts for real. Let's have an explosion of love and mercy as we turn our focus out to our neighborhoods and communities.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 22 Available]

The gift of God	Monday, December, 14, 2009
by John Fischer "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23 NIV) The gift of God. Eternal life. Do you all have it? It's all in Jesus, you know. Get Jesus and you have life. Ever think about that? God's plan to save the world is a gift. God set it up that way. He didn't make it a race, or a grade (on the curve, I hope), or a fight, or an accomplishment, or an award. He made it a gift. We don't have anything to do with it any more than a kid opening presents on Christmas morning. Nothing to do but receive it. He probably didn't want us to have anything to do with it lest we mess it up. Most likely we would have. We would have developed pride over it. We would have made ourselves out to be better. We would have tried to be in charge of who got it and who didn't. It would have become an ugly mess in our hands. But he took care of all of that by making it a gift—his gift. Totally out of our hands. "How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift was given." It was like that. It was quiet and lacking in pomp. But that's the way he wanted it. A simple gift given to all is celebrated on Christmas. And those who can, receive it. The losers… the failures… those down on their luck… the hopeless… the undeserving… these are the ones who get the gift. Actually these are the only ones who get the gift. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9 NIV)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

'What did you give for Christmas?'	Friday, December, 11, 2009
by John Fischer Christmas is all about giving. There's the gift of the Christ child that started it all, the gifts of the magi, the gifts we give to one another, the gift of family and friends together again, and the gift of lights and decorations for any and all to enjoy. There are gifts we give at this time to the poor and the homeless, and gifts to children who might otherwise have nothing to open on Christmas day. Or as one fundraiser told Ebenezer Scrooge, "At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time." Christmas is a time when even the Grinch who stole it, gives it back. Starting today, and over the next two weeks, we will be focusing on giving. I am looking forward to this because I have much to learn. Giving is not something that comes easily. We are much more prone to getting. Indeed, I could have started out this Catch by stating: "Christmas is all about getting," and not had any argument from anyone. How many times have you heard "What did you give for Christmas?" Probably not many. But that will be the question we will attempt to answer as we make this journey together. It will be a time for all of us to stretch beyond our comfort zones and push out some of the borders that have kept us small and insignificant. And it will be a time when our cyber church can move out into our surrounding neighborhoods and communities and make a difference in the world. So think about it. What will you give this Christmas? "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15) (Or in Chandler's words: "Thank the father who sent the kid.")
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 11 Available]

The mystery of God's will	Thursday, December, 10, 2009
by John Fischer Reconciliation is the central theme of God's history in dealing with the human race. The short of it is: God created human beings in His image and birthed them into a harmonious world. For reasons we can only speculate, He allowed evil to enter into this idyllic world and separate human beings from Himself and each other. This has obviously had disastrous results, but, nonetheless, the rest of the story is the process of reconciling what has been separated. In Ephesians 1:9 it says, "And he [God] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment -- to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ." That would mean that whenever we work to overcome some difference or repair a breech in a relationship, we are participating in a mystery. To reconcile a relationship is to act according to the mystery of God's will. That means Christians need to be "uniters," not dividers. For years, Christians have prided themselves in being dividers -- so much so that we have made up reasons to be different from everyone else and called that difference: holiness. Being different is not necessarily holy, especially when the difference consists of erected cultural taboos and behavioral requirements with no real biblical or moral grounding. The walls that exist between Christians and non-Christians are largely of our making. Our bent needs to be on reconciliation—finding what we have in common with others, not creating reasons to separate. If the mystery of God's will is to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ, then we want to be working along with that will, not against it.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

Looking for the Lord	Wednesday, December, 09, 2009
by John Fischer So Monday night found me sitting on the ground leaning against the locked door of the local coffee bar with my laptop at 11:30 p.m. using their free wireless connection that was fortunately still working to post yesterday's Catch because our connection at home had gone down about a half hour earlier. It was freezing cold, at least by southern California standards. It's not the first time I've done this and probably won't be the last. I felt no sense of inappropriateness about tapping into someone else's connection given the amount of time and money I have poured into this place during working hours. Until we got wireless at home, it was my virtual office. Two doors down is a gay bar, and a tonally challenged live version of Elton John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" came drifting over to me. As I got in my car to drive away, having successfully completed my mission, I noticed in the rear view mirror, a man alone outside the gay bar in a dress. He was lighting up a cigarette. Just seeing his bare shoulders made me shiver on such a cold night. I felt a palatable loneliness for him. When I got back to my desk at home, a text message from my wife was waiting for me on my cell phone. It read: "Be careful. Anyone out at this time is searching for the Lord, but doesn't know it." I thought of the man in my rear view mirror and knew she was right. Actually, she's right about all of us—even those who aren't out at night—we're all trying to find something lost. With every longing, every shortage, every need… We're looking for the Lord. With every heartbreak, every disappointment, every loss… We're looking for the Lord. With every accomplishment, every triumph, every gain… We're looking for the Lord. With every mystery, every question, every doubt… We're looking for the Lord. With every struggle, every challenge, every win… We're looking for the Lord. See how we're all looking for the Lord? We just don't all know it.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 10 Available]

Wonder	Tuesday, December, 08, 2009
by John Fischer I wonder as I wander out under the sky, How Jesus the Savior did come for to die, For poor orn'ry people like you and like I, I wonder as I wander ... out under the sky. I sometimes think that wonder is like an endangered species – we don't have enough of it and are in danger of losing it altogether. You lose wonder when you try and explain everything. Wonder is wasted in seminars, and "how-to" books, and manuals for living, and steps to a more victorious Christian life. Wonder is what takes over after you have explained all you can explain and answered all you can answer. In my experience, we have tried to answer too much. Wonder is what finite, sinful creatures do when we encounter the holy. Wonder is what Mary did after an angel told her she was going to conceive of God and bear the savior of the world. Wonder is what shepherds did when they found a baby wrapped up and lying in a feed trough after being led to a stable with a choir of angelic beings still ringing in their ears. Wonder is what great and wealthy kings did when they entered the presence of a child whose glory and significance was only matched by the interstellar GPS system that got them there. Christmas is a time of wonder, what with the lights, the music, the magic, the snow (fake or real), and the children... always the children. Christmas is for children because they still know how to wonder. Grown-ups outgrow wonder all too soon. We get good at explanations. We have reasons for things. Children just experience things; Grown-ups take notes. Children ask questions; Grown-ups are supposed to know. Children wonder why; Grown-ups wonder if. When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cow's stall, With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all; And high from God's heaven a star's light did fall, And the promise of the ages they then did recall. If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing, A star in the sky or a bird on the wing, Or all of God's angels in heaven to sing, He surely could've had it... 'cause he was the King. But He chose not to, for our sake, and that is probably the biggest wonder of all.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 11 Available]

Believing (or not believing) with your heart	Monday, December, 07, 2009
by John Fischer Like belief, unbelief is usually personal. The following statement appeared November 24, 2009 in the Opinion page of the Los Angeles Times in an article by David Masci titled: "What do scientists think about religion?" "As for Darwin, his letters indicate that he was probably an agnostic who lost his faith not because his groundbreaking theory was incompatible with religion, but because of his grief after the 1851 death of his favorite child, his 10-year-old daughter, Annie." The article went on to show that the concluding sentence of "Origin of Species" speaks of a "Creator" breathing life "into a few forms or into one." Even Darwin had to admit that someone had to have started it all. And yet when it came to that someone having any claim on his life, his heart was too small and too brittle, having blamed God for a deep loss in his life. Faith—both having it and losing it—is intensely personal. One rarely talks oneself either into or out of becoming a Christian based on intellectual argument alone. I am a believer today not because someone answered all my intellectual questions about God, but because God became real to me and softened my heart. He pulled me to himself at a young age through a dramatic presentation of the gospel. My mind had very little to do with it. Similarly, if you know of someone who is struggling over believing in God, you might want to find out where the emotional barrier is in order to help them move loser to believing with their heart. Perhaps you have similar stories. We'd love to hear yours.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 8 Available]

Too profound	Friday, December, 04, 2009
by John Fischer Ah but I was so much older then I'm younger than that now. – Bob Dylan Marti thinks that though she has appreciated the Catches I've been writing this week, I have been trying a bit too hard to be profound. As is usually the case, she is right. I can explain. I've been cheating. That is, I've been plagiarizing myself. I've been using some of my earliest writing and lifting sections from one of my first books, and truth be told: we are so much more profound in our younger days. Life has a way of unraveling certainty and muddling our thoughts with reality. Not that we doubt or disbelieve; it's just that we aren't as smart as we once were. Truth is not neat and tidy anymore; it's messier. Children and old men wonder. Everyone in the middle is just trying to get by. That's what Marti wants. She wants more of what will help us all get on with our lives. So since Marti was the one who started this, I will let her finish it. But mark my words; this is no less profound as anything I wrote this week. She's just taken "profound" to a new level. Once again, if you get it, let us know. Though they will be curious to see what is taking place inside, all the stars are watching over you. Their job is to guard your heart from any anguish and just when your brain is being twisted a tad too far, look out the window and you will see one or two of the smaller stars winking at you. I love the little ones – they still wonder. Smile and take leave of any concern. They may not take an active part in anything; they must just look on forever. It is a kind of punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. – Marti Fischer
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 18 Available]

Something beautiful	Thursday, December, 03, 2009
by John Fischer I was once awestruck by a couple I observed at a university event. The girl was very attractive, close to cover-girl standards. Yet the guy looked as if he had just walked off the set for The Nerds. He was shorter than she was, wore thick horn-rimmed glasses and a plaid short-sleeved shirt with a row of pens in its pocket. He was definitely a candidate for getting sand kicked in his face. But the strangest thing of all was that these two were obviously in love. What could she possibly see in him? I asked myself. Suddenly I realized—she was blind. What did she see in him? Everything. Everything that's important about who a person is, what love is, and what a real man is. She saw everything she needed to know about him. But this is not the only blindness going on here. The girl is also blind to something else. She is blind to her own beauty. She doesn't know she has cover-girl looks. She has nothing with which to compare herself. She doesn't know that she conforms to what society is currently calling "beautiful." All she knows is that someone loves her strictly for who she is, and in that love she reveled. In this, she is like all of us, for we do not know our own beauty as God sees us, and perhaps it's just as well, since we wouldn't want to become arrogant or self-serving in our relationships. Our value comes from knowing that we are loved by God, and that alone is all we need to know. Still, it doesn't hurt to know that we are beautiful to someone.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 4 Available]

The gospel is waiting	Wednesday, December, 02, 2009
by John Fischer The gospel is waiting. It is waiting not to be spoken, but to be lived. The gospel is waiting to be believed and to be put to use in your life and mine. It's not just a static message; it's a living testimony. The gospel needs much more than paper to be printed on; it needs a life it can imprint. "Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God" (2 Cor. 4:1-2). The success of the Gospel in our present age does not depend on how attractively it is packaged, but on how honestly real Christians are living out their lives in the world. It's not just the Gospel that does it. It's not just a message. It's the gospel in you and in me. Nothing needs to be done to the gospel except to be lived. Nothing needs to be done to the Gospel. Everything's already been done. But there is much that needs to be done in our lives by the Gospel. And this is the every day walking in faith that even the strongest and longest of Christians must do, too. There is hope to be expressed, sin to be confessed, forgiveness to be embraced, suffering to be endured, glory to be shared, love to be received, and love to be given. It is the presence of all this happening in our lives that we are to commend to someone else. If the Gospel is alive in me and I introduce myself to someone, I am introducing them to the Gospel. If it is not alive in me, no amount of dressing it up is going to convince anyone; but, on the contrary, it will mask the real truth. The issue, therefore, is not how to present the Gospel, but how to make certain it is living in me — a much more difficult proposition. It means deep questioning, soul-searching, and observing myself continually in light of the truth. "Undressing" would be a more appropriate expression of this process than "dressing up." Dressing up, if it protects us from having to be honest, is nothing more than cover-up. That's a message you simply cannot dress up, especially if you tell the whole truth about yourself. No need for deception. We won't draw people into a net and then surprise them with the Gospel. We set forth the Gospel plainly through words of truth and words of honesty from our lives. We trust God, the Great Designer, to handle His own image.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

Only one world	Tuesday, December, 01, 2009
by John Fischer We live in only one world, and it's an ugly one filled with war, disease, terrorism, rape, exploitation, hunger—I could fill the page—but that is the world. I have read my Bible from cover to cover, and I have not found any mention of another one. In fact, the world I find in the Bible seems to be basically the same as the one I live in. But it is also a beautiful world filled with glorious natural beauty, art, music, kindness and good will. These are not two separate worlds. They are aspects of the one world we live in. The glorious news of the Gospel, of course, is that God came into this world in human flesh. He came in the person of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come to create a little world within a world; He came straight from His Father in heaven to pay for what is wrong with this world and rescue what is right. To do that, He lived in this world—you know, the ugly one, the only one we have, the one full of prostitutes, criminals, soldiers, lepers, and crazy maniacs. He lived in a world of people with wild eyes and smelly bandages, people who, if they moved in next door, would definitely bring down the property values. He was referring to this world when he prayed: "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world" (John 17:15-18). Sooner or later the rapist is going to break into our house, the riot is going to spill over onto our street, or the bomb is going to go off under our car. It's inevitable. There's no way to escape the danger of life in this hostile world because, after all, the world is our address. We have to get beyond being shocked and horrified by what we see in the world and get on with walking into it with the love and mercy of Jesus Christ. When we do, we will finally realize that safety has nothing to do with locks, that security has nothing to do with fences, that joy has nothing to do with the absence of pain, and that peace has nothing to do with comfort. We will no longer confuse the securities of a Christian subculture with the presence of Christ. We will know the real Christ sustaining us in the real world, where He once sustained himself by doing the will of His Father. We will also hurt with the world, bleed for it, and cry over it just as Jesus did. And we will be in danger and touch the unclean bandages. But isn't that exciting? Who would want it any other way?
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 8 Available]

A View From The Fisch Bowl	Friday, November, 27, 2009
by Marti Fischer [Though I usually edit Marti's writing, I am leaving this so that you can encounter her raw and uncensored. Marti's A.D.D. writing style is usually a stretch for most people, but we both believe there are at least three people out there who will understand and resonate with her writing, and if you are one of those, we'd love to hear from you!] John was born wondering. On any day in John's life you will find him scratching the folds between his temples. He thrives on living at a level of complexity, on one hand and on the other, he can get overwhelmed with detail chatting with the mail carrier. John is the guarded communicator of profound Christian truth. His job is to wonder. His job is very difficult and sometimes challenging, considering the conditions of his own character and those surrounding him. Knowing that God wants everyone to join the odd group of guests attending Jesus' birth day, John is constantly wondering whether if you, his beloved readers, are ever surprised by Christ. • Even when in the wrong places, do you ever end up finding Jesus anyway? • Do lights ever go on for you when simply standing in the marketplace tending to your responsibilities? • Do your searches, as modern sages, ever lead you through the mazes of the ordinary and the supernatural to the real living Christ? I suppose we have always lived in a Fischbowl. To know us is to experience, though not necessarily understand, our high drama. It is all set up like a fishbowl would be. Here is the John Fisch, and here is the Marti Fisch. The Marti Fisch has this entertaining Disney/Eastman-derived sketch; it is dripping with cartoon diamonds. The John Fisch is scrubbing algae off the little statue of a deep-sea diver and grinning at us, winking at the Marti Fisch's personal fanciful display. You have an idea of what aspects are genuine and which are whacked. Yet, the basic Green Acres model applies. It is ZsaZsa and Eddie Albert, trying to find ZsaZsa's tiara in the alfalfa. This sitcom is more than just the public face of John and me; it reflects deeply internalized things in all of us and it is supported and perpetuated by every moment of our lives with amazing consistency. We are hardly the Perfect Couple: following our first idyllic encounter at a Christian retreat, we married, produced two amazingly great children, and later were given a gift within a child whose smile truly lights candles. While John Fisch wrote and spoke, Marti Fisch steadily climbed the professional ladder, becoming a status-mad workaholic. Now, many years on, John is asked to turn what he does into a cyber church while Marti, when not kidnapping puppies for fur, anticipates change as a result of this gathering place. Like the spoiled princess who reluctantly befriends a frog and magically transforms it into a handsome prince, miraculously The Catch, in its pratical terms, is transforming us into the real image of man and woman that is holistic, integrated, and sustainable - a handsome prince and a beautiful princess, both with kind eyes. So, knowing things are afoot, that change is taking place, what is the catalyst and what are we to do, you wonder? Surprisingly, it is time for us to put away our royal robes, dress plainly, and try to be still. It is not like a prison sentence, not like being rendered invalid, and certainly not like beating ones wings against a cage. It is, in God terms, simply a time when we know that God is more irresistible asleep than all that we can work on at top speed regardless of accuracy. It is a time for our nervous minds to be silent so that our spirit can listen to the quiet whisper of God - while, at the same time, moving out - one step at a time. [I do not wish to belabor the same people, but the Catch is our only means of support right now, so if you have been intending to donate someday, please ask if that someday may have arrived.]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 11 Available]

A thankful man	Wednesday, November, 25, 2009
by John Fischer The worst moment for an atheist comes when he is really thankful and has no one to thank. - Unknown So Thanksgiving is upon us and you will have to forgive me because I am about to brag on my family, but they are what I am thankful for right now. Let's start with Chandler who has survived a number of challenges in these last few months. Most of you know about his accident. Confining a highly active 10-year-old to a wheelchair and then crutches for three months when he's experiencing no pain is pain itself. But he continues to keep his head up and make recovery progress. And the best thing is that he now, more than anything, wants to get back on his bike. And then there's my oldest son in his first year with the L.A.P.D. He tells me that a good deal of his time is taken up with resolving domestic disputes. He recently wrote me: "We deal with the most mundane calls, but for the people who call for us, it's a real emergency. It's like a puzzle every time, trying to figure out the best solution. Trying on different hats, from a counselor, to a teacher, to a parent, to a friend. It's interesting and exhausting all at the same time!" An example of this was a story he told me of a parent who could not control her teenage daughter and out of desperation called the police. Christopher's training officer (T.O.) told him this call was all his and he proceeded to sit the girl down and talk to her for over an hour. His T.O. wanted to know where he had learned to talk to kids like that. I'm not surprised; he's always done this in our family. Turns out the parent wrote a letter to the department and both Christopher and his T.O. received commendations. This incident was followed by a suspected armed robbery, and found Christopher moments after his in-house counseling session bursting into a restaurant with his shotgun drawn. For a kid whose mother never let him play with guns, this is enough to stop our hearts or bust our buttons—one of the two. Never to be outdone is Anne in her second year of Physician's Assistant school at the University of Southern California. This next semester she starts her residency in one of the busiest hospitals in Los Angeles County—right in the middle of the heaviest gang activity in the city. No problem for Anne. She thrives on this kind of thing. I couldn't help but imagine my son bringing them in and my daughter sewing them up! Finally I am thankful for Marti, the woman who brought these children into the world and taught them to be who they are. Their character strength and the reality of their faith come from her. I don't deserve any of them just as I don't deserve the life I have in Christ. I am a thankful man. And last, but not least, I am thankful for you, my online family. Many of you have been faithful readers of the Catch for some time. I can't write without readers. Thank you for giving me the privilege of serving you. Happy Thanksgiving! Be thankful for the people in your life! [Thanksgiving gifts are encouraged at this time. See the link above, and thank you in advance for helping keep the Fischtank in operation.]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 8 Available]

All things thankful	Tuesday, November, 24, 2009
by John Fischer Gratitude is the current of the river of grace. The giving of thanks is the only logical response one can have to a forgiveness and a holiness that are totally undeserved. By nature of the fact that grace is a gift, there is nothing one can do but receive it and be thankful for it. Thankfulness is so tied to grace that the absence of gratitude in a Christian's life is an indication that legalism still rules the day. Most of us have a hard time responding to gifts. Gifts run contrary to those who trust only in what has been earned. Gifts imply a need or a weakness, and if the thing one receives is righteousness, it means admitting to the failure of the holy effort to produce it. But what a glorious failure! Who has managed to join the ranks of sinners save by grace without possessing a deep and abiding, ever-flowing gratitude of the heart? We have done nothing to deserve, create or maintain the righteousness we have been given, and therefore we can do nothing but be grateful for it. Even our reward at the end of the journey will come as a thankful surprise, because we will have become so well acquainted with our sins and shortcomings along the way that we will not be expecting it. So we will throw ourselves on the mercy of God when we meet him, just as we always have done, because we have no other option, and yet, in his eyes, we are already clean. We have been clean all along through the blood of his Son. That's why it will take heaven to contain our praise and an eternity to give proper thanks. "You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever" (Psalm 30:11-12, emphasis mine).
[ Want To Comment?]

Take it from Blitzen	Monday, November, 23, 2009
by John Fischer Remember "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten?" My own version would come under the heading: "A Lot of What I Really Need to Know I've Learned from My Dog." Anyway, I'm sure God gave us animals so we could learn about ourselves by observing them. Blitzen, our Chihuahua, knows our patterns so well that he is aware of when it is the weekend. Something in our schedule triggers him. He likes the weekend because I go get breakfast for the family and take him along for the ride. On Saturday it's muffins from the bi-polar baker, and on Sunday it's bagels from the bagels shop in town. The minute I'm up, he starts following me all over the house lest I up and leave without him. The big deal about this drive is that he gets to stand in my lap, put his front paws on the window's edge and stick his head out the window, and though it's less than 5 minutes to either of these places, that doesn't matter, it's a big deal to him. And the biggest deal is whenever we pass by another four-legged creature. Blitzen goes nuts, barking and hopping and carrying on all over my lap. This immediate rapport with his own kind is something I've noticed with all dogs. Picture two strangers passing each other both walking their dogs and imagine the people don't want to talk. Too bad, because the dogs do. Would that I was half as friendly. I'm taking it from Blitzen today. Everyone I pass is deserving of an enthusiastic greeting. Time to get excited over strangers—hop around a little inside. You never know the value of a smile or a kind word. People have been stopped short of suicide just because someone noticed them.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 15 Available]

Flight 50	Friday, November, 20, 2009
by John Fischer I'm remembering a woman today on a transcontinental flight I once took who refused to pull down the shade on her window to help darken the cabin for the mid-morning transcontinental movie. I never did know anything about her personal issues, but she will always be a hero to me. Hazy light from the lonely oval streams in on her row of airline seats and slightly diffuses the color tones on the movie screen. I'd like to believe that she does this to maintain some contact with reality outside this screaming silver bullet. This airplane scene somehow represents my life, and that woman, fighting for one small window of hazy reality in the middle of an airborne Hollywood fantasy, is my inspiration and my way out. The darkened plane, the filtered air, and the darting, flashing celluloid all are pulling me into someone else's story, someone else's reality. Somewhere below me is the truth. Somewhere down there I can walk and smell the pungent sage as it is crushed under my boots. Somewhere down there I can taste the dirt and feel the wind on my face. Somewhere down there I can feel the sun dry my lips. I know this, yet I feel like most of the people on this flight who have pulled down the window shade and let something else define reality. Oh, there's truth here, but it's someone else's truth first — if it ever is mine — and it's as far above the ground as I am right now. Suddenly I remember that I was on the ground once. I traveled this great country in a sports car with a backpack strapped to the trunk. I took back roads in Georgia and talked to old men at country stores. I drove by belching factories in Detroit and camped under the stars in the pine forests of Tennessee. I hiked the craggy mountains of southern Texas and slept on a cliff over the Rio Grande while a full moon rose on my left and a full sun went down on my right. And the dry wind chapped my lips. But now my lips are smooth. The air is controlled in this plane just as the experiences are. Compromise has been laid upon compromise until my last touch with my heart is this one small window — a porthole of truth — and the defiant woman who guards it. Cheer the woman! Stand in front of the screen! Slide open your shade! Scream! Do something to wake up before we all fall asleep watching the movie on Flight 50!
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 8 Available]

Sheer delight	Thursday, November, 19, 2009
by John Fischer I was in the process of beating myself up over something when an email from a friend arrived with the following verse: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17). Wait a minute. God is taking great delight in me and I am beating myself up? What's wrong with this picture? Obviously I do not have God's view of myself. I have a warped view and I am going against God's plan when I give into it. If we were all honest, I think we would find that this view is pretty rampant especially among Christians. We continually feel like we are falling way short of what is expected of us spiritually, and to be perfectly honest, most of us probably think God is administering a good share of the beating. That is where we are all wrong about God. Think about it like this: Why would God heap guilt and punishment on someone he went to such great lengths to save? Doesn't make sense, does it? And yet we love to engage in this "woe is me" way of thinking. We love to punish ourselves as if we could pay for our own sins. Well God's got other things in mind for us. He wants to delight in us. This is what life is all about, after all. God created us because it was his pleasure to do so. He made us so he could delight in us and we could delight in him. God gets joy out of every inch of his universe, but nothing like the joy he has over you and me. Why is it so hard for us to believe this? Probably because it's so rare in our human experience to have anyone experience sheer delight over someone else. We are so careful and guarded with our praise lest we unknowingly reward some wrong behavior. But God has already gathered up all our wrong doings and put them away on the cross, leaving him free to delight in us, and so he does. Think about who we could be and what we could do if we really started believing this.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 5 Available]

Two for a penny	Wednesday, November, 18, 2009
by John Fischer "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows" (Matt. 10:29-31). Three things strike me about these simple, beautiful words of Christ. First: His will encompasses everything in my life. If God wills to allow the death plunge of an innocent sparrow and can somehow incorporate that tragic event into His total plan for the world, then He certainly must be doing the same with the apparent tragedies that occur in my life. Limiting God's will to what is good for me (from my finite perspective) is to rob Him of His sovereignty over all things. Second: God is involved with us even in the minutest details of life. The hairs of my head . . . numbered? Really! I can just imagine God saying, "Hold still; I'm counting — 12,534 . . .12,535 . . ." (Except that in my case, it would be—12,534. . . 12,533. . .!) If God knows how many hairs are in my head, is there anything about me that could possibly escape his knowledge? Third: God not only knows us, but He assigns us the highest value in spite of knowing us completely. "You are worth more than many sparrows." My perception of this concept went through a wonderful metamorphosis as I meditated upon it. At first I wasn't very impressed. How many sparrows am I worth! Fifty? A hundred? At least a thousand, I hope! And then it hit me. Sparrows may not be very important to me, but they are very important to Him. He conceived of them in His mind and created them with great care. He fashioned them with perfect aerodynamics and set them soaring in the sky. He taught them how to gather food, to reproduce, and care for their young; and when one flies unwittingly into the invisible trap of my plate-glass window and falls lifelessly to the ground—He knows. Suddenly the worth of sparrows shot up — and so did mine, as well as the value of every person on the face of this earth. You and I are the creatures He prizes above the rest of His creation. We are made in His image and He sacrificed His Son that each one of us might be one with Him. Sparrows are sold at two for a penny; we were bought for a much higher price.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 9 Available]

The tyranny of the not-so-good	Tuesday, November, 17, 2009
by John Fischer When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Ecclesiastes 7:14 I learned something today about bad times. Bad times can be useful. They can motivate us to change. That's why the worst kind of bad times are the not-so-good times. Admittedly, sometimes bad times are beyond our control, but often, we are not entirely innocent. It's important to own up to how we may have contributed to the times being so bad. Bad times come for a reason. They are here to teach us what we don't want. The worst thing you can do with bad times is adjust to them, or learn to tolerate them. Adjusting yourself to not-so-good times is to make peace with mediocrity. The worst enemy of good times is not bad times, but not-so-good times. Not-so-good times have a way of inoculating yourself against the best or the highest. You may have heard that the good is the enemy of the best, well so is the not-so-good. The not-so-good is the enemy of the worst and that is dangerous because we need the worst to wake us up to what needs to change. You can tolerate not-so-good; but the worst forces you to do something about it. The worst can actually be beneficial. The worst can help motivate us to change. An alcoholic who gets by without admitting to being an alcoholic is making compromises with the not-so-good, taking everyone around them along. An alcoholic who seeks help is taking the first step towards real change, because they are admitting that things are not good at all, and if nothing changes soon, disaster will occur. This is bad, but it is ultimately good, because a change is taking place.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 1 Available]

'So? Can you paint?'	Monday, November, 16, 2009
by John Fischer I'm looking back at a quote I used last week about a Christian writer being a Christian who writes about anything, and remembering one of my favorite stories along those lines. It's about a lady I met at a PTA meeting who when she found out I was a Christian had asked if I could explain an incident she had experienced with a Christian that had puzzled her. It seems a young man had stopped by her house soliciting house-painting jobs in the neighborhood. She asked for his card, and noticed the sign of a fish right under his name. When she inquired about that, the painter smiled and announced that he was a Christian painter. The woman said she was a bit puzzled by that, and after thinking about it for a minute or two, she had responded by asking a very obvious question: "So? Can you paint?" Being a Christian painter might mean something to another Christian, but to anyone else, like this lady, for instance, it merely confuses the issue. All she wants to know is how well you can paint. It occurs to me that this is the level at which we meet most people, and something we need to pay a good deal of attention to. Who we are, what we do, and how well do we do it are questions that are at least initially more important than our Christianity. Being a Christian something-or-other only means something if the something-or-other does. We need to pay attention to the whole of our life. This is when doing all to the glory of God makes sense. If you're a really exceptional painter, then the Christian label doesn't even need to be there. It will stand on the merit of who you are.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

Welcome back	Friday, November, 13, 2009
by John Fischer My sheep know my voice… (John 10:27) I've often thought that the early songs of the country rock group Love Song were God-breathed, and thus a perfect representation of how the Spirit of God wishes to woo people to himself. The fact that the members of Love Song wrote these songs literally days after being dramatically saved without any evangelical background or training, and that the songs were instrumental in a huge harvest of souls during the last spiritual revival to hit this country makes me sure they were given by God for this very purpose. If I'm right, then we can learn a lot about the heart of God through these songs. For instance, the lyrics I quoted in yesterday's Catch about reaching out to God with one hand and bringing a friend with the other are right from the 2 Corinthians passage that has us reconciled to God so that he might reconcile others to himself through us. And then there's this: Welcome back to the things that you once believed in Welcome back to what you knew was right from the start Sometimes you don't know what you're missing Till you leave it for a while Welcome back to the love that is in your heart Now this is amazing. As far as I know, this has not been done before or since. These lyrics are addressing something that's already there. Romans Chapter 1 says that everyone has some knowledge of the truth to which they haven't been true and their conscience tells me this. This song reaches into that place and gently uncovers the truth. So what does this have to do with us? It reveals something about the heart of God. It reminds us we don't have to badger, frighten or cajole anyone into believing. Simply speak the truth and call. I know you thought you could turn your back And no one could see in your mind But I see that you know better now You never were the untruthful kind And I'm so happy now to welcome you back
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 10 Available]

Bring a friend	Thursday, November, 12, 2009
by John Fischer Accept him with your whole heart And use your own two hands With one reach out to Jesus And with the other… Bring a friend. – Love Song Well I hope you've all enjoyed coming along with me to Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. I've enjoyed having you. If you know anyone who is looking for a good Christian college, I personally recommend this one, and that's totally free and unsolicited. By the time most of you read this, I will be on a plane home, though tonight, I'm finishing this up in the student union building with a medium latte and an obscenely large chocolate chip cookie. Earlier tonight, in my last talk, I challenged the students who were there to consider being a new kind of Christian—one who is not afraid; one who is in the world but not of it, and not concerned over his or her own safety (because Jesus is praying for our protection [John 17:15]); one who is known for being loving, accepting, and non-judgmental; and one who is eager to engage the world and embrace those who are different. And then I suggested that we should side with sinners. How else can we be reconcilers if we don't get in among those God is reconciling? It's the job he has given us to do. "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18). Put simply: God brought us to himself so that we might bring others to him in the same way he brought us. You can't do this business from a distance. You have to be in the company of those God wants to reconcile, because he is making his appeal through you. Besides, who's the biggest sinner of them all? Who needs his grace and mercy more than anyone? Who is the charter member of sinners anonymous? Hey come on you guys… this is our group!
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 5 Available]

Accent mark	Wednesday, November, 11, 2009
by John Fischer Today I met Ariél. She is a 19-year-old sophomore at Grove City College and it is very important to her that you know she has an accent mark over the "e" in her name. When she told me her name, and I asked her how it was spelled, she was careful to mention the accent. I asked her why that was important, and she said it was what made her different... distinctive… what made her stand out. I asked her if the accent changed the pronunciation of her name at all, and she said that wasn't important. It wasn't as important how people said her name, as it was simply knowing it was there… the accent mark, that is. I wish you could meet Ariél. She has bright brown eyes, and I've never thought of dark eyes being bright but God somehow figured out how to make hers that way. As we talked, there was something about that accent mark that kept bringing me back. I began to think that maybe she was onto something—maybe everybody had an accent mark of some kind, if not in their name, in something else about them. Everyone has that one thing that sets them off from the rest—that thing that makes them one of a kind. Actually, isn't it true that each one of us is one of a kind? I must admit, of all the Ariels I know, this is the first one I have ever met with an accent mark in her name. Actually, I don't remember ever meeting an Ariel before this, but if I did, I bet they wouldn't have an accent mark in their name. I'm almost sure of it. In fact, I bet I've just met the only Ariél in the whole world.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 5 Available]

Getting online	Tuesday, November, 10, 2009
by John Fischer I am sitting in a cubicle in the attic of the Henry Buhl Library at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Here, tucked away in a stuffy corner, surrounded by stacks upon stacks of books, I am finding the memories of my own college study experiences flooding back to me. I used to study this way if I really had to book it, because there were few distractions. Even the heat in this upper room is a part of the memory. Attic rooms of all college libraries must be required to have poor ventilation so everyone can have this experience. I will not last long here—long enough to feel the pain, though. As long as I stay here, I am sure I have a test tomorrow or a paper due. I came here because I could not get online in my guest room and someone said there was a TLC center in the library. So when I found the TLC room and went up to two students sitting behind a desk and announced I needed some serious TLC, they laughed. "That's the first time I've heard anyone say that here." Apparently at Grove City College, TLC does not mean Tender Loving Care. But it might as well have been because that's what I got anyway as Brian and Randy reconfigured my computer to work with the college system. And then they gave me the bad news. "Of course you'll have to change everything back when you leave." Suddenly I feel trapped inside the Grove City College library with a computer that can get online nowhere else but here. Some people have a Christianity configured to only work in a Christian setting around other Christians. The challenge is to be able to get online with the Spirit of God from anywhere and be able to connect the truth of God to anything. This is what makes a Christian worldview Christian. It's not that it only deals with Christian themes, but it is a Christian way of looking at everything. Someone once asked Flannery O'Conner if she could define a Christian writer, to which she replied, "A Christian writer is a Christian who writes about anything." You have a faith that allows you to get online from anywhere; it's already configured to work that way. Think about that… and use it today!
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

Getting online	Monday, November, 09, 2009
by John Fischer I am sitting in a cubicle in the attic of the Henry Buhl Library at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Here, tucked away in a stuffy corner, surrounded by stacks upon stacks of books, I am finding the memories of my own college study experiences flooding back to me. I used to study this way if I really had to book it, because there were few distractions. Even the heat in this upper room is a part of the memory. Attic rooms of all college libraries must be required to have poor ventilation so everyone can have this experience. I will not last long here—long enough to feel the pain, though. As long as I stay here, I am sure I have a test tomorrow or a paper due. I came here because I could not get online in my guest room and someone said there was a TLC center in the library. So when I found the TLC room and went up to two students sitting behind a desk and announced I needed some serious TLC, they laughed. "That's the first time I've heard anyone say that here." Apparently at Grove City College, TLC does not mean Tender Loving Care. But it might as well have been because that's what I got anyway as Brian and Randy reconfigured my computer to work with the college system. And then they gave me the bad news. "Of course you'll have to change everything back when you leave." Suddenly I feel trapped inside the Grove City College library with a computer that can get online nowhere else but here. Some people have a Christianity configured to only work in a Christian setting around other Christians. The challenge is to be able to get online with the Spirit of God from anywhere and be able to connect the truth of God to anything. This is what makes a Christian worldview Christian. It's not that it only deals with Christian themes, but it is a Christian way of looking at everything. Someone once asked Flannery O'Conner if she could define a Christian writer, to which she replied, "A Christian writer is a Christian who writes about anything." You have a faith that allows you to get online from anywhere; it's already configured to work that way. Think about that… and use it today!
[ Want To Comment?]

'Let them grow together'	Monday, November, 09, 2009
by John Fischer "There are two types of people in the world. Those who divide the world up into two kinds of people and those who don't." Interestingly, both Paul and Jesus divided people into two groups. Paul describes these groups as those who are "being saved" and those who are "perishing" (2 Corinthians 2:15 NIB), and Jesus describes them as the sheep and goats he will separate on the last day (Matthew 25:32). And in another parable, they are the wheat and the tares that are growing, in some cases side by side, so that pulling up the one might destroy the other. So Jesus said to let them grow together until the harvest. (Matthew 13:24-30) All three of these descriptions have to do with the ultimate destiny of people's souls, and the information is confidential. So let them grow together, said Jesus—the wheat and the tares, the sheep and the goats, those who are being saved and those who are perishing. We're all in this mix together and none of us is completely certain about the outcome of the people around us. This is why you always point everyone to the truth. So let them grow together also has an implication of close proximity. Because you never know about people, you can be hopeful about everyone. You want to treat everyone equally. As far as we are concerned, there is only one kind of person: "us." God, in his infinite wisdom and knowledge might see two, but that's not our business. We only know about one—the one God loves; the one for whom Christ died; the one he wants us to love as his representatives because it is not his desire for anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 4 Available]

Expanding the Catch in the marketplace	Friday, November, 06, 2009
by John Fischer [It was reported that a number of you did not receive yesterday's Catch. Because of the nature of its content we are running it again with some minor changes.] Dear Members of the Catch: As many of you are aware, I am committed to those willing to make a sustainable difference in the lives of others wherever they are, using every possible venue. This need to equip and influence others began for me years ago with assembling and teaching other Christian musicians and artists, with a specific emphasis towards invoking a biblical model of cultural involvement. This desire still burns to this day as realized by artists such as U2‘s Bono, and has expanded to all of us who seek to raise Christ up within the marketplace. To reflect confident hope and trust in the God of the Bible, my hope is to leave even the most secular reviewers to wonder what exactly is happening—and they are. The key is grace, which many a Daily Catch subscriber has come to know and extol as his or her own—as if they have just discovered it, which is very good, because grace is not just a word. Grace is action. Grace overturns the consequences of our actions while love translates grace unconditionally. Grace lets us off the hook. And we get to do this? It is you, the members of the Catch, who are the reason I continue on because of your assistance. Through your stories, I marvel at the works of the Lord as you intimately share the hard parts of being faithful within the marketplace, the longings of your heart, the barriers yet to overcome, and the motivations to keep on going—keep on acting! This is a defining moment for all of us: for the church outside its walls, for our values, and for the culture that we live in. This is not a time to play hide and seek with the truth—not when people are looking for the Savior. As all of us have evaluated ourselves in front of what the truth has presented in the Catch over these last few weeks, we need to replace fear with faith, and stop the crisis of credibility by embracing grace received and grace given, thus ending this hierarchy of "us and them." You must know that you are an important part of the Catch’s ever-expanding influence in the marketplace today. While we recognize many are affected during this difficult economic season, your on-going contributions are even more important now than ever. Will you stand with us and support this expansion by giving a special gift to the Catch today? We are full of gratitude to you for your continued involvement. It means everything! The kingdom of God is born in those who act. Jesus was always telling his followers to be doers of the word and not just hearers only. Every day is an opportunity to act in faith. Don't miss even one of those opportunities today. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the School of Music Ministries International, my Team of Advisors, and my wife, Thank you! John Fischer
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 1 Available]

Expanding the Catch in the marketplace	Thursday, November, 05, 2009
by John Fischer Dear Members of the Catch: As many of you are aware, I am committed to those willing to make a sustainable difference in the lives of others everywhere they are, using every possible venue. This need to equip and influence others began for me years ago with assembling and teaching other Christian musicians and artists, with a specific emphasis towards invoking a biblical model of cultural involvement. This desire still burns to this day as realized by artists such as U2‘s Bono, and has expanded to all of us who seek to raise Christ up within the marketplace. To reflect confident hope and trust in the God of the Bible, my hope is to leave even the most secular reviewers to wonder what exactly is happening—and they are. To leave secular reviewers wondering and Christian reviewers skeptical would be a clear indication of doing something right. The key is grace, which many a Daily Catch subscriber has come to know and extols as his or her own—as if they have just discovered it, which is very good, because grace is not just a word. Grace is action. Grace overturns the consequences of our actions while love translates grace unconditionally. Grace received and grace given, for both are inseparable. Grace received and not given is nullified; grace given and not received is a lie. So as we receive, we give, and can you believe we get to do this? It is you, the members of the Catch, who are the reason I continue on and call on you for assistance. Through your stories, I marvel at the works of the Lord as you intimately share the hard parts of being faithful within the marketplace, the longings of your heart, the barriers yet to overcome, and the motivations to keep on going—keep on acting! This is a defining moment for all of us: for the church outside its walls, for our values, and for the culture that we live in. This is not a time to play hide and seek with the truth—not when people are looking for the Savior. As all of us have evaluated ourselves in front of what the truth has presented in the Catch over these last few weeks, we need to replace fear with faith, and stop the crisis of credibility by embracing grace received and grace given, thus ending this hierarchy of "us and them." You must know that you are an important part of the Catch’s ever-expanding influence in the marketplace today. While we recognize many are affected during this difficult economic season, your on-going contributions are even more important now than ever. Will you show that you stand with us and support this expansion by giving a special gift to the Catch today? We are full of gratitude to you for your continued involvement. It means everything! On behalf of the Board of Directors of the School of Music Ministries International, my Team of Advisors, and my wife, Thank you! John Fischer
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 1 Available]

'What are you doing that for?'	Wednesday, November, 04, 2009
by John Fischer I am way overdue on an update on Chandler's condition. He was hit by a car while riding his bike Labor Day weekend and sustained a slight fracture just below the left knee. A number of you have asked about him. Well yesterday he got his brace off for good and had his first physical therapy session. The doctor wants him to start putting weight on it, but after about a week on crutches, that's easier said than done. He's gotten pretty good on those crutches. He can actually move faster than I can walk by using his body weight to swing his legs out into bigger steps than he could ever take even with two healthy legs. Now he's being asked to put both feet down on the ground and start walking normally, while still using the crutches for balance—a much slower compromise. A number of times in the physical therapy office he lifted his bad leg while on the crutches or hopped on one leg when he wasn't, and the PT practitioner would say, "What are you doing that for?" It was then I realized he was going to have to overcome two barriers: 1) the weakness of muscle strength in that leg due to inactivity, and 2) the mental idea that there is something wrong with his leg. A number of times she had to remind him that the doctor declared the fracture was healed and he could start putting weight on his leg. And if she caught him hopping she would repeat the same thing, "What are you doing that for?" I watched him struggle with that invisible mental barrier and realized I was watching myself, fighting against the invitation to trust. How many times has God declared us healed in the Spirit in a certain area and still we find ourselves catering to our weaknesses and coddling our coping mechanisms. Like Chandler, it's our mind that presents the biggest obstacle. We've come to trust our crutches and not ourselves. First you have to believe you are healed, then you have to step into that belief in order to gain strength in that limb, and like Chandler, the first may actually be harder than the second. Would that we all had someone to go, "What are you doing that for?" every time we go back to our crutches and coping mechanisms. You can trust that faith now. Go ahead. Put some weight on it. All you need now is some muscle strength. It will come if you use it.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

Signposts	Tuesday, November, 03, 2009
by John Fischer We should be helping to make it easy for people to come to know the Lord. We are signposts pointing the way. By being accessible. Our lives are an open book. Paul says we are letters "known and read by everybody" (2 Corinthians 3:2). Christians should be the most accessible people on the planet. The reason is: we contain Christ. Someone rummaging around in our lives is going to bump into Jesus. Can't help it. This isn't about being a good witness; it's about being. By being imperfect. Our ordinary, fallible, broken lives are a constant source of life poured out to others. It is through our sin that others come to know forgiveness. It is through our suffering that others come to know God's comfort. It is through our sickness that others come to know God's healing. It is through our pain that others discover joy. It is through our death that others find life. (2 Corinthians 4:12) By being non-judgmental. This attitude is the natural and normal result of finding out what a total jerk you are (and that word is about four stages removed from what I dare not print here). When you are the poster child for how far grace will go, you can't possibly bring anything close to judgment upon another human being. Judgment is only for those who are working their way to heaven and relatively smug about already making it. People who know they don't deserve heaven don't care who else gets in. By being full of gratitude. This is what makes you pleasant to be around. This is what makes you approachable. You just can't believe you get to breathe another breath. You can't believe you get forgiven. You don't know why you are loved and accepted, but you're not going to bring it up in case one of God's angels might find out they made a mistake and you aren't supposed to be there!
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 10 Available]

Good neighbors	Monday, November, 02, 2009
by John Fischer It was another successful night for the Halloween parade on Oak Street. Our neighbor who is a retired grade school teacher and loves kids had her clicker going all night to satisfy her curiosity. When we were over there around 8:30 after we ran out of candy to give out, she was up to 1,162 children who had been to her door and received candy. Obviously a little more than our neighborhood comes to our street. I ran into a man today who lives two blocks over and he counted 75. We're an institution now. You sell your house on Oak Street; you have to disclose the fact that 1,200 kids will come to your door on Halloween night. You don't ever close your door unless you run out of candy because it's a steady stream. On a night when some are just glad to have made it through safely, I was happy to not have run out of candy at 7:00 when we usually do. We lasted until shortly after 8:00 p.m., certainly a new record for the Fischer household. So why am I telling you all this? Well I need a story and this is the best one so far. And what's the lesson of this story—the big spiritual take home we're all waiting for? Well… there isn't one. There's just being a good neighbor, and in the grand scheme of things, that's important. Sometimes the most important thing we can do is simply to take up our position as simply good neighbors. "Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (Jeremiah 29:7 NIV)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 16 Available]

'Among'	Friday, October, 30, 2009
by John Fischer I wish to conclude our thoughts this week with some of your comments. If anybody knows how to get over "us" and "them" kind of thinking, it would be our friend Robbie Goldman of Dry Bones Denver, who spends most of his time with homeless teenage street kids in the inner city of Denver. "As I read these last few Catches you know they are right were I reside. The main word we have found to help replace 'us' and 'them' is 'among.' When you figure out who it is you are 'among,' then 'us' and 'them' goes away. If you feel the need to describe your encounter with 'us' and 'them' then it is time to get 'among' them. As Jesus said, the poor will always be among you, he seems to be anticipating where we, his followers are most likely to be found. So if we are not 'among' the poor in some way, then 'us' and 'them' are the only words we can use, and that should be a red flag as to a contradiction to the Kingdom expectation Jesus described." I think Robbie has given us a valuable tool here—a way of thinking about our place in the world that may have ramifications far beyond his initial application regarding the poor. We need to learn to see ourselves, in whatever situation we are in, as being among those we are around. Not apart from, not above, not beyond, not below, but among. This would put us in the right frame of mind for any situation including when we are among those less fortunate. And as Robbie says, should that be a rare occurrence, then you might want to do something about changing that. What does it take to be among people? Who are you among? What would you need to do to be among the poor more often? One more thing… one of our readers sent us this from Father Joseph Warrillow: "There are two types of people in the world. Those who divide the world up into two kinds of people and those who don't." I want to be among those who don't.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 9 Available]

We have met the 'them' and 'they' are 'us'	Thursday, October, 29, 2009
by John Fischer In thinking about our discussions this week about the homeless and the possibility of entertaining angels, there is something still bothering me about my own thinking in this regard. It's all about what causes me to say "them" when I talk about the homeless or the poor. It's what makes me put "them" (see what I mean?) in another category than myself. It may be necessary in order to communicate, but it never seems right. Because it isn't. "Us" and "them;" "us" and "them"—I wish there was a better way around this. As a communicator, I'm very conscious of the way I use words. These are merely pronouns, and it's virtually impossible not to use them, but still they carry so much baggage that keeps us apart. That's why it's so necessary to meet "them" and get to know and understand "them," because when you do, you realize that "they" are "us." And it doesn't matter who "they" are—whether homeless, poor, gay, straight, rich or famous… regardless of religion or ethnicity… "they" are "us." Until you can say this about everybody, you are not giving people the dignity they are due as image-bearers of God. On the evening my wife and I visited the Catholic home for women, there was a group of teenagers from a church youth group that came after dinner to observe what was going on in the home, and help where needed. That primarily amounted to helping the guests carry their bedding inside to where they would bed down for the night. This was not an easy thing for many of these women whose possessions were few to begin with. This "serving" event called for a brief lecture to the women by the host of the home before the kids came in to help. They needed to prepare to be served. That would take some doing. In essence, her talk was an admonition to the women to allow these kids to serve them in this way. Be nice to these kids, chat with them, let them carry your stuff and graciously answer their questions. I immediately noticed how odd it was that the "us" and "them" had suddenly switched, and the shoe was on the other foot. She was basically saying, "I'm asking you to serve them by letting them serve you." So what you have here are two groups of people serving each other. Then what is the difference? There is no difference. And isn't that the point?
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

When you walk in the room	Wednesday, October, 28, 2009
by John Fischer What happens when you walk in a roomful of people? A lot of this depends on our personalities. If you are my daughter, you fill it up with lots of bright flashing colors. Someone else might sneak in quietly and blend in. Still others might hang on the outside. One of our readers remarked about how her mere presence in a room used to bust up conversations—conversations would cease or change direction when she came into the group—something she was actually proud of until God told her otherwise. "I thought that such activity revealed the fact that everyone knew that I stood for Jesus and they were ashamed of their conversation." Then she revealed how recently, God had spoken something else to her: "That's not righteousness they were responding to, but self-righteousness. When you entered the room they felt judgment and condemnation." Ouch… What do people think when you walk in the room? One sure way to be welcomed into any conversation is to be a good listener. Learn to listen without bias or judgment. Be excellent at asking questions, and ask, not to gain a footing or steer the conversation in a certain direction. Ask just to find out, because you care about someone. Some of the best advice in this area comes from the Danny DeVito character in the movie The Big Kahuna when he is talking to a rookie salesman on a business trip. "If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are—just to find out, for no other reason." People will trust you if you are a good listener. It's the opposite of what you might think. Trust is not built on knowledge and information (something you communicate when you talk), it's built on love and caring (something you communicate when you listen). And you show that you are listening and caring by asking question upon question—each question based on a deeper probe into the answer of the previous one. Or another way to think about it is to find something in an answer about which you can ask another question. You will be amazed at how deep this can go.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

Still looking for angels	Tuesday, October, 27, 2009
by John Fischer Well, now that my Angels have been eliminated from the postseason baseball pool, I can focus on the real angels—the ones we might be missing. I'm thinking about the homeless shelter for women we visited last week as a case in point. If angels are truly among us, they would have been there. "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it" (Hebrews 13:2). Think of that: We don't entertain angels when we have a potluck for the deacons. We don't entertain angels at the choir retreat. We don't entertain angels at the company Christmas party. We entertain angels when we open our heart and home to strangers—most importantly, the poor and the homeless. Haven't these always been truly special people to God? Is it any wonder that his angels would take their form and not the form of a CEO, politician, minister or rock star? So what does this mean to us, practically? Many of us don't come across these people very often. Well, I would suggest we do, we just don't notice them. Indeed, we pass them on street corners, we see them coming out of supermarkets, and we lock our gaze forward when they trap us at a signal light. I know these are uncomfortable encounters. I feel it just like you do. I was uncomfortable at the homeless shelter the other night and noticed how much easier it was to talk to the servants than the guests. But my wife keeps reminding me it's all about dignity. Giving every human being dignity, regardless of their state, appearance or aroma. And a good place to change our mental attitude might be to start by thinking: "Pay attention. Listen to this person. Look into his or her eyes, because, you never know, this just might be an angel."
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 15 Available]

The Dock People	Monday, October, 26, 2009
by John Fischer Have you ever run into people like this: brash, and fond of jokes that make your face turn red, they smoke, drink, cuss, and bowl you over with their generosity and good will. One of our readers calls them the Dock People: "The people that help you at a moment notice—the ones that help dock your boat in a rain storm, the ones that call out on the radio in the day and night to hear your voice and ask if you are okay, and are you coming back to dock tonight, so they don't have to send out a search party?" The ones that would go to the mat for you for no other reason but that you are a fellow human being, and yet the last place they would ever be found would be in a church. On the outside, they lack all the defining marks that have come to be the standard for Christians—clean living, clean talk, church-going, Bible-quoting righteousness—but on the inside, in terms of qualities like loyalty, honesty, integrity, truthfulness, love, compassion, and commitment, they run deep, often surpassing the most "holy" of Christians in these regards. What do you do with people like this? I would suggest you hang around them and see what you can learn. When you think of the group of men Jesus chose for his disciples, as well as the women who became an integral part of the team, you don't find a clean-cut, respectable, group of socialites. You find instead a group of misfits, and outcasts—bottom-feeders in the social pecking order of the day, but Dock People, every one of them. I would suggest we learn to give much more weight to the inner qualities of character and integrity rather than focusing so much time and effort on the external. The Pharisees had the external down pat, and they were the worst people Jesus had to deal with, because in spite of their religious pedigree, inside they were full of dead men's bones, according to Jesus (Matthew 23:27). All their outward appearances gained them was a certain amount of temporary praise from men, but zip from God. One of my favorite writers, Frederick Beuchner (Telling the Truth: The Gospel and Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale), writes about how the gospel is like a fairy tale in that things are not always what they appear to be. Dock people would be a good example of that.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 14 Available]

Smokers' worth	Friday, October, 23, 2009
by John Fischer I should have known I would find her with the smokers. Marti and I were helping serve dinner at a Catholic home for homeless women in Santa Ana, California. It's a big old house with hardwood floors throughout the first level; and the living room, dining room, and two side rooms are completely devoid of furniture except for a few stacks of exercise mats shoved in the corners. That's because shortly after dinner, these rooms will become the shared bedroom of some 50 women who at least for now, call this their home. I had been unable to find Marti. She wasn't in the kitchen where the other helpers were preparing to serve dinner. She wasn't out in the back yard, which has been turned into a large patio with wide benches that double as beds on warm nights. Then I saw that there was a group of women around the side of the garage and the smoke was rising and there was Marti in the middle listening and laughing. Mary and Joseph found the 12-year-old Jesus where they should have known he would be, debating with the religious leaders in the synagogue. I found Marti where I should have known she would be, asking questions and listening to the smokers. "The women had noticed that the other servers had consistently avoided them," Marti told me afterwards. "One of them asked if that was because they were smoking or if, because they smoke, they were not good enough. I asked them what they thought. 'Not good enough' was the unified answer. I suggested they might want to introduce themselves to some of the women who came to help. It was hard for them to overcome their fear, and perhaps they should introduce themselves and make the helpers feel welcome. In situations like this you have to wonder who is ministering to whom." "It's all about dignity and worth," Marti told me. "They wanted to know if I lived in a big house on the ocean not because they were judging me but because they genuinely hoped that I did. These were true seekers trying to find a place to belong and people to love them. They were keen to serve and willing to overcome their inferiority by giving of themselves in spite of the fact that they had nothing." Of all of the homeless smokers, only one had not had some college or a degree. And that one definitely chose to live in her standard. "But I liked her best because she thought I looked like Katherine Hepburn," said Marti. Marti's final piece of advice is good for us all. "Don't talk; listen. When someone is seeking, answer a question with a question to learn what he or she is thinking, and to clarify, not show off. Clarify, and ask another question. If you are the only one speaking, know that you are only seeking to impress yourself. When building a relationship it is important to begin to learn about, and love, the other person."
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 11 Available]

People groups	Thursday, October, 22, 2009
by John Fischer Carl from Austin, TX sent this one in. "People are divided into two groups—the "righteous" and the "unrighteous." And the "righteous" do the dividing." It used to be necessary for me to separate Christians from non-Christians. I needed to know there was "us" and there was "them." I wonder why this was so important? I'd like to think it was because I wanted all the non-Christians to become Christians, but I suspect it was closer to a kind of prejudice than anything. I didn't like non-Christians. They were bad people with whom I had little in common. For these reasons I learned to be very self-conscious and uncomfortable around non-Christians. They didn't speak my language and I had no interest in learning theirs. I since have learned that these distinctions are artificial and premature. All distinctions belong to the Lord anyway and it is my prerogative to simply love people whoever they are, whatever they believe. I'm not going to have anything to do with handing out awards anyway. Besides, I know nothing of the motivations of the heart. I am so glad I don't, too. That leaves me free to point a way down the road. If it sounds like I have this down, I don't. Old habits die hard. I still feel self-conscious and uncomfortable around non-Christians even though I know better. Love, appreciate, dignify, respect: these are the useful verbs to apply to all people, all the time. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to." (Matthew 23:13-14)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 9 Available]

Mrs. Turpin's revelation	Wednesday, October, 21, 2009
by John Fischer There is a short story by the remarkable southern writer, Flannery O'Connor, called "Revelation" that ends with a vision. The story is about a woman named Mrs. Turpin who is sitting in a doctor's crowded waiting room with her with her husband who had been kicked by a horse. Though on the surface she is cordial and kind to everyone, underneath she passes judgment on "niggers, white trashy people" and all the other lowlifes in the room. She prides herself in the fact that she has always lived a virtuous, proper life "with common sense and respectable behavior." Basically she is disdainful of everyone who is not as "proper" as she. Mrs. Turpin's quiet condemnation fails to escape the notice of an overweight, acne-faced, "white trashy" girl whose simmering anger over Mrs. Turpin's snide innuendoes finally overcomes her. Flying out of control, the girl throws her book at the woman and tries to strangle her. A nurse in the office subdues her, but not before she whispers to Mrs. Turpin, "Go back to hell where you belong, you old warthog." At home on her farm, Mrs. Turpin confronts God. Was this experience a message from him? She demands of God, "Who do you think you are?" And standing at the pen that contains her prize pigs, with the sun setting, a "visionary light" comes over her. Flannery O'Connor describes what she saw: "Until the sun slipped finally behind the tree line, Mrs. Turpin remained there with her gaze bent to them [her prize, super-sanitized pigs] as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge. At last she lifted her head. There was only a purple streak in the sky, cutting through a field of crimson and leading, like an extension of the highway, into the descending dusk. She raised her hands from the side of the pen in a gesture hieratic and profound. A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven. There were whole companies of white-trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black niggers in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. And bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who, like herself and Claud [her husband], had always had a little of everything and the God-given wit to use it right. She leaned forward to observe them closer. They were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away."
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

Get your head out of the game	Tuesday, October, 20, 2009
by John Fischer It's a game. It's impossible to avoid because we are all wired to play it. It's the comparison game. It's based on the belief that there will always be those who are worse sinners than we are. (By whose ruling? Conveniently ours, of course.) It's righteousness by default. It's what keeps sinners in bars and the "righteous," somewhere else. It takes a lot of our attention to maintain the game. It's even played in church, where levels of "spirituality" keep us from being totally honest with one another. And it's an exhausting game that requires a good deal of manipulation of the facts to keep it going. Deep down inside, we long for God to blow the whistle on the whole game. Deep down inside, we want the truth, and when it finally hits home, it hits with incredible fierceness. It's the only way this will work. We are—every one of us—completely, utterly despicable sinners who are completely, utterly, and wonderfully saved. We gather around the same table, separated by society yet joined by God—Pharisee and sinner, weak and strong, beautiful and ugly, straight and gay, intelligent and ignorant alike, holding out our hands for the blessed forgiveness. There is no division here. No CASUAL SINNERS over here, or NICE PEOPLE SINNERS over there, or REALLY BAD SINNERS down there and to the left. We are all equally guilty, so we can all be equally and gloriously saved.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 8 Available]

Pardon everyone	Monday, October, 19, 2009
by John Fischer Well, Johnny Cash has been officially pardoned by the city of Starkville, Mississippi for yet another year, for picking flowers and violating curfew after a concert at Mississippi State University in May of 1965. In addition, members of the Cash family have now pardoned the city of Starkville for arresting him and putting him in jail for the night. I would say that, all in all, the likelihood of good vibrations continuing between these two looks very good. I must admit: it's the first time I've ever delivered a sermon in a bar. Last year, this event was outdoors in the city center. This year, anticipating a smaller crowd due to the economy and seeking to save money, they brought the show inside one of the local clubs. The entertainment featured a half a dozen artists doing mostly country, folk and blues throughout the afternoon and evening with the official "pardoning" ceremony taking place at about 10 p.m. and Carlene Carter closing out the evening's celebration. Prior to the official pardoning, I was given a few minutes to talk on Johnny Cash's favorite themes: sin and redemption. I concluded with Johnny's own story about the dogs on his "American Recordings" album cover—something he pointed out in an interview that was very important and symbolic for him. One was mostly black with a little white on him; the other was white with a black streak. His point being: some of us may look pretty good, but we've got a bad streak running through our lives, while all of us, no matter how bad we might be, have some good. But because we all are guilty, we all need to be redeemed. I concluded that because of what Jesus had done for us on the cross, the real story about this pardoning business wasn't Johnny Cash and the city of Starkville, it was the good news that every one in that room had been pardoned by Jesus. And you know what? They cheered. I tell you the truth: that bar, for a few minutes on Saturday night, felt a lot more like heaven to me than most churches I've been in on Sunday morning. And when I remember the story Jesus told about the ragamuffins off the street who were ushered into his banquet with wide eyes and wonder, it makes me think that I just might have something there.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 11 Available]

The gate swings both ways	Friday, October, 16, 2009
by John Fischer "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture." John 10:9 In this very clever one-sentence parable of Jesus, Christ is in a pivotal place. Jesus is the gate by which we enter into presumably the kingdom of God, but then once we are saved and in a new relationship with him, he is certainly not a gate that closes us in or restricts us. He is a swinging door that ushers us into his kingdom. This parable is much more complex than it first appears. It is almost like a riddle that begs to let its secret out. Think about it. If Jesus is the gate that lets us into the kingdom of God, wouldn't you think we would want to stay in? If we were once outside the gate, and if by our salvation we were brought in, why does Jesus have us coming in and going out repeatedly through that same gate? It must mean that the gate is not something that closes us in anywhere, but it opens up even more to us. It would appear that the kingdom of God is not only on one side of the gate; it is everywhere, and our salvation is not a position as much as it is a companionship that enables us to see anew. In the context of this passage, Jesus is the good shepherd who brings us into his fold, but also leads us in and out of the sheep pen to find pasture. I find this to be a rather compelling statement of worldview. Once we come into a relationship with Christ, we are not confined in our faith, but we are being led both in and out of our confinement and able to find pasture everywhere. This interpretation would dismiss from Christian thinking, any sense of exclusivity, isolation or separation from the world. Christ is moving us both in and out and providing us with sustenance everywhere we go. Being a Christian does not constitute removing ourselves from the world; it is all about following Christ into the world—a much needed form of engagement. [The Fischtank requests additional support today. Please consider making a one-time donation through our PayPal link above.]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

The Spirit of God dances...	Thursday, October, 15, 2009
by John Fischer The Spirit of God dances. He can't be tamed. He won't be contained. He refuses to be confined to a weekend retreat, an evening meeting, or a moment of devotion. He doesn't follow schedules, programs, or agendas, and He doesn't wait for His name to be called. The Spirit of God dances. He dances right under the noses of those who don't believe in dancing; and He dances right on by those who do. He dances through the assemblies of the keepers of the dance, and right on out the door—and no one sees Him go. And as the dancers continue their pantomime, the Spirit of God dances in the streets. His favorite dancing places are those where the keepers of the dance don't want Him to go, like on smoky stages with microphones that smell of whiskey. The Spirit of God loves sinners and dances best where life spills out on the floor. Occasionally He dances on the clean, sweet-smelling stages of the keepers of the dance—but not as often as He would like. He dances there when there is pain or grief—whenever life spills out on the floor. But usually the floor is clean and the dance is simulated, carefully choreographed by the keepers of the dance to use only those steps with which they feel secure. The Spirit of God refuses to be choreographed. His dance is raw, new, and jerky. It's not always pleasing to the eye, but His dance is fresh in the lives of those whose floors have not been cleaned up. It isn't well rehearsed, polished, or perfect; it slips and slides, sometimes innovative and shocking and at other times just exhilarant, but it's always real. Sometimes the dance turns to mourning, but always there's the dance. Happy dance or sad dance… the Spirit of God always dances. Most people, even those who pride themselves in their dancing, are afraid of this unpredictable dance. They're afraid of anything they can't control; and His dance is wild, unmanageable—even mad. But most important, it's vulnerable, open to criticism—the quality they fear most. So they must create their own dance of predictable steps and prescribed routines and send all their people through dance school—or outlaw dancing altogether. But this should come as no surprise. It has always been this way. The Lord of the Dance himself was here once, and it was the same way then. He danced on the keepers' holy days and broke their holy laws. His timing—if not His whole dance—always seemed offbeat. He wanted to turn their empty religious movements into heartfelt, joyous dancing. He wanted them to exchange the grip of the Law for the freedom of the dance. But they thought He was a clumsy dancer, always bumping into their traditions and stepping on their toes. He even danced with the wrong crowd, in smoke-filled rooms, with messy floors. Once, describing His generation, He declared, "We played the flute for you, but you would not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' " …and the Spirit of God dances on.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 19 Available]

Pardon the city of Starkville	Tuesday, October, 13, 2009
by John Fischer For two years now, the town of Starkville, Mississippi has been officially pardoning Johnny Cash for picking flowers, an offense that landed him a night in the Starkville City jail in 1965. Thoroughly embarrassed over this event, the town of Starkville has been seeking a way to redeem itself ever since. They came up with the idea of a pardoning festival a few years after Johnny's death in 2003. This year will bring a somewhat different twist to the memorial. This year, the Cash family will pardon the city, releasing it from the negative images and bad press it has placed upon it in response. Case in point, Johnny's own song, "Starkville City Jail" that states: "They're bound to get you, 'cause they got a curfew, and you go to the Starkville City Jail." This weekend, the Cash family will declare that Starkville is a great place with good people, followed by the opportunity to enjoy a musical celebration throughout the weekend, including a Redemption worship service Sunday morning. What's happening here is a complete sense of reconciliation through an acknowledgment that it takes two to tango. For every action there is a reaction. Forgiveness is a two-way street, and reconciliation, to be complete, needs to come from both parties. Think about any relationships that may need attention in your life. Reconciliation is the way we fulfill the gospel in the world today.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

Pardon Johnny Cash	Monday, October, 12, 2009
by John Fischer You have to pardon Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash was always well acquainted with his dark side. His whole life was a struggle with his inner demons. But still he struggled, and that says volumes. Someone who has no conscience doesn't struggle; they are just bad. "So I find this law at work [in me]: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me" (Romans 7:21 NIV). You have to pardon Johnny Cash. He just couldn't stop singing and talking about redemption. He got it. He knew that heaven wasn't the place for a bunch of good people to go; it was a place a bunch of struggling no-name sinners were ushered into after all the good people turned out to be no-shows. Lo and behold, it was a place for him through no merit of his own. "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24 NIV)! You have to pardon Johnny Cash. He was always on the side of those who knew they needed pardoning, and from his own pain, he reached out to them. He was a most excellent ambassador of reconciliation. "Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day, And tell the world that everything's OK, But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back. 'Til things are brighter, I'm the man in black." You have to pardon Johnny Cash. God did. And now the City of Starkville, Mississippi is pardoning him, too—every year, in fact, but only for 364 days. That's so they can have a festival in Johnny's honor every year and do it again. Not a bad idea. [This year's festival is this weekend, October 16-18, and thanks to one of our Catch of the Day faithful, I will be taking part in the pardoning. Come join us if you are in the area. For more information go to http://pardonjohnnycash.com. Hope to see some of you there!]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

The new you	Friday, October, 09, 2009
by John Fischer What do Paul, Peter, Abraham and Jacob have in common? They all got new names given them by God. Paul used to be Saul of Tarsus. Peter used to be Simon. Abraham was Abram and Jacob later became Israel. Why the new names? What was the significance? The new name was indicative of how God saw them. The old name was no longer representative of who God saw them to be so he gave them a name that was more in line with his understanding of them. I think I can safely say that there is a principle behind this—that there is something about receiving a new name from God that is common to us all. God sees us differently than we see ourselves. I would venture to guess that God's view is of a much better person than I think I am. God sees us in Christ. He sees us gifted and full of the Spirit. God sees us complete in what was accomplished by Christ through his death and resurrection. God sees the new you. He sees the one that has been forgiven, cleansed, empowered and set free. Might as well give us a new name, because very little of what he sees resembles what we once were. Our problem is that we don't believe it. We are still so acquainted with the old guy that we can hardly envision the change. And yet it's there. As sure as we are alive and breathing, it is there. I don't know whether like Paul, Peter, Abraham and Jacob, God has a new name for you, but I do know he has a new view. He went to a lot of trouble to guarantee it. We need to get our view of ourselves more in line with how God sees us. God sees the new you. Isn't it time we started seeing it too? [At various times during our journey together, I have brought a need before you and you have graciously stepped up your contributions to the Fischtank. If you are capable of increasing your support through a one-time gift at this time, I would ask you to prayerfully consider doing so. Thank you so much, and remember, all gifts are tax-deductible.]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 5 Available]

As they could be	Thursday, October, 08, 2009
by John Fischer One good way to get beyond judging other people is to see everyone not as what they are but as what they could be in Christ. Paul says that love believes all things, and that sometimes means believing the impossible for someone else. By doing this, we can often create an environment for people to change. My mother slowly lost her mind in the years prior to her death. Some called it dementia, others called it Alzheimer's; I called it being eighty-nine. It was hard to watch. Where she once had been so engaging, with a mind as sharp as a tack, she soon retreated into silence when around others, even members of her family, most of whom she no longer recognized. She lost all confidence in her ability to speak. Her sentences began promisingly enough, but trailed off quickly into a repetitive dead end, like words rattling around in a cage, For a while, I took to calling her on occasion and talked with her on the phone. For this I developed a fairly effective means of communicating. First, I never corrected her; I followed wherever she wanted to go. When she would veer off track into gibberish, I would say something that would bring her back to where she got off, and in this manner some semblance of conversation was pieced together. While doing this, I would write down every word she said as fast as I could, even the ones that didn't make sense. Then it would always happen that later, when I went over three or four pages of notes, a message would emerge. It was never the same, and it was always something I needed to hear right then, personally. My father used to say she brightened when I called. Maybe that's because I didn't berate her for not making sense or try and straighten out her sentences. I treated her as if she were making sense. I'm not bragging about this—I probably would not have had this patience if I had to bear the frustration of living with her every day—I merely noticed that believing all things about someone and treating them accordingly is a very powerful force. When we see others as they could be in Christ, we are creating an environment for it to be so. Not that we make it so by believing it, but our faith may help open the way. Like palm branches before the triumphant Christ, we can pave the road for some new form of "Hosanna" should Christ choose to come this way. It is a good axiom and well worth considering, to see others as what they could be in Christ, while seeing yourself as what you would be without him. On this basis, we will always see others as better than ourselves.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 14 Available]

Wrong way prophet	Wednesday, October, 07, 2009
by John Fischer The prophet Jonah wanted the people of Nineveh to get what they deserved. He wanted it so badly that he refused to go and warn them of God's coming judgment, because he had a hunch they might actually heed his warning and repent and God would be merciful instead. He knew God that well. "That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish," he said, after God turned him around and sent him to Nineveh anyway. "I knew that you are as gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity" (Jonah 4:2). Jonah still felt this way after what he dreaded came true and the people repented and God had mercy on them. Like a prophet of doom without a job description, he went off and sulked about it for days. Jonah must have had some bitter enemies in Nineveh to have felt this strongly about their judgment. Sometimes I wonder if as Christians we can fall into similar attitudes, preferring the destruction of our enemies over their salvation. I wonder what would happen if for some mysterious reason all the perceived enemies of Christians in America right now—the pro-choice supporters, gay rights activists, militant feminists, and secular humanists, to name a few—suddenly ended up in church. What if God decided to give them all a soft heart toward him? What would we do? How would we react? Would this be cause for great rejoicing, or would we go off and sulk somewhere like Jonah? Even more, would we be out of a job? Have we as Christians so identified ourselves with moral indignation and the antagonistic side of a right-and-wrong battle that we have no place in our hearts for God's mercy and compassion? What would we do if there was no one to be mad at anymore? Are we so invested in being antagonistic toward elements of society that appall us that we have forsaken our calling as ambassadors of reconciliation to a lost world? (See 2 Corinthians 5:17-20.)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 17 Available]

Keep the party going	Tuesday, October, 06, 2009
by John Fischer My favorite baseball team, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, clinched the American League Western Division Championship a week ago Monday. In the Los Angeles Times the next day, Helene Elliott, a sports columnist for the Times, criticized the champagne-soaked celebration as being over done and premature, given that the first team they will have to meet in the postseason is a team that has knocked them out of the playoffs three out of the last four years—the Boston Red Sox. Her mood-dampening comments were such a downer, it forced me to take up the pen and write a rebuttal to the paper. Saturday, that rebuttal was the lead letter in the Sports section editorials, and even grabbed the headline: "Angels need to keep party going." Here is what they printed: "Helene Elliott [Sept. 29] seems to want the Angels to remain somewhat wound until they get by Boston, when in fact it's a loose team—a celebratory team with solidarity over what they have lost and gained—that is going to beat Boston. Let's hope they can maintain the celebration. If they play the Red Sox with anywhere near the reckless abandon with which they celebrated Monday night, they will crush them. The team Helene wants to put up against the Red Sox—the one that is holding on to their emotions—is doomed before they start." My apologies to you Boston fans, but surely you understand my point. Indeed, I believe a similar thing is true in our faith. True spirituality is a liberating thing. Holiness has no part in moroseness. It is light as a feather and full of joy and laughter. We celebrate what God has gained for us on the cross, because we don't have to stay there; we can go through the cross to the great lap of God. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10 KJV). This is the kind of life He intended for us all along. And don't forget that Christ's first miracle was to keep a party going!
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

Mercy and faithfulness	Monday, October, 05, 2009
by John Fischer Faithfulness is the one ongoing quality God asks of us. He is willing to justify us; he is willing to grant us mercy instead of the condemnation we deserve, but he does ask for a life of faithfulness. Faithfulness is in contrast to perfection. Being faithful is a far cry from being perfect. Faithfulness means being authentic, devoted, consistent, loyal. An alcoholic who regularly shows up at A.A. meetings is faithful. She may slip and fall, but she is faithful to get up again. She may lie to her supervisor, but she is faithful to tell the truth when confronted. Faithfulness allows for failure; perfection does not. When God calls for perfection, it is assumes that I cannot perform it. It's the demand for perfection that keeps me relying on God's mercy and grace. But the call to faithfulness is a call I can answer. Faithful to follow, faithful to confess, faithful to obey, faithful to repent, faithful to believe, faithful to pray and seek God—all these are the requirements of faithfulness. All of them are doable and are, in fact, my responsibility and my joy, having been the unexpected recipient of so great a mercy. The Pharisees could have had it all if they would have been willing to admit their hypocrisy and join the rest of the human race on their knees before a merciful Lord. "God, have mercy on me, a sinner," cried the publican in the parable of Jesus (Luke 18:13). Imagine if you will, a Pharisee in his long robe, his phylacteries, and his ornate turban, down on his knees next to the tax collector in tears of repentance and joy. Imagine these two embracing, both overwhelmed at the mercy of God in hearing and answering the same prayer. There you have a true picture of the kingdom of God. It's hard to imagine the Pharisee standing up after such an experience and judging anyone. [Taken from 12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (like me) by John Fischer. Can be ordered wherever good books are sold.]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 2 Available]

Next in line	Friday, October, 02, 2009
by John Fischer My wife needed fax paper for an anticipated busy day in her home office, so I paid an early morning visit to one of those office supply super stores. As typically happens, there were other supplies I needed once I got there, so by the time I made it to the lone checkout stand I had an armful. After waiting a few minutes for the customer in front of me (who looked like he was supplying the Pentagon with new office equipment), a clerk across the way announced, "I'll help the next in line over here." The lady immediately behind me, with two items in he hand, scrambled for the open counter and never looked back. So I followed her over, "next in line" again, but comforted by the prospect of a shorter wait. While I stood there, staring at the back of the head of the woman who used to be behind me, I began to notice things I didn't like about her hair. It was cropped abruptly in the back and the color job was fading. Probably did it herself, I thought. Then, in my mind, I put words in her mouth: "I'm sorry, but I've only got as couple things here—do you mind if I jump in front of you?" Something like that would have been nice. "Of course not," I would have been happy to say, "go right ahead." At the least it would have been courteous to acknowledge my presence and my rightful place in front of her. Then I wondered where she bought such dowdy clothes. And just when I was about to explore some disparaging thoughts on the subject of her rather wide rear end, made even more prominent by a poor choice of sweat pants, I remembered that I was writing about the human propensity to put others below us. As I drove home humbled and slightly humiliated by becoming, so quickly, a graphic illustration of my own point, I wondered about other ways I could have handled this situation, even if only in my mind. First, I recalled an incident when I did a similar thing to someone else. I cut in front of a guy in line once, and he made it clear to me and everyone else in the store, in no uncertain terms, exactly what I had done. I had not intentionally cut in front of the man; I simply had been so engrossed in my own thoughts that I didn't pay attention to where the end of the line actually was. Perhaps the same thing happened to this woman. Maybe she didn't intentionally ignore me; maybe she was just unaware of me. Having identified the same behavior in myself, I could now forgive her more easily and avert the judgment, as well as forgive myself for the judgmental thoughts I had toward her. Second, I began to realize that if I could sit down and talk face-to-face with her, I would no doubt find that there was a real live person there. I'd made a prejudgment of her that had nothing to do with her real self. She might be a Christian. She might be a social worker. She might have a tremendous sense of humor. She might be a criminal judge or a criminal. She was probably somebody's mother, somebody's sister, somebody's wife, and if none of these, she was at least somebody's child. She loved and was loved by someone (by God, to be certain), she hoped and dreamed, and like all of us she has an eternal destiny.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 19 Available]

Judgmentalism	Thursday, October, 01, 2009
by John Fischer Judgmentalism. Officially not a word, but one I'm coining if not for other Christians then certainly for me. After looking again at the list of barriers non-Christians throw up in regards to Christians and Christianity, I have decided it is too significant to pass over in one day. So I intend to pick apart the list, one barrier at a time, until we can see some definite changes in our lives. And what better place to start than with the universal trait of casting judgment upon others. I personally believe that judgmentalism has truly earned its right to be a cultural and sociological "ism." It is big enough and all encompassing so as to be an organizing force in one's life. And though I know it, recognize it, and have written whole books about it, I find it one of the hardest habits to overcome. You thought quitting smoking was hard; wait until you try giving up judging others as either greater or lesser than you. Judgmentalism: the state of constantly comparing oneself to others—so much so that one has no equals, only those considered below oneself and those considered above. It's a lonely life. The cure? Mainly: reconciliation—going to the cross, repenting, and passing through the cross to take a hop, skip and a jump into the lap of God. Just try judging from there. You'll know you're there when you can't judge anybody any longer.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 20 Available]

The assignment revisited	Wednesday, September, 30, 2009
by John Fischer One of our readers wanted to know when I was going to report back on an assignment I gave everybody back in July. The assignment was to ask some of your non-Christian friends what they think of Christians. Well the result was not very flattering. Comments fell into three basic groupings. One had to do with credibility. "Hypocritical" was high on the list. "Holier-than-thou" showed up a couple times. One even called Christians "dishonest, unfaithful opportunists!" "They think they're better than everyone else and can't be trusted." Secondly, the predominant theme across the board was a judgmental attitude. "Pushy, judgmental, and not accepting." "Demanding and mean." "Not accepting of people's frailties and always try to make you feel like you're 'lesser' because you're not a Christian." "Always telling you that there's something wrong with you that needs to be changed." The last category had to do with a kind of intellectual selling out they feel one has to do before one can be a Christian. "Christians are naïve and need something to believe in." "They need to believe in something that's bigger than they are." (Exactly, I would say.) One saw Christianity "as a religion, which wastes time and poisons the intellect." And the last one charged Christians with being unable to intelligently defend their faith without resorting to emotional outbursts. Now the last of these categories is something we may not be able to do much about. We are told in the scriptures that the gospel is going to be foolishness to those who are not in Christ. But the first two we need to change, and here's the encouraging thing: we can. Of all the comments, several of them included a differentiation between Christians in general and the one who asked them the questions. Their negative perception of Christians, in other words, did not include our Catch of the Day representative. "I would hate these people if I didn't know you." That means we can change these misconceptions, but only one at a time, through personal relationships. This only goes to underscore the value of relationships.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 8 Available]

The Gospel of Astonishment	Tuesday, September, 29, 2009
by John Fischer "[The gospel] is not a question to be answered or a puzzle to be solved. It is a paradox to be relished, a wild, outrageous secret to be astonished at and then snitched to the world as the greatest joke ever told… The Mystery of Christ is a festival of weakness and foolishness on the part of God… something that makes no more sense than the square root of minus one—something that is deaf to our cries for intelligible explanations but that works when it is put into the equation of the world—something that can only be marveled at because it is such preposterously Good News. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, has one Word for us: God has upped and done the damnedest thing. Or to get the direction and adjectives right, God has downed and done the blessedest thing we could ever not have thought of." – Robert Farrar Capon We celebrate a Gospel of Astonishment. There will be no one who will get into heaven on the basis of what they deserve, thus making the overwhelming attitude there one of complete and utter astonishment. Based on a true and personal understanding of sin and Grace, nothing else seems appropriate. It's the astonishment of the vagabonds and street people who were ushered into the lavish wedding banquet at the last minute because the invited guests had "better things to do." It's the astonishment of the workers who got paid a full day's wage for an hour of work. It's the astonishment of the Prodigal Son welcomed home with a robe, a ring, and a party when all he hoped for was to simply eat with the servants. It's the astonishment of Sarah, who laughed a real laugh, no longer cynical, as the baby Isaac was placed in her old wrinkled arms, chalky white and screaming from birth. It's the thing that will cause all of us to proclaim, when we reach our final destination and first lay eyes on the glories of heaven, "What could I possibly have done to deserve this?"
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

Two-mirror view	Monday, September, 28, 2009
by John Fischer I'm sure we all know someone who combs ten inches of hair over a wide, shiny bald dome and actually thinks he is hiding something. This hopeless cover-up is similar to whatever we think we are hiding that in reality everyone sees. The problem is, most people, out of common courtesy or more likely fear of embarrassment, don't tell us what they see. Like talking to someone with bad breath or food on their face, they let us go on to offend or amuse some other unsuspecting soul. The first thing about standing in someone else's shoes is that you see yourself for the first time without all your blind spots and cover-ups. It's virtually impossible to get another view of yourself by yourself. Just like we need at least two mirrors to see the angles most other people see of us, we need other people to tell us who we really are. People can serve as our character mirrors, and we need to be vulnerable to what they tell us. My wife and children think I look silly when I get mad. My anger obviously is not having the effect on them that I envision. I think they should be cowering, and they are laughing. I interpret their laughter as disrespect, when, if I could really see myself—if I could stand inside heir shoes—I might laugh too. We need to have people around us who can tell us the truth. This is one of the most valuable elements of the recovery group model. By simply showing up at a meeting you are forced to encounter a different view of yourself than you have been holding most or all of your life. In a recovery group, you are putting yourself among people whom you might have formerly judged as lower than yourself. This is why showing up is the hardest part. You walk into a room full of individuals who all have a problem, and you immediately say to yourself, "I don't belong here. I'm not really this bad. These are the people who have hit bottom and have nowhere else to go. Me… I'm different. I'm only experimenting with this. I'm just checking it out; I won't need to be here long. After all, these are all old bald guys." If I use two mirrors, I can see the bald spot on the back of my head that I normally can't see, and it looks to me to be the size of a football field.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 1 Available]

Of sin and sinners	Friday, September, 25, 2009
by John Fischer Your comments from yesterday's Catch led to some commentary from which I thought we could all benefit. When Paul told the church in Corinth not to associate with immoral believers, he went on the clarify: "not at all meaning [you should not associate with] the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world." (1 Corinthians 5:9-11) He is assuming we will be in the company of these people if we live in the world, because these are the kind of people of which the world is made. Jesus was always most comfortable with the publicans, prostitutes and sinners. "The sick know they have need of a physician." And when the invited guests had better things to do than come to the banquet prepared for them, the host sent his servants out into the streets to gather in whomever they could find. Once again, it's the street people, the beggars, and the sinners who get in. People who refuse to associate with sinners for fear of being sucked into their sin are more often than not afraid or unwilling to face the sin in their own life that would put them on equal ground with the people they are trying to avoid. Oh, God cares about sin, alright. He cares so much about it he sent his only Son to remove it as a barrier to his love. Now he is free to love. Now we are free to admit our sin, repent and come to Christ. Those who die in their sins, die needlessly paying for something that has already been paid for. Such a tragedy. Most sinners do not need to have their sin pointed out. They are well aware of it. The people who don't see their sin are Pharisees. God has not changed his mind about sin. He has changed his mind about sinners. He has decided to forgive them, starting with those who put him on the cross, and continuing on, thank goodness, to me.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 14 Available]

Hard to reconcile	Thursday, September, 24, 2009
by John Fischer My wife said something recently that has been bugging me ever since. She said that evangelical Christians don't understand reconciliation. (She can talk this way about evangelical Christians, by the way, because she's never been one.) Funny thing is… I know intuitively that she's right, I'm just not sure why, and that's the part that's been bugging me. But I finally think I'm getting close. Reconciliation is God making sinners righteous. It's God favorably disposing himself towards people that most Christians would rather not have in their company. It's a change of attitude on the part of God toward sin and sinners made possible by what Christ did on the cross. Because Christ has paid the price for all the sins of the world, God isn't mad anymore. He isn't counting sins against people any longer. But here's the rub. God may have changed his attitude about sinners, but lots of Christians haven't. They're still mad, because they're still counting. Like Pharisees, we keep track of sins—everyone else's, that is—because then we don't have to keep track of our own. Reconciliation permanently does away with keeping track. There's nothing to keep track of. Jesus paid it all, as the old hymn goes, and the important thing to grasp here is that he took care of everyone else's sin when he took care of mine. So am I getting close? And if, like me, you find yourself one who is doing the counting, what can you do about that? Try this. Go to the cross, leave your sin there, walk through to the other side, and embrace everyone you find. It's a grand group I mean to tell you.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 24 Available]

Aquascapes and the meaning of wabisabi	Wednesday, September, 23, 2009
by John Fischer The newspaper last Saturday featured a story about a new kind of "nature aquarium" gaining popularity among fish lovers. Instead of just housing a collection of fish, this new "artform" is achieved by creating natural living landscapes underwater utilizing driftwood, stones and plant life that are always growing, always changing. Some of them look just like miniature landscapes with fish swimming by. The new innovation in aquarium life has garnered the term "Aquascape," and was conceived and developed by a Japanese nature photographer in the late 1970s, and has recently caught on in a big way with its first storefront in San Francisco known as Aqua Forest Aquarium. Marti immediately brought this to my attention as a possible twist on the Fischtank, and I read the article with curiosity trying to see if there was a connection. Of course the most obvious application would be that The Fischtank could be thought of as a kind of Aquascape—scenes from real life where you and I swim around and make observations and conclusions as the events of our lives intersect the truth of God and his presence in the world producing a change of heart and behavior. But another parallel is even more appropriate. Apparently the idea behind these true-to-life Aquascapes is borrowed from the Japanese concept of wabisabi—"that imperfect is beautiful." These Aquascapes celebrate the unpredictable changes that occur with natural elements under water, just as we celebrate the Holy Spirit working through our less-than-perfect lives. There is a liberty that comes with facing our imperfections and realizing that the requirement is not perfection but availability. There is a freedom that comes from realizing that God uses us in spite of (and in some cases because of) our imperfection.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

Spontaneous celebrations	Tuesday, September, 22, 2009
by John Fischer I'm not ready to leave the tea party quite yet because I don't think I've successfully captured for you the essence of the experience in a way that can translate into your lives yet. I have a feeling most of you related to the expressions of Chandler as to his take on rejoicing and being glad in the Lord, and I loved that as well, but the real reason I captured this story for you was to point out the value of the tea party itself. The whole conversation about Chandler's grandmother and her favorite way of starting a day wouldn't have even occurred had we not stopped what we were doing and spontaneously experienced a moment together when we otherwise wouldn't. I'm not suggesting that all of you should wake up your loved ones in the middle of the night and have a tea party (although it might not be such a bad idea), but I am suggesting that we all look for opportunities to spontaneously celebrate our lives together and experience the fact that we have been reconciled to God. We need to look for and find ways to reclaim, as T.S, Elliot put it "…the life we have lost in living." Finding life in the midst of living it is what we're talking about. And often it takes something out of the ordinary, like a tea party in the middle of the night, to find it. You probably have some other way of accomplishing the same thing, but it's necessary. In fact, I'd love to hear from you some ways in which you accomplish the same thing within your families and close relationships. The sharing will enrich our lives and perhaps give us all new ideas on how to live and notice life along the way.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 18 Available]

Tea party	Monday, September, 21, 2009
by John Fischer Here is our evening routine: If I haven't written the Catch in the morning, I help get Chandler down and then head to my office to write. Tonight things were rolling along as expected—even a little ahead of the game—when my wife came up with the dreaded words: "Tea party!" Marti doesn't like routine. Unlike me, she finds no comfort in it. She wants action. If every moment of every day were filled with intensity and discovery, she would be a happy camper. I get exhausted just thinking about what energizes her. A tea party, when my two older children were more Chandler's age, was usually late at night when they should be asleep, so they always thought they were getting away with something. It starts with bringing out a miniature tea set suited more for dolls than for humans (it would take two of these cups to fill a thimble). Then it's about making tea, finding some accompaniment to go with it from the pantry, and sitting down around a small table delicately sipping and talking. And I must say, if my memory serves me well, they talked up a storm. So tonight with Chandler, I'm finding the late clandestine hour was having the same effect on him, and Marti, taking advantage of the little opening in his heart, brought up my mother, whom Chandler only met once before she died, but there was something magical in that meeting. "Do you know how your Grandmother Leta started each day?" Marti asked, most certainly seeking to prepare us all for the next day. "How?" came Chandler's reply. "By announcing: 'this is the day that the Lord has made; rejoice and be glad! Do you know what 'rejoice' means, Chandler?" "Awesome!" he replied bringing a smile to his parents' faces. My anxiety over the lateness of the hour is starting to diminish. "And what about 'glad?'" I ask this one. "What does it mean to be glad?" "Cool!" came his answer, and he punctuated it with a little arm thrust when he said it. I don’t think I could come up with a better explanation if I tried. So there you have our "tankful" thought for the day: "This is the day that the Lord has made; and how AWESOME and COOL is that?"
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 9 Available]

BWGI (Be Where God Is)	Friday, September, 18, 2009
by John Fischer Watching helpless hungry eyes on your screen Feeling so far away what does it mean Can you walk away and forget it Blame it on some false god Can you look at it and let it Pass right through your heart You can't bring a cup of cold water to someone If you've never thirsted You can't heal a heart if your heart's never been broken You can't forgive a sin that you've never done Or you never thought you could do Put that bandage away It's too small to cover the wound You can't really love the truth till you've been trapped by the lie You can't wipe a tear away till there's one in your eye And while the face behind the mirror May not be streaked with pain Any face outside your window Is still a mirror just the same Everyone has their own wounds Everyone's qualified The heart that knows it's breaking Is the one that was crucified You can bring a cup of cold water to someone If you know you're thirsty You can heal a heart if your heart's ever been broken You can forgive a sin that you've never done 'Cause you know you're guilty too Put that bandage away There's no need to cover the wound --words and music by John Fischer Instead of WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) it should have been BWGI (Be Where God Is). We will see injustice and go and interrupt it by making what is wrong, right, because that is where God is. We understand deeply the pain of the hungry and empower them with more than just food, because that is where God is. We will clearly see sex trade and put a halt to the practice by rescuing women and girls because that is where God is. We will identify with sinners, because that is where God is.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 5 Available]

Not the only one	Thursday, September, 17, 2009
by John Fischer I used to think that I was right A lonely candle in the night And while the heart of the world was breaking I could not feel the aching The mantle had passed down to me This thing was my destiny But while the world was out there dying I was in here lying to myself For all the knowledge I had gained Put me on a higher plane And I became another No one was my brother And the loving message He brought down Turned into a hollow sound And then I heard Him calling And His words sent me falling to my knees You're not the only one with truth You're not the only one with eyes You're not the only one The only one who cries You're not the only one Here's what I learned from experience about judging others: 1) Judging removes you from the people you judge. (That's in part why we like to do it.) 2) Judging isolates you. You end up belonging to a small elite group of those who "get it," and this can rapidly deteriorate into a party of one. 3) Judging is terribly lonely business. And suddenly there was with me an ocean of humanity A sea of many faces In waves of warm embraces And while I questioned how to judge them all Who would rise and who would fall I found myself among them And it mattered little who was wrong or right And then I saw Him lifted up The wounded one who drank the cup Of death for all the dying The end of justifying And I laid my mantle on the ground And felt the rain come pouring down The rain of my religion Falling down like weeping from the sky You're not the only one with truth You're not the only one with eyes You're not the only one The only one who cries You're not the only one Here's what I learned from experience about being reconciled to God: 1) Being reconciled to God also reconciles you to the people you used to judge. 2) Being reconciled to God frees you from religion. 3) Being reconciled to God puts you is an deliriously happy group of appreciative people. [Notice: If you haven't donated in a while, please consider a gift today. The Fischtank is in need of funds.]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 4 Available]

No-strike rule	Wednesday, September, 16, 2009
by John Fischer Here are six of the greatest words ever recorded in the English language: "NOT COUNTING MEN'S SINS AGAINST THEM" (2 Corinthians 5:19 NIV). They came from a discussion about how God was bringing people back to himself. "That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, NOT COUNTING MEN'S SINS AGAINST THEM." It was necessary to remove this barrier of sin if God was going to have a relationship with us. Someone had to do it, and since it was much too big a task for us, even all of us together, he decided to do it himself. And so he issued a blanket pardon on the human race and basically changed the name of the game forever, i.e. sin is no longer in the picture—it no longer counts against us. Imagine that. Now what is true for you and me is true for everyone. We are all ex-sinners, pardoned by God and invited into relationship with him. Whether we choose to enter into this or not is another thing, but we are all eligible. We have no strikes against us. This should truly change how we see others, especially those who haven't accepted the invitation. If God isn't holding their sins against them, we shouldn't either. See them pardoned. See them forgiven. See them like us. See yourselves as them, since we are all in the same boat. Only then are we ready to love them and issue the invitation.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

Come together	Tuesday, September, 15, 2009
by John Fischer How many times have we seen it? How many movies end with lovers racing, crawling, swimming, or taking trains, planes and automobiles to get to each other's arms? It's because it's part of the script for a successful romantic story. There has to be something that drives the love interests apart and then something, or more than likely someone overcoming those obstacles to reclaim what was lost. You cannot have a successful love story without it. And guess what? We fall for it every time. Anyone ever wonder why? Because it is the story of the universe. All of creation resonates with this story. God and man together. God and man separated by sin and rebellion. God and man together again, the result of God overcoming the barrier to his love (justice having been paid for), and man overcoming his pride and repenting and turning back to God. So simple, a child can understand it; so huge a universe can't contain it. "Come together… right now… over me." The only words that actually make sense in an otherwise nonsensical Beatles song could very well be the words of God to us. "Come together… right now… over me." "Come together…" Husband to wife, father to son, brother to brother, friend to friend… Whatever it takes, whatever you have to overcome… come together. "Right now…" Not the sweet by and by. Not the second coming. Not when the time has come. Not when conflict is over. Right now, in the middle of conflict. "Over me." Over me… through me… because of me… God is the one who is all over this. It is His will and His purpose for all things to be reconciled to Him. So be reconciled one to another. He is the reason.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 5 Available]

Going with God	Monday, September, 14, 2009
by John Fischer "And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ… to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ" (Ephesians 1:9-10). "He [Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). "…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11). Taken together like this, do these passages leave hardly any doubt as to what God is up to in the world? He is bringing everything together in Christ, and to the degree that this has already been accomplished, then his will is to make this known to us, now, and most certainly by the end of the age when knees will bow and tongues all confess that Jesus is Lord. Consequently, any act, however small or seemingly insignificant, that brings one closer to God or another person, is a step in the direction of God's will in the world. And conversely, any act that drives one away from God or another individual is a step away from the direction God is working. That means that the time I spent chatting with our neighbors while Chandler and I were out in front of our house racing his new remote controlled truck up and down the street, was time spent moving in the direction of God's will in the world. Just as time I'm spending right now away from my family writing tomorrow's Catch when I could have gotten up earlier this morning and done it when it wouldn't have taken away from family time is time spent moving away from God's will in the world. It's a revealing way of thinking about what we do with our time, and a great way to set values and priorities.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

Don't always get it	Friday, September, 11, 2009
by John Fischer I've been searching for the fitting conclusion to the events of this week—a Catch that would tie everything up in a final statement, erase all negatives and show everything to be already working out for the good of all parties since we love God and are called according to his purposes—but I haven't found it yet. That's because it doesn't exist, or it does… it just doesn't look like what I thought it was going to look like. Most often, truth is something like this—some way of looking at things that we misinterpret because we are always looking at God's promises with our wishes in mind. Hear ye, hear ye: God is not adjusting his universe to our personal needs and wants; he is conforming us to his, and the reason it's all working out is because it is his purposes that are that are being worked out. So, no, I don't get it yet. I don't understand why things happened this week the way they did. I may never understand even in heaven. But do I have to? Isn't it enough to know that He is? There are some things not meant for us to understand, but still, we go on trusting. Somewhere in his big wide universe, God is working out His purposes in and through us. That's a privilege grand enough to be kept in the dark.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 30 Available]

Some day we will	Thursday, September, 10, 2009
by John Fischer I wish there was some way Chandler could grasp the magnitude of birthday wishes and prayers that have come his way this year as a result of his accident and your outpouring of prayers of love and good will. He's not really old enough to understand it—who you guys are, how you have come to know some things about him, how you have embraced his fragility and his challenges. Some day he will. I liken it a little to what it will be like for all of us to discover that all along in our daily struggles with difficulties, calamities, and the mundane, that there is a "cloud of witnesses" praying us on—encouraging us on—and we don't even know it. Some day we will. Tomorrow we will be celebrating Chandler's birthday by taking him to Sea World in a wheelchair. It will be a unique opportunity to see and experience a public gathering from another perspective. Perhaps there will be more to report tomorrow about that. In the meantime, Marti and I wish to thank you for all the wonderful words and identification with our experiences this week that we have received from so many of you. And especially thank you for your prayers. Your prayers are real and tangible, and not taken lightly. There's no way we can know how prayers have effected our real lives and continue to every day. Some day we will.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 17 Available]

The gift of life	Wednesday, September, 09, 2009
by John Fischer Well first of all, thank you so much for the outpouring of love, empathy and prayers for Chandler, Marti and me. I apologize if I was unable to post your comments, but I simply didn't have enough time to post them all. So many of you asked to receive an update on his condition that I would be remiss if I didn't fill you in. Marti rode in the ambulance with Chandler while I went back to the house to get her some clothes and meet up with them at the hospital. By the time I got there, he was having a C.T. scan on his knee. It turns out he has a small fracture of the lateral tibial plateau of his left knee. (I got the proper medical terminology for his big sister who would know exactly what that was.) The fracture will require him to be in a brace, from hip to ankle, and necessitating a wheelchair, at least for the time being. So much for his soccer season. He also had a concussion (it wasn't until the next morning he could keep any food down) and a pretty nasty cut over his eye, which they glued shut with super glue. (I kid you not.) Aside from a few spots on his shoulder and knee where he left a layer or two of skin on the street, that was about it. It was enough to keep him in the hospital overnight and I stayed with him, sleeping on a padded bench that made into a not too uncomfortable bed. And in the dark of the night, in the faint glow of medical machinery, I drew in the deep draft of Chandler's natural life, as it was displayed before me on LED screens of an I.V. machine and a heart monitor. And all I could think of was how glad I was that he was alive, and that the essence of that life, at least in this place, was so palpable. What an amazing, unfathomable gift this life is, and yet how fragile. Hold it well, but hold it lightly. "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him" (Psalm 8:4 KJV)? Today is Chandler's tenth birthday.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 72 Available]

It could have been worse	Tuesday, September, 08, 2009
by John Fischer It was every parent's worst nightmare. It's a slow weekend morning. You're still lounging around reading the morning paper when there comes a knock on the door. You open it to find a neighborhood kid there telling you that your son has just been hit by a car. "Chandler's been hit by a car!" I yell to Marti as I run after the kid, each second mounting in my mind as I dread what I'm going to find when I get there. I look back and Marti is running as hard as she can ten steps behind me. Not one to leave the house without a shampoo and makeup, she has on one of my old turtleneck T-shirts she likes to sleep in and pajama bottoms, and nothing has touched her face or hair. This is life and death—all convention gone. Someone we don't even know from further up our street stops to pick us up and take us the rest of the way. Everyone seems to know; the usual barriers between people are down and it's suddenly everyone's kid down. We round the last corner and there are two fire engines and an ambulance. The street is already blocked off and a small crowd has gathered. "Are you the dad? Are you the mom?" They let us through. Fearing the worst, you are relieved to make eye contact with your son. His neck is in a brace and there is blood oozing from a cut over his eye, but the paramedics are telling you it's not too bad. A concussion, most likely, but no loss of consciousness (he was wearing a helmet), three or four scrapes, and a blow to the knee that might be broken, but maybe only bruised. Marti gets in the ambulance to ride with Chandler to the hospital and I start running back to the house to get her some clothes meet up with them at the hospital. Another neighbor picks me up to get me home faster and says she will see that Chandler's bike gets back. In the middle of all this, I am aware of two things: 1) The common bond we share with all people that surfaces in a time of need, and 2) The reduction in a time of calamity, to the few things that really count in life. And to that I say, why don't we act like this all the time? Why not realize what we have in common with everyone before something bad happens, and why not hold onto these values that are truly life and death values, and let go of all else.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 66 Available]

2 for 1	Friday, September, 04, 2009
by John Fischer Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Those who have will be given more; as for those who do not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them. (Luke 8:18 TNIV) We've been thinking this week about the process by which we grow in our understanding of God and his truth. We've found that it comes through questions, and through the personal experience of our own need and our longing to know. And we've also found that answers can sometimes shut down the process of discovery. Maybe there are different types of answers. Answers that close the book, end the discussion, or call off the search are most likely not from God. God's answers don't work that way. They are not static principles you can graph like a chart of the basic elements of the universe. God's answers almost always bring with them more questions than you had before. God's answers are merely a doorway deeper in and further on, where the view widens and significance increases. It's really like a 2 for 1 offer. Get an answer from God and get two more new questions along with it. The more you know, the more you don't know, or as Paul put it so well, "Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know" (1 Corinthians 8:2). The real proof of the knowing is action. Knowing is not an intellectual accomplishment; it's not something you can prove by a written exam. It is proven over time by the way you live your life. Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

Discovery	Thursday, September, 03, 2009
by John Fischer Asking questions starts the ball rolling. You've got to want to know. You've got to wonder and seek and question and yes, even doubt, in order to actively become involved with God. God wants a relationship with someone who wants one with Him. Jesus issued the challenge; I didn't… "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7). All three of these show persistence and some ingenuity. It's an interactive faith we're talking about here, and you've got to want it. It reminded us about a story my wife loves to tell about her early days as a flight attendant with lots of energy, love and questions. "I was a brand new and extremely willing Christian. Thanks to the first few days of Hal Lindsay's Light and Power House, I carried on all of my flights a Strong’s Concordance, a Bible Dictionary, and my beloved New American Standard. On Tuesday and Thursday nights, I held a Bible study for 90 flight attendants, soaking up anything I could find for material. "One night someone asked what 'trust in the Lord' meant. Having not the slightest idea (the intellectual answer), I went for the “experience.” I asked each flight attendant to take their scarves (a standard part of the uniform at the time) and blindfold each other. They did what I asked, and I asked if they thought that was trust. "I then asked them to cross the busy intersection — "trusting" they would get across unharmed. Surprisingly, no one got up and walked blindfolded toward the street. Why did they trust me a moment ago and not just then? "Then I asked every other person to take off the scarf and lead the blindfolded person across the street at the crosswalk and return the same way, where we would discuss what trust meant and whether there were any understandings that could be applied to trust in the Lord. "While they were gone, I scrambled for my Strong's concordance to find the word ‘trust.’ To my relief, there were many, many places throughout the Old and New Testament. I choose the book of 2 Corinthians because there were several words of trust identified in a couple of chapters, but mostly I was running out of time. "Their return brought many a story about their understanding of trust, which included what trust was (and what it was not). "I recall their conclusions included confide; the push/pull of persuasion and reliance; making your mind up to hand over self; and giving (and hoping) that I wasn’t going to have them do anything stupid. "But my favorite all time definition of trust was 'to hope in advance of the proof.'” Asking leads to discovery.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 2 Available]

The glory of fools	Wednesday, September, 02, 2009
by John Fischer It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; To search out a matter is the glory of kings. --King Solomon (Proverbs 25:2) Today I showed my son how to play the drums. I, player of guitar and piano, showed my son how to play . . . the drums? I know perhaps three things about playing the drums, three things among a thousand, but that's two more than my son knows, so I showed him how to play the drums. I took the sticks from him; I sat on his stool; I turned the music up and played along as best I could. Actually, I'm a frustrated drummer at heart; I've always wanted to play the drums. I hear what I want to play, feel what I want to play—but alas, I can't play it. Somehow, as I got going, intuition took over and I actually produced some pretty decent rhythms. "Like this," I said. "Like this . . . hear the music . . . see, it's really simple . . . just keep the beat, and once in a while . . . throw in one of these . . .(CRASH!) . . ." I played on. I wasn't half bad, I thought. And the more I got into it, the more I forgot about my son. Now a real drummer would have listened to me and heard only three things out of a thousand. But my son, watching from the corner of the room, heard the two things he didn't know yet, and to him, they were like a thousand. I looked up from my fantasy to see my son fighting, in his pride, to hold back the tears; and I realized, too late, what I had done. I showed him how to play the drums, all right . . . I crushed him. I might as well have beat on top of his head with his own sticks; it would have had the same effect. I wonder how long it will be before he gets back on his stool and tries again. Perhaps he'll forget about this. I hope that time and my apology can heal such stupid insensitivity. I wonder how much crushing I've done in my life, how many heads I've beat on like I did my son's this morning? How many times I've assumed people knew nothing about the truth while I knew everything? How many times have I shut the door on someone else's search? If it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to find it out, then to resolve a matter, to close a case, to shut a door, to end a discussion, to win an argument, to crush a child's first try must be the glory of fools. I was a fool today. I hope I never forget those tears forming in my son's eyes. I don't want to be one who crushes; I want to lift up.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 12 Available]

The superiority of questions	Tuesday, September, 01, 2009
by John Fischer It's happened so many times that you'd think I'd be on top of it by now. Marti is going on with Chandler about something he learned in school, and suddenly she's asking him a question like, "Two plus two equals what?" Well, this is where, if I don't call out the answer, "Four!", I'm jumping up and down with my proverbial hand in the air, "I know that; please, please call on me!" At this point, Marti throws me a glare that would stop an army, and then I remember, "Oh yeah, this is not about me. Marti is acting like she doesn't have a clue because she wants to find out what Chandler is thinking." I come from a long line of those who have to know the answer. And if you know the answer, then you are obligated to give it. There's an unwritten law somewhere that says "Thou shalt give the answer if thou knowest it." Marti is of a whole other school. To her, questions are not riddles to solve, they are a way of knocking on doors and finding what is on the other side. They are keys for unlocking what someone is thinking. They pave they for a real relationship. Answers can so easily be detriments to learning. You don't go to school to find out all the answers and record them in your notebook; you go to school to learn how to think and to discover the thought processes that will help you solve problems, even the ones you don't know about yet. Answers shut down the discovery process; questions open it up. Questions invite interactivity. And most importantly, questions enable us to come alongside someone who is seeking and embrace their process. Questions also acknowledge the fact that we are all in process together. They also reveal new ways of thinking about things, leading to new and creative solutions. Keeping an open mind And, by the way, there are systems like New Math and the theory of relativity in which it is quite possible that two plus two equals something other than 4.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

Chandler and Jeremy	Monday, August, 31, 2009
by John Fischer Well we just experienced soccer weekend to the max. Chandler had four games, and I feel like I'm the one who has played all four of them in the last 48 hours. Believe me, it takes a lot of work to try and help your son kick the ball. I must be tired from all those leg twitches. Not to mention how hot it was in southern California this weekend. I'm sure that added to my fatigue. You know how it's always good to "play up—" as far as your skills are concerned. Well Chandler and his team played "way up" this weekend and lost all four of games by a pretty wide margin, which probably added to the hardship. With Chandler this whole weekend was his best friend, Jeremy. Chandler and Jeremy were born on the same day (9/9/99), and ever since we found that out, it's been as if these two were joined at the hip. Observing the easy-going natural relationship these two have is a thing of beauty and also a lesson for adults like me who are prone to struggle more than not with their relationships. I watched as parents pitched their sun tents and jockeyed for position with their chairs with little dialogue between them. We're still getting acquainted with each other, and introductions so far don't go much beyond, "What's your name?" and "Which kid is yours?" David and Jonathan in the Old Testament, had a deep abiding friendship that has stood over time as the standard for friendship and brotherly love. Once again, we can look to the children to teach us a few things about life.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 1 Available]

Two to nothing	Friday, August, 28, 2009
by John Fischer Pay attention as an informal counseling session in our living room puts some flesh on the insights of the last few days. A staunch pro-life advocate in her church, this woman is a secret sufferer—one of every three women in evangelical churches who have had at least one abortion.* Who does this woman share her life’s pain with? And every time pro-life supporters—herself among them—speak to the harm of abortion, her wounds are opened again to the mounting years of guilt and torment as her silent screams drive her painful contradictions further inside her. My wife is leading the questioning, and I act as if I am trying to understand what is going on here—pretending to lend my support—but the full impact is missing me. I get the Kleenex (I am a willing servant, often covering my own conflict with mundane activity) but I am feeling detached inside. I didn’t relate well to my wife’s births, how can I connect to this death so long ago? I feel the same pulling away now. I want this little session to be over with. There's a ball game on right now and I don't even know the score. I want to get on with my evening. I resent the intrusion of someone’s inner pain. Now Marti is moving things along by suggesting I go over and put my arm around this woman. Marti knows full well what I am doing—why I am trying to get away. She knows I can’t embrace her without embracing my own sin, and I am not very good at that. It’s certainly not that I don’t sin; it’s just that... well... okay, I’ll come out and say it: my sin isn’t quite as bad as hers. The big rub, if I’m totally honest, is that I’m willing to admit I’m a sinner, just not a really bad one. She’s lower than me on the totem pole of sin. I’ll embrace her, but I have to come down the pole to get to her. What I’d really like are levels of grace, please, so I can stay with what I consider the not-so-bad sinners yet still get forgiven. People can know I was bad, just not that bad. I find myself moving closer and putting my arm around her. This releases more tears. I reach for more Kleenex, feeling awkward. Marti is smiling. Suddenly the counselee has an arm around the counselor as she hugs back, and tears are working their way into my eyes now. I fight them, trying to hold them back. My arms are telling her that everything is going to be okay. Strangely, her hold on me is telling me the same. A tangible healing is going on. I’m holding onto a self-convicted murderer, and suddenly I see the shame of my own loss... one sinner to another. The closer I get to her pain, the more I feel mine. Suddenly, some barrier between us has come down. I hardly care what the score is between us, or in the game I wanted to watch. I’ll find out soon enough. The score here is two to nothing: two sinners reduced to nothing, results in a win for each of us. After all, we are on the same team anyway. * See PACE ministry (Post Abortion Counseling and Education) http://www.perimeter.org/index.php?module=ministry&submodule=cms&artid=96&mid=40758
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 20 Available]

Picking up the pieces	Thursday, August, 27, 2009
by John Fischer In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, it is Hester who is doomed to wear the mark of her sin of adultery. And yet it takes two to tango. And as for her tango partner, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale? He gets to go free. No "A" on his chest. Nothing but the torment in his own private soul. And why is it that whenever we talk about abortions, it's only the mother that we talk about? It's as if she went off and got herself impregnated all by herself. Shame on her, now what's she going to do? The father is irrelevant. He's not even in the picture. For all we know, he's on the Board of Deacons. Doesn't matter, because he's silent, shrouded behind the protective blame of someone else. And then there are all those single moms with kids who find it difficult to get beyond the parking lot of the church for fear of the judgment waiting for them inside. For all we know, the dads are already there, comfortably seated, because no one ever asks them how they are doing and you can be sure there are no "Ds" on their chests. One out of every two marriages ends in divorce, and the record is slightly worse among Christians. Forty percent of children of single moms have not seen their fathers for a year or more, and less then half of the single moms who are awarded child support receive it. See what I mean? Why is there this cultivated protective barrier around men? The environment that maintains the language and the attitudes that have been passed down regarding these subjects of female behavior reinforces negative images on the male and does not encourage dialogue, mentoring, or responsible decision-making, and potential support for the worth of the woman. Rather, it reinforces support for isolation as a solution. Time to step up, gentlemen, and take responsibility for our actions. Time to confess our participation in the sins we condemn. Time to help pick up the pieces of someone else's abandonment, because we are all guilty, and if we fess up, we can also do something about it. If a single mom is in need of something I can provide, then how can I stand idly by or hide behind some ridiculous sexual taboo? Be a handyman. Be a dad for an afternoon. Single people need married people around them in order to be healthy. Pick up each other's pieces, because all the pieces belong to all of us.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 30 Available]

Single morning	Wednesday, August, 26, 2009
by John Fischer As you read this account of the morning of a single mom, think about who is closest to you in this story, the mom, the kids, the gas station attendant, the passing headlights, or the truck owner. Who would you like to be and why. It was her first day at a new job so she had gotten up at 4:00 a.m. to have enough time to look her best. Two years on welfare was finally giving way to a real job with benefits and day care. She woke each of the children in turn, as gently as possible, dressed them and took them with their sleepy eyes to the kitchen for breakfast. She had to be at work by 7:30 and it was an hour commute and even more that day because it was pouring down rain. She had managed to get them on a wait list for a state funded preschool only 10 blocks from her new job, and a place had opened up for them the very day she got hired. It was a godsend. As for a car, her friend, Bill, had been gracious enough to let her borrow his small truck until she could scrape together enough money to buy a car of her own. On her way to work, she could hardly contain her fear and excitement. This was her first real chance at some kind of life. She wondered how it would go. Would they like her? Would this rain keep her from being on time—a bad first impression? Would the children adjust to the new school? Would her son stop being mad at her now that she was returning to work? She wondered about a thousand things. Right up to when something happened to stop her wondering. The traffic abruptly stopped. She put on her brakes, but it was no use. The oil and water slipped under her locked-up tires and sent her plowing into the back of the car ahead of her, and in that one dark, wet moment, everything died. A quick assessment told her their injuries were minor. The baby was okay but she was crying. They were all in shock. She tried to start the car, but the engine did not turn. That’s when the owner of the other car came back to her screaming profanities. She got out of the car and not even the pouring down rain placated him. Pledging that he would sue, and with the help of another commuter, he pushed his car off the road and was driven away. As he left, she stood there in the rain and tried to flag down drivers to help, but the cars just drove around her a solid stream of passing headlights. Getting back in the cab, she comforted her children, and then began the task of getting them out of the truck, across four lanes of moving traffic and to a self-serve gas station on the corner. Once there, she asked for help from the attendant who informed her that he could not leave the station to assist. She asked to use the phone. He told her that there was a pay phone at the corner. She asked him we could dry off inside for a moment. He said "No.” She tried to maintain her composure for the sake of the kids, covering them with kisses and assuring them that everything would be all right—assurances were all they had—but inside, she was coming apart. The attendant sold them a newspaper, and they all walked to the pay phone carrying the day’s news over their heads. As they piled into the phone booth, a sense of fear came over her again. "Have I lost the job? What about the truck? How will I pay for it? It was entrusted to me as a responsibility and I have proven to be undependable.” Her first call was to Bill, owner of the truck. "Are you all right?" was all he wanted to know. "What about the children?" Those were words for their personal safety, and, at that moment, it felt like they came straight from an angel. "Yes. We are all right. But your truck…." She was determined to take care of her responsibility.” "Thank God everyone is in one piece," was the reply. "Now, where are you? Do you have any money?" She said that she had a little. "Good. Call a cab and get your kids to school and yourself to work." "But what about the truck?" "Bother the truck. I will call for a tow. You make sure you get where you need to go." "Aren’t you angry?" she asked. "It is just a truck. Off you go, Missy, this is your first day!"
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 24 Available]

What prayer changes	Tuesday, August, 25, 2009
by John Fischer Picture this. It's a warm weekend day in Laguna Beach, California on one of the last weekends of summer, so the town is full of families and couples on holiday. On one of the busiest intersections for foot traffic, a homeless person is sitting, holding out his hat. He has a sign about being hungry next to which a Bible is propped up and open. Another sign reads, "God Bless You." His T-shirt says, "Prayer Changes Things." My first inclination was to chide the man in my heart for making a mockery of his T-shirt message. If prayer changes things, then why hasn't it changed things for you? But then the Lord chided me. I was convicted. How many times have I neglected to carry around in my heart the homeless men, women and children who make up an ever expanding and often faceless community in just about every city. Why do I feel repulsed, annoyed, even angered as I avert my eyes from people like this? My fears can also be routed to the feeling of horror that I might “catch” or become infected with something if I faced into the eyes of someone living under these circumstances. Am I one hardship away from living on the street and joining the ranks of the homeless? As with many of my fears, it is often out of my lack of understanding about the complexities of a situation such as homelessness that fuels my prejudices and apprehension about people who, in this account are homeless. Somehow, that gives me "permission" to act less compassionately towards a person — who is, after all, an on-going creation of God, as I am. God never meant for anyone to judge anyone else, but rather to treat everyone who is made in the image of God with dignity and respect. We rejoice, truly, in the fact that it is God’s business to bring people to Himself. We know that acts of love will change lives and hearts as He asks us to simply walk along aside. I do not know how prayer may have changed things in this man's life, but I know his T-shirt has changed mine.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 18 Available]

Hitting the ground running	Monday, August, 24, 2009
by John Fischer Our street is built on a fairly sharp incline. As such, it is a popular place for skateboard activity. Especially with what Chandler calls "cruisers." They are a little bigger than traditional skateboards and they have larger, softer wheels—more like roller skate wheels. They are quieter and smoother, especially since our street was resurfaced in the last few weeks. Because of the incline, most boarders take the slalom approach so as not to gain too much speed. Except for one 15-year-old kid who lives around the corner from us, who has taken to going straight down the whole length of the street at a flat out attempt at maximum speed. He bends over with his hands behind his back, like a speed skater trying to cut through wind resistance. We are at the lower third of the street and by the time he passes us, I would say he is going at least 30 mph. He has an elaborate stopping technique that utilizes a gloved hand on the pavement as he pivots sideways and grinds to a stop. I swear he goes from 30 mph to 0 mph in about 3 feet! So you can imagine my concern when Chandler announced he wanted to show Marti and I his new skateboard move and proceeded to race down part of our street to us displaying the aforementioned speed skating technique he had obviously seen demonstrated by our much more experienced neighborhood daredevil. As his speed increased, I began to wonder how he was going to stop. Little did I know he had never tried this before and hadn't thought that far ahead. His method up until now was to simply jump off the board using his legs to keep up the pace he was going before he jumped, and then slow himself down from a run to a walk to a stop. What Chandler had failed to calculate was whether there was a point at which he legs simply could not catch up with the speed of his body. I am at a point in my life where I need to learn some things I should have learned a long time ago. As such, I have found myself making excuses for the time it will take me to adjust, and thinking I have the rest of my life to work it out. Except then I realize the rest of my life is a lot shorter than it was 40 years ago. I don't have time for a learning curve. No one around me, myself included, has time for "baby steps." I feel very much like Chandler racing down our street, realizing I've got to hit the ground running but wondering if I can run fast enough to absorb the speed of my life right now. Poor Chandler, he didn't make it. His legs simply couldn't keep up with the speed of his body. It was a good thing his mother was there so he didn't have to be tough and act like losing a layer of skin on his elbow and shoulder didn't hurt at all, not to mention the blow to his ego. And me? Well you'll know if I'm still around in the next few weeks whether I landed and stayed on my feet or not. Life is a challenge and God doesn't do everything for us. Sometimes we've got to hit the ground running just to keep up.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 11 Available]

Trust	Friday, August, 21, 2009
by John Fischer We were first at the intersection, waiting for the light to turn green, and I was looking down, working the screen of my cell phone, when Chandler said, "Go!" and I immediately gunned it through the intersection. I didn't even look at the light. I only looked straight ahead. And then I looked at Chandler and his eyes were as big as saucers. "What?" I said. "The light was red." "Oh my gosh! But you said to go!" After a moment's hesitation, Chandler said, "I was talking to the light." I thought about that for a minute and then I said, "You were telling the red light to turn green?" "U-huh," he said. You know, aside from the horror of what could have happened had there been any cross traffic, I was pretty proud of the fact that I had totally trusted my son. Now there's some history to this because I have asked him to be my eyes on a number of occasions allowing me to pay attention to something else while waiting for the light to turn. And we have all come to respect Chandler's keen ability at observation of any kind. He can remember directions to places he's only been to once. There have been numerous times when Chandler has said to turn one way, and I thought differently, only to find out he was right. So all of that played into this moment, as I mistakenly thought Chandler was giving me the go ahead. As it turns out, I was the one at fault, acting as if I had placed him in charge, when I had not. Nevertheless, it is a great illustration of trust. Trust is a relinquishing of control. It is putting faith is someone else's ability or expertise to take you farther than you could ever go on your own. People who can't trust live in a very small world—small enough to have within their grasp. If they can't let go, their world will in effect remain the same. I know this because I am that guy. Trust expands your reach. One of my favorite quotes in this regard is from a Robert Browning poem. "If my reach doesn't go beyond my grasp, then what's a heaven for, and for what do I ask?" I've always seen this as a statement of the value of risk, but now I see it also as a statement of trust. Trusting someone takes you out beyond what you have or think you have gasped. There are people around us waiting to be trusted. I have learned to trust Chandler's eyes. Next time I need them, however, I'll be sure and tell him first.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 14 Available]

Couch time	Thursday, August, 20, 2009
by John Fischer I knew I was in for it when one of the mothers—the one who is the most organized and proactive—recommended a non-punitive puppy behaviorist to one of the other mothers who was having trouble with her new dog. I assumed that meant a puppy psychiatrist who trains without punishment. Well that's important. We surely don't want any puppy abuse going on here. I mean, really, who's going to speak up for the puppies? This experience highlighted my second meeting as a board member of the Parents Guild of Chandler's school. Turns out I am the only male on a board of six, and when you add two more female staff members to the mix, that makes me the only man in a roomful of eight. It's been interesting to observe the interaction so far. They all act like they've been doing this for some time and they already know each other well, though I happen to know they do not. Their interaction has pretty much left me out. I get very little eye contact. It appears to me that they have all bonded with each other and it's very evident to me that I do not belong. So far no one has initiated any kind of meaningful interaction with me. I have tried to start a few conversations but none of them have gone very far, leaving me to wonder, “What on earth I am doing here?” Well, actually, I'm there because my wife signed me up. I didn't have anything to say about it. She knew it would get me more invested in Chandler's special education if I did, and she was right. But these women all seem suspicious of me. I imagine hearing them ask one another, “What on earth is he doing here?” So far, in this group, I am aware of nothing but differences. I have two choices. I can remain an outsider, choosing to feel different and insignificant, or I can enter the circle and go after something deeper we all can embrace. For instance, everyone appreciates being treated decently. Everyone admires honesty. Everyone wants excellence and value. Everyone likes to have fun and feel part of something bigger than themselves. Everyone desires acceptance and incorporation into a community, yet many have difficulty believing the inclusion that the Lord Jesus Christ offers us all is for them, because their lives have come under duress. Our dialogue and attitudes often further this feeling of exclusion for these people. That's why our message needs to be that we are no different from anyone else in matters that count. After all, we hold the Lord’s invitation to a family dinner hosted by a forgiving God. And that's good news for us, and our dogs, since we all are in need of a good behaviorist.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 12 Available]

Same Kind of Different As Me	Wednesday, August, 19, 2009
by John Fischer So then, now that we have established the value of celebrating our differences, we will find out how much the same we actually all are. In fact, we are more alike than we are different, and the deeper inside you go, the more alike we become. This is why a California pastor could write a book about having a purpose-driven life and find it connected with tens of millions of people. We all are alike in that we are all seeking meaning in life. And at the core of who we are—the most inner part of our souls—we are all aware of a God-shaped vacuum that exists there. We all have it whether we believe in God or we do not. Here are some other areas in which we are alike: we all have a need for security; we all are effected in some ways by status; we all had a beginning; we all have a sense of self; a good self-esteem may not be enough; we all desire a level of freedom; we all want to be unique in something; we all have a struggle between good and evil going on; we all have a need to nurture and be nurtured; we all need to trust someone; we all need to be recognized; we all have a need to be understood; we all want to have hope. And this is just scratching the surface. Being alike doesn’t mean we agree; it means the stuff by which we disagree is the same. And why is this important? We need to see that as different as we may appear superficially, deeper down, we have much in common with everyone, and when you encounter someone who is different, it would be good to celebrate both those differences and the stuff that makes us all the same. Because, ultimately, we all belong to God. The title of a book one of our readers recommended says it all: Same Kind of Different As Me, captures the way in which we are different and very much alike. We need to celebrate the one, and focus on the other.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 10 Available]

The Different	Tuesday, August, 18, 2009
by John Fischer It is truly a vast and varied world that we live in, and it is rapidly becoming more and more diverse. If I go back to the neighborhood where I grew up, I will find Chinatown two blocks away. The only Chinatown I knew about, as a kid, was 15 miles away in downtown Los Angeles. Or how about the San Gabriel High School Matador yearbook of 1965 that was dominated by white people like me with a few pictures of Hispanic kids buried in the class photos, but who rarely showed up on Student Council or Chess club or the cheerleading squad. But pick up a San Gabriel High School Matador yearbook of 2008, and you will be hard pressed to find a white person anywhere. This is unsettling to some, but to Hispanics it is a source of pride. They came to this country looking for the same things my ancestors came for—an opportunity for a better life, and to live and worship as they pleased. And now we have a black President and a newly appointed Hispanic Supreme Court Justice and the world keeps turning, and churning, and it is time we gloried in our differences instead of finding comfort in our sameness. We need to train ourselves how to find what is beautiful in what is different. Instead of being threatened by The Different, or resentful towards The Different, we need to stop long enough to appreciate what God has brought about in someone else's life. Celebrate our differences, and keep in mind that it's always only a matter of perspective. What you or I might call normal is someone else's Different. It all depends on whose shoes you are standing in. Here's the point: God made The Different to bring glory to himself. From the animals, to the races, to the stars and moons and worlds of our vast universe, The Different is good and meant to be. Celebrate The Different!
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 12 Available]

Beyond Thunderdome	Monday, August, 17, 2009
by John Fischer Out of the ruins Out from the wreckage Can't make the same mistake this time We are the children The last generation We are the ones they left behind And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it Living under the fear till nothing else remains Looking for something we can rely on There's got to be something better out there Love and compassion, their day is coming All else are castles built in the air And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it Living under the fear till nothing else remains So, what do we do with our lives? We leave only a mark Will our story shine like a light Or end in the dark? From "Beyond Thunderdome" sung by Tina Turner I first encountered these lyrics when I was teaching a Youth Ministry class at a Christian college in New England in the late '80s. I began each session with a class discussion of the lyrics of a top ten song as a means of seeking to understand teenagers. I remember being surprised that this song had the most to teach us about youth culture at the time, and I think it remains to be pretty accurate today—perhaps even more relevant than it was almost 30 years ago. So much is here: alienation, fear, abandonment, false hopes, no future, helplessness and then, almost out of nowhere, the longing to be significant—to leave a legacy. Most teenagers, in the world as we have known it for the last 30 years, are walking around with this kind of angst in their soul. Some of them know it's there, others don't, and still others do but can't identify it or express it. Along comes a song like this and connects. We don't need another hero We don't need to know the way home All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome It's the same with a good deal of music, art and film. It connects with us below the surface because it captures our deep-seated fears, longings, hopes and dreams. This is why it's good to pay attention to art and popular culture. The heartbeat of the world is expressed every day all around us. And it is our heartbeat, too. We don't stand outside of these emotions because we're Christians now. God forbid. When did we stop being human? It's time to start feeling again. Judgment is out; compassion is in. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). Weep, but stand inside it, too. For though we know what it means to be found, we also know what it means to be lost. You don't stop being human when you become a Christian. You just know the way home.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

Check it out	Friday, August, 14, 2009
by John Fischer Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11) "Truth seekers rarely take someone's word for anything." And what that means is that they have to find out things for themselves. That doesn't mean they don't trust people; it just means they have to do their own thinking and their own research, both of which are required in order to come to their own conclusions. It's always been a real boost to my belief in independent thinking that Paul commended the believers in Berea because they checked him out by the scriptures to see if what he was saying was true. In other words, they didn't take even Paul's word for it. And what's even better about this is that the writer of the Book of Acts commended them for this and called them of noble character—more noble than the Thessalonians, who, by implication, didn't check Paul out with the scriptures, but must have just taken his word as truth. Paul is basically saying here… "Don't do that. Don't just take anybody's word for it, even if it's my word." How daring is that? How contrary this is to so many today—myself included—who would love to have people eating out of our hands instead of constantly questioning us and measuring our words by the scriptures. So it's more noble to think your own thoughts and to question things and to dig for answers that back up what someone says. Here, here, for the modern day Bereans who don't care who you are, they only want to know what you are saying and how you are living it out in your own life, and how does what you say and do relate to the truth as it has been revealed in the scriptures and as God has revealed it so far to them. I'm sorry, but this is revolutionary. This flies in the face of mass marketing, personality cults, and a follow-the-leader mentality that accompanies much of what goes on in our society today. You don't really have anything to say until you are somebody, and once you are somebody, everything you say is golden. It's the truth. It's at least marketable. "Everybody line up and take notes. We've found the truth now. We've got it right here." Is that the way it's supposed to be? I don't think so. No, that sounds like what was probably going on among the less noble Thessalonians. Give me the Bereans. They're scary. They're not very good for my ego. But they are people who won't be denied the truth. If you seek me with all your heart you will surely find me.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 11 Available]

The 'redundant' Beatles	Thursday, August, 13, 2009
by John Fischer I was standing in the checkout line of the supermarket when I heard a disturbing comment from a gentleman who looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties. He was with his father (they were spitting images) near a special display featuring an anthology of Beatles music. "I never really did understand the big deal about the Beatles," I overheard him saying. "They had a couple good songs, but most of their stuff was pretty redundant." I just about dropped my cookies (and I wasn't buying any). Of all the words in the English language that could possibly describe the music of the Beatles and their contribution to pop music the world over, the word redundant would be the last. The Beatles originated almost every style of music that now holds a place in popular expression. In fact, the group he called "redundant" undoubtedly influenced whatever music the young man happens to like. True, if all he ever heard was "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Love Me Do," you might say the group was redundant. But then you have to consider "Nowhere Man" and "A Hard Day's Night" and "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Hey Jude" and "Strawberry Fields Forever and "Yesterday," covering every possible style of music from folk to hard rock to acid rock to ballad to string quartet. Oh, and while he was saying how redundant the Beatles were, a symphonic version of "Michelle" started playing over the supermarket speakers. Now what if this man appears on a TV talk show and says in passing that the Beatles were redundant and everyone in their twenties and younger believes him? What if a generation that didn't grow up with the Beatles actually takes his word for it? Then the most powerful influence on a music culture in the last half century will be reduced to "a couple good songs, but most of their stuff is pretty redundant." When everyone thinks someone else's thoughts and no one checks it out, you never know what might end up being "true." Truth seekers rarely take someone's word for anything.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 24 Available]

Vi and her shadow	Wednesday, August, 12, 2009
by John Fischer Vi died. We lost our last parent. Though not related except by marriage (Marti's father’s third marriage), she stood out more than any parent or caretaker we have ever known. Her death was sudden, as Marti wrote: "…out of nowhere." That's because, although she was 86, Vi had an eternally youthful quality about her. She was going to outlive us all. Vi could never die… just couldn't. She sparkled. She would hold her hands out, palms down, and shimmy her shoulders just to indicate she was always ready to dance. She would call everyone, "Dear," except that with her Maine accent it came out, "dee-uh." In Marti's words, "She loved 3-inch heels, tasteless party dresses with sequins, and had her hair and nails done once a week. I think her favorite store was Kmart because of the Blue Light Specials. I know for sure that after Ted's death she went dancing most nights vowing never to marry again to 'take care of some old fool.'” Though there is a lot of hyperbole in that statement. It's much harsher than she actually displayed, for she loved and nursed both of her husbands through long illnesses right up to their death. While Marti's father was in his last days, Vi would crawl in next to his bedsore-ridden body and lovingly caress him. And at his memorial service, Vi sang "I'll be loving you, always…" in an ankle-length black dress… with sequins. The "old fool" comment was really her way of saying she had too much life and spunk left to tie herself down to nursing duty one more time. Indeed, she died getting ready for a party. In all the years I've had the privilege of knowing this remarkable woman, I cannot think of one unpleasant word coming out of her mouth about life or anyone living it. This is not because she had it easy. Quite the contrary. It is because she chose to have this attitude, meaning such a thing is accessible to all of us. Vi lived as if she would betray something at the heart of who she was if she didn't greet each day with joy and thanksgiving. She never taught herself separation, isolation or despair. To be a defender of a doctrine or ideology was not enough for her. Vi's heart was activated on what it believed. My last memory of Vi is of her in our living room with John, a friend of hers, lip-synching and dancing to, "Me and My Shadow," with imaginary top hat and tails. Me and my shadow, Strolling down the avenue. Me and my shadow, Not a soul to tell our troubles to. And when it's twelve o'clock, We climb the stair; We never knock, For nobody's there. Just me and my shadow, All alone and feeling blue. Turns out, this is now our song. We are the ones left dancing with shadows; hers is all she left behind. That's because Vi is now dancing in eternal light where shadows are no more.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 23 Available]

God's punctuation	Tuesday, August, 11, 2009
by John Fischer Never place a period where God has placed a comma. – Gracie Allen I found the above quote on the marquee of the Congregational Church in town. I love it. I believe it captures well what we seem to want to do to truth. comma n. a punctuation mark indicating a pause between parts of a sentence, or dividing items in a list. period n. used at the end of a sentence etc. to indicate finality, absoluteness. We are always trying to put periods where commas should be. We want questions answered. We want procedures and steps that gain the same results for everyone. We want truth to be something you can describe in terms of black and white. We want to know who is who before the book is closed. And we like rules. Even though we would never say we were legalists, everything boils down to ways in which we measure ourselves compared to those around us. Having grown up in the faith, I can truthfully say that God was almost always presented as the period at the end of every sentence—the alpha and omega, the beginning and he end, and so he is. But he is also the comma between all things. He is the pause that lingers in the middle. Our daily experience of God would be much more like that of a comma. Periods come at the end, but we are not there yet. Here's what I'd like you to do: Think of ways in which we put a period where God has a comma and write me about it. In the meantime, celebrate the commas, the lists, and the in-between..
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 24 Available]

Skunked	Monday, August, 10, 2009
by John Fischer [This Catch was originally scheduled for Friday, July 31, but it never made it past our server, and due to technical problems outside of our control, we were not able to rectify the situation until this weekend. Thank you for your patience, and I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. It's good to be back!] Last night at the Fischer household would qualify for a sitcom. It is already late, 12:30 a.m. to be exact, and I still haven't posted the Catch when I hear screaming coming from the house and dogs barking. I race out of my garage office and as soon as I reach the front door I know what has happened. One of our dogs has gotten skunked. That burnt coffee smell stings my nostrils as I walk in the door only to see our little dog go whizzing by followed by my wife demanding I stop the dog. Of course she's not going to touch the poor contaminated animal, and what are you doing just standing there? Go get her! She's getting skunk smell all over the house! Round and round we go—Marti after the dog… me after both of them. Finally she gets her cornered in the bathroom and I gingerly pick up the dog by her belly, trying to keep here at arms length. She has indeed gotten hit and it looks to be a direct shot to the face. Later I will discover the most intense spot right between her eyes. Bull's-eye! Now what to do? I still have 20 minutes to post. So I lock the dog in the garage bathroom and finish yesterday's Catch. An hour later, after the dog and I have shared numerous showers together with some kind of neutralizing chemical to limited success, I decide I have to go to the 24-hour market and get some tomato juice. With the worst of it on her face and warnings about not getting the chemical in the eyes, I figure I could safely cover the dog's face in tomato juice. As I get my wallet and barge out the front door, Marti, who is now in a much more tranquil place having had the last hour to clean and straighten up our little 900-square-foot cottage is sweetly suggesting we should stop and appreciate how lovely the house is at this time of the night. What? Is she crazy? It's two o'clock in the morning and I have a wet, stinking dog yelping in the bathroom and she wants to appreciate the moment? I find myself imagining what Marti's face would look like covered in tomato juice. So it is almost three o'clock in the morning as I return to the house. The dog is going to have to spend the rest of the night in the bathroom. The last step requires the application to dry out before our last shower together in the morning. Yes, we are bonding over this. Though I should be half asleep, I am unusually awake for the hour. Come to think about it, it is rather quaint the way the light hits the fireplace and casts a glow on the family portraits Marti has arranged all over the living room. There's that photo of Chandler still with his curly baby locks. Was he only 2 then? Funny how much I Iove my daughter's smile, even when her teeth were full of metal. And then there's Christopher all cocky and full of himself at probably—what is he in this picture—eighteen? It is only now he admits that if his record wasn't clean, he wouldn't be one of the real men in black today for the L.A.P.D. Great. So I'm a little late, but I get it now—my own lesson in appreciation. I go to take Marti up on her earlier offer to stop and enjoy the moment, and find her fast asleep, which is where I need to be, too.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 20 Available]

Targeting appreciation	Thursday, July, 30, 2009
by John Fischer I was talking to a friend yesterday and he passed along a quote that has helped him in appreciating those in his life. The quote is from John Dawson, International President of YWAM (Youth with a Mission) and simply states, "Let love find its target." I'm going to change that slightly for purposes of this discussion to "appreciation," or, "Let appreciation find its target." Last week we reflected some on gratitude. Gratitude is like appreciation but I think of it as more of an attitude than anything. Gratitude doesn't have to have a target unless you are thanking someone specifically for doing something for you. Gratitude is primarily an attitude of the heart you carry with you all the time—everywhere you go. As such, it doesn't have a target unless you count God, who sees everything anyway. But appreciation is more than an attitude; it's an action—better yet, a connection—and it involves someone else. Appreciation needs a target. You can't just appreciate someone in your head (well I suppose you can, but it won't do them any good). Target someone today with appreciation. Make them feel really good. Appreciate them for who they are more than for what they do. Appreciating someone's performance can seem manipulative. Appreciating their personhood is to affirm their intrinsic value. It gives people worth. When you appreciate someone, don't hold anything back. Let them know how you feel. And don't put it off. Time is a luxury we will not always have.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

In appreciation	Wednesday, July, 29, 2009
by John Fischer Today I write to you in appreciation of a very stellar person in my life. She has consistently believed in me from the time we first met until now. She has believed in me against all odds, when I have lost my sense of who I am and what I am here for. She sees the vision when I can't. She is constantly calling me out of the small, insignificant places I would prefer to hide in, and reminding me of a bigger calling. She is, in every way, a Proverbs 31 woman. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. (v.18) Hardly ever. Sometimes I wish it did so I could get some sleep. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. (v.20) It's as natural reflex. Her hands are connected to her heart when it comes to those who cannot help themselves. She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. (v.22) This is her trademark and indicative of her dignity to dress well and surround herself with beauty, and though some misunderstand her in this, she remains true to who she is. She requires a level of dignity, but no higher than what she gives to everyone around her. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. (v.26) People come to her house to be instructed. People seek her out. She is full of wisdom, encouragement and good advice. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. (v.27) Idleness? It is not in her vocabulary. She has two speeds: "Engaged" and "Off." Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. (v.30) It's also true that a charming, beautiful woman who fears the Lord is… well… one of a kind (to me). Lately, she has been reading my Catches ahead of time—far enough ahead to effect changes from her perspective. (You have been spared what you don't even know, thanks to her.) But she hasn't seen this one. I want the first time she reads this to be the same time most of you do. Because, before these witnesses, I want you to know, Marti, how much I appreciate you.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 28 Available]

Be an appreciator	Tuesday, July, 28, 2009
by John Fischer Today, I'm going to ask you to focus on appreciation. Appreciate someone today. Make it your mission. In order to do this, you will need to step outside of yourself and your own needs. This is hard to do when we are all so needy. I came in from my little mile and a half run this morning—only my fourth time out since I started up again after a long hiatus—to find my neighbor out in front of his house getting ready to leave for work. He is a more serious runner than I, having entered many competitions as a boost to his motivation. He made some encouraging comment about seeing me out and I was tempted to talk about me when I suddenly thought of asking if he had run in any races lately. His face was glowing when he told me he had just gotten back from San Francisco where he ran in a half-marathon (13 miles). I thanked God I hadn't hogged the attention like I am want to do. My mile and a half up against his 13? My little courageous run down Glenneyre Street when he was just two days ago packing across the Golden Gate bridge? It's a lot more fun appreciating someone else than it is talking about yourself. We are all longing to be appreciated. It's human nature. You can't go wrong with this one. Appreciate the people that serve you every day—the mailman, the clerk at the store, the little league coach, and the waitress at the diner... Then come closer to home and appreciate your spouse, your kids, your parents. Appreciating those you are around the most is the hardest to do because they are the hardest to remember. And when you have done all that, sit down and appreciate the sunset, appreciate good music, appreciate a moment to think about what more you can appreciate. Appreciate the maker and giver of all good gifts.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 11 Available]

Wrongfully right	Monday, July, 27, 2009
by John Fischer One of our readers has written about her non-believing husband’s perspective when asked about his perception of Christians. His responses includes: "We are naïve; we have a need to believe... We have submitted to mass hypnotism, not only religion. We are not free thinkers. We are wasting a lot of good time and good money when there are other organizations that do good for people without putting a lot of money into large buildings and shrines to our God." His comments are well taken. But first, I applaud our readers willingness to “step into the shoes” of her husband to see how he sees Christians. And, second, I support her willingness to listen. How he sees us does not necessarily agree with how we see ourselves, but it does have a good deal of basis in fact. Were I speaking with the man, I would have started by agreeing with most of his perceptions. I find that a lot of what non-Christians find objectionable about Christians is what it is: objectionable. I think we make it extremely difficult for people to find Christ. Take, for instance, his claim that we are naïve and not free thinkers. There is, indeed, an anti-intellectualism that has been woven into the fabric of the Christian church since the last half of the 19th century. It is the same kind of thinking that has made us distrust our humanity and distanced Christians from the arts and humanities. And it is wrong. Some of my favorite all-time Christians were brilliant thinkers—people like the 18th century French mathematician, Blaise Pascal, and England's most famous Christian, C.S. Lewis, to name just two. We do not all need to go to the level of intellectualism they espoused, nor do we necessarily have to understand everything they have written about and struggled with, but it is important that someone does and someone has. And having the God who made the world and everything in it as our personal savior should make us the freest of all free thinkers as we enter the universe of His making every day, wondering what new reality about God we might uncover today. God is holding all things together in Jesus Christ, the same Jesus Christ who is in our hearts by faith; that is nothing short of explosive. And as to this non-believer's perception of the church as wasting a lot of money on buildings while shirking the greater issues of justice and the poor, well, I'm not sure I could have said it any better. We lost the moral high ground before the end of the 20th century when we traded our unbiased spiritual authority for partisan political power. We deserve these indictments, and yet, there remains the true call and empowerment of God to love, respect and foster an environment of inclusion among all people. By humbly accepting challenges like these, we can open a way for dialogue and a means of leading someone to a truth that is different from what the world and the media think is Christian.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 17 Available]

Sweat equity	Friday, July, 24, 2009
by John Fischer Kyra, from Bakersfield, California wrote that she's having a great time getting to know a group of women she shares cubicles with at her workplace. They go on walks together during their breaks and tell stories from their lives, and Kyra is going along. "I have been taking morning walks with co-workers these days. (Not a sign of a sane mind with these triple digit temperatures in the San Joaquin Valley.) So here is this group of women, sweating the morning away and telling stories. I have learned to appreciate their perspectives and if I listen closely, I find morsels of truth and I see God. This is somewhat of a new daily routine for me. I feel like I am still getting to know these ladies and building a relationship. Witnessing is the last thing on my mind. As far as I know, only one of these ladies is a Christian. But what I am finding is we have far more in common as women, than differences." Well, witnessing may be the last thing on Kyra's mind, but what is on her mind is far better. What's on her mind is listening, caring and being a part of someone's life. It's connecting with people, and that's a big improvement over "witnessing" any day. When Christians "witness," in evangelical speak, they're most likely not connecting, they're doing a job—fulfilling a task, completing an assignment someone told them they had to do if they were going to be good Christians. So how does being set apart, unconnected, and carrying out an assignment on people sound like something Jesus would want? It isn't. Instead of "witnessing," let's connect. Let's find out how beautiful people are—what makes them tick… what are their hopes and dreams… what are their fears? Get them to talk about their kids, their pets, their hobbies, their favorite movies… What we will find out is exactly what Kyra is finding out: we have more in common than we have differences. It is ironic and sadly tragic that evangelical Christianity has worked against this very thing for as long as I can remember. To say that you have more in common with non-Christians than you have differences is to say that you are not a very good Christian. Christians are supposed to be different. In fact that is one of the main marks of our "witness"—to be different. This is such a big deal that we've made up ways to make ourselves different in our own eyes, and these are the very things that have made us appear as hypocrites in the eyes of non-Christians. We have made up our own rules and held them against those who are not following them, and even set ourselves up as examples they should want to emulate. Of course this all goes on only in our heads, while non-Christians interpret us as only being distant and self-righteous. It's all a very silly and unnecessary game we play that keeps us apart from people. And when we're playing this game, the last thing we want to do is connect with anybody. I'm convinced this whole system is set up purposely to keep us safe and distant. No sweat. That's why Kyra is getting it. She's listening, caring, connecting and finding out how much she has in common with her co-workers… and she's sweating it. And if you must use the word "witness" (and I would much prefer we didn't since it's not even a biblical use of the term), well that's simply being the best witness I can think of.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 10 Available]

Fresh beginnings	Thursday, July, 23, 2009
by John Fischer At a service of ordination recently, Marti and I were told that this was the hour of fresh beginnings for our house. I was very excited to receive this message, as our household is in need of a fresh beginning in many aspects, but especially in my life. But a problem developed almost right away. The anticipation for fresh beginnings wore off fast. I went home and found everything to be pretty much the same as I left it. I woke up today to realize that if everything's pretty much the same, it's because I'm the same. I keep thinking something is going to happen to me to change me, not realizing that the change I'm waiting for is up to me! Not that I change myself, but that I step into that which is bright and new and starting now. One of my own songs bears this out: I have crossed the chasms of my casual crimes I have passed the sign at least a thousand times Waiting for a hand to rescue me While at any time I could have walked out free. That's right: free. On the other side of this moment of personal entrapment is freedom. Nothing holding me back but myself. Because of Christ, I am not in bondage. There are no chains holding me. Just walk. Faith is that liberating! Faith is the opposite of fear, which controls and restricts us. Fear also deceives us. It makes us think that we are not capable of doing more or that we are inadequate to do what is right. Initiating action dissipates fear and we step into faith, discovering that everything we need in order to do all of the right things is within us through the Holy Spirit. Once we start, the fear is no longer there. We step into faith, one foot in front of the other, causing unforeseen new doors to fly open. Free from the old John and into the new John—a man of living faith. My anxious heart rests as I step, no longer held in the power of fear, but rather in the new found power of God. It is time for me to step out of the old song and write a new song. My question to you is, “What new melody do you hear as you step with one foot in front of the other into faith in this hour of fresh beginnings?” I sincerely cannot wait to hear all your stories of fresh beginnings—today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next…
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 12 Available]

Stepping up; stepping over	Wednesday, July, 22, 2009
by John Fischer Responding to a previous Catch, Gary from Oregon considered how the conscious decision to witness while serving as prototypes makes us vulnerable to the Spirit’s direction, a route we might not necessarily consider very comfortable. Gary wrote, "Recently I missed an opportunity to make my wife feel terrific when I passed up a chance to dance with her to music in a park because I felt we would be conspicuous (i.e., I was being 'self-conscious' rather than 'other-aware'). Couldn't get 'I Hope You Dance' (Lee Ann Womack) out of my head for a while after that. Maybe that's not really an example of witnessing, or maybe it is. Maybe someone else would have been freed of their self-consciousness if I had stepped out of mine for a bit." I agree with Gary. Our interactions can cause an awakening to repentance in those witnessing us, and what a wonderful public statement—love for one’s wife, freedom to appreciate her, and the joy found in the midst of the experience. Contrary to acting out strange behavior just for the sake of attracting people’s attention, my wife, Marti, delights in the deliberate employment of the unconventional just to challenge her family and others to step up to and act on what they believe for the sake of others. When we do, a whole new perspective comes to life for us. Take the night we were out to dinner together. I was telling her how much I loved her. “Then, step across this table to me,” she suggested. "Oh sure!" I thought. Instantly, my shoes filled with a mixture of iron and clay while anxiety flashed through my body, convincing me that people would point, laugh, and call me a fool. I was conscious of verses, irrelevant to the situation, trying to hide my vulnerability. Yet, at the same time, I was also fully aware of an overwhelming sense of regret in myself for disappointing Marti. Why didn’t I just take off the heavy shoes, step up onto the table and over to her? Why did I choose to look and act like everyone else that evening—all of us stereotypes from where I sat. We've got to follow through on what we believe or we betray something at the heart of who we are. Outside these gates of our comfort, we must be willing and able to respond in love. The next time someone asks either Gary or me to respond in love, Gary's putting on his dancing shoes and I am stepping up. What about you? "We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!" (1 Corinthians 4:10; New International Version)
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

The Assignment	Tuesday, July, 21, 2009
by John Fischer "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God." (2 Corinthians 5:16-20) Reconcile: to bring about a friendly relationship between disputing people or groups. How does it feel to be Christ's ambassador to bring people in relationship with God and each other? Do you like your job? How about our reputation as Christians? How well are we doing? Are we making enemies out of those who should be our friends? Better yet, how do the people we are supposed to be bringing to God feel about us? There it is. That's your assignment, should you choose to accept it. Find someone who is not a Christian (and would confirm that they aren't if you asked them), and ask if they can to tell you their perception of Christians. If they have a story to tell you about their experience with a Christian, all the better. Then gather your stories and information and send it to me. (Be somewhat brief.) I will gather what we get for three days and report back to everyone. And why are we doing this? For the purpose of running back to the church and pointing a judgmental finger at everyone? No. But if you're thinking about knowing what you have to overcome in the stereotype in order to be a prototype of God's Kingdom on earth, then you are on the right track.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 14 Available]

Prototype or assembly line?	Monday, July, 20, 2009
by John Fischer On this day, forty years ago, man first stepped on the moon. It was the result of an incredibly ambitious drive by the United States to beat the Russians and beat the odds against pulling off such a spectacular achievement. The key to the mission's success was the Saturn V rocket. In order to lift such a heavy payload into space, a new rocket had to be built unlike anything that had been used so far. Bigger engines, more powerful stages, and all put into a new package and tested via prototype. The Russians were not successful because they took a design that had been working in previous trips and just added more engines. It didn't work because the whole system had to change to support a mission of this magnitude. They tried to beef up the old model and it failed, even on numerous tries—some of them coming after the Americans had already been successful. How about you? Are you a stereotype or a prototype? It's a difficult question because we all want to be something new, and yet there is risk involved. Because of so many unknown factors, we have a tendency to settle into our more classic design that comes off the assembly line by the dozens. We have all the same parts, but we're not meeting the newest challenges in our lives. That is the value of challenges: they push us beyond stereotype into prototype. We have no choice but to step out and do that which, at least for us, hasn't been done before. So jump in. Do the new thing. You won't know until you try. And if you fail, it's not the end of the world. You just go back to the drawing board and create another prototype. It's that or the assembly line. So when you see all the reporting and special coverage that will undoubtedly go on today about the anniversary moon landing, think about that new challenge that God has for you right now, and gain courage for doing it.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 4 Available]

No more projects	Friday, July, 17, 2009
by John Fischer Well, gathering from the comments we have received, it appears I've struck a cord with this witnessing thing. And from what I have gleaned from those same comments, I feel that one more thing needs to be clarified. We are so bent on methods and formulas that even the admonition to hear everyone's story can be turned into a manipulative tool. You could present this as a strategy: you hear someone's story, look for points where you can bring in your own story with the end of it being able to present a clear witness. This is all well and good, perhaps for those who have gifts in the area of evangelism and find help with tools and methodologies for expressing those gifts, but for others, this smacks of an "approach" that turns the person you are trying to reach into a "project." I may be going too far here for some of you, but I think people can tell if they are a project no matter how nice we are being. It's being a means to an end that devalues a person. Even something as important as someone's eternal salvation must yield to a higher end, and that would be love. The highest command of Jesus was to love. As great as the Great Commission is ("Go and make disciples of all nations...") Jesus would never want us to be unloving in the process of following it. That's why I left it at "hear their story, fall in love and leave the rest to the Lord." Love is our aim; saving people is God's. We don't need to do His business for him; we need only love those who He brings across our path.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 28 Available]

On the road to find out	Thursday, July, 16, 2009
by John Fischer Well I hit the rowdy road and many kinds I met there Many stories told me on the way to get there So on and on I go, the seconds tick the time out There's so much left to know, and I'm on the road to find out - Cat Stevens Christians traditionally have not been very good story collectors. We have been so bent on getting a person to the desired conversion point that all questions are directed to that one end. Questions like: "Have you been washed in the blood?" or "Are you ready to meet Jesus?" or "Is there anything keeping you from praying to receive Christ right now?" are some common examples. In the process, I surmise we are not truly connecting to people, we're connecting to freeing ourselves of guilt over falling short in our maximum witnessing program. Cat Stevens, in the lyrics quoted above, was actually closer to the right attitude for Christians in the world. We need to be investigators—researchers rejoicing in other people's findings. When it comes to everyday living and relating in and outside of the workplace, it would be better to be more like Sherlock Holmes than Billy Graham. Keep an open book. Take lots of notes. Walk alongside. So get ready to hit the rowdy road and meet all different kinds of people with stories to tell. Probe, don't preach. Ask open-ended questions—questions that get them talking about their hopes and dreams and the journey they are on. [Warning: Pursuing this advice may make you fall in love with people.] Remember, you're a story-collector. And when, in the course of fair exchange it comes time for you to relate your story, you'll be ready.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 17 Available]

Blood and skin	Wednesday, July, 15, 2009
by John Fischer Some of you wanted to know what was up with the Catch you didn't get yesterday—the one I told you my wife didn't like. It actually wasn't much different in content from the one you received; it was different in form. The one I didn't send was a list of propositions and principles; the one you received was in the form of a story. Principles can be discussed and debated until the cows come home. Christians are good at picking apart principles and deciding whether they are scripturally or biblically sound. We dissect the sermon on the way home from church, but what action has been taken? Whose life has been changed? How has that exercise helped anyone live better? I am convinced I have become so good at this so as not to have to encounter anything that would actually challenge how I live or motivate me to change. Stories are different. You don't debate a story; you experience it. Stories are human touched by the divine. And when stories are passed on, they become fluid—the move through someone's life taking on their own characteristics. From the comments I received from you, I found out that many of you received insights and encouragement from my story that I could have never planned. That's because you met your story in mine, and in the end, the story was yours, as was the conclusion, the decision and the action. When I was ordained friends and family offered stories for me, and pictures that carried in them prophesies for my life. They were pictures I will never forget and stories I can recall any time I want or need to, and each time I return to them I learn something new. But the one that truly amazed me came from my nine-year-old son who had two words for me—that's all. Just two words: "blood" and "skin." I can't say I have even begun to scratch the surface of what is in store for me in those words, but I know you can't get any more human or real than blood and skin. Unless the lofty spiritual things we say we believe have blood in them and skin on them, I don't think they mean much in the real world.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 8 Available]

Without words	Tuesday, July, 14, 2009
by John Fischer Our out-of-town guests are asleep. The house is quiet. It's warm enough to be outside at this time of night. I asked Marti for her opinion on what I had ready for you as a Catch tomorrow and she didn't like it. I was talking about the language of the heart and how our best communication often comes without words. It's in the intangible that the real meaning comes. We were talking about how we miss the mark with our words sometime and I suddenly realized that often it's not about our words at all. Like the time I was performing a concert to a crowd of college students in the campus chapel—a large, gothic style cathedral with a cold marble floor and hard wooden pews. To try and warm things up, I had asked for a small platform right in front of the first row so I could be as close as possible to the audience. The first part of the concert went well. I had some little kids in the audience come up and do hand motions on one of my songs, and we all loosened up and developed a bond. Then I went to play the piano and it was set up high in the chancel behind a low wooden wall and could not be moved. I had told the promoter it was no problem, I could go play it from there, but when it came time to do it, I looked up from the keys and felt like everyone had left, they were so far away. In my aloneness, I got lost in the song I was trying to sing and couldn't get beyond one particular place. Frustrated and persistent, I started the song over numerous times trying to get a run at that spot where I was stuck and each time it got worse. In my frustration, someone picked up on it and decided to so something about it. He stood up and came towards me. Immediately others followed until the entire crowd had suddenly come up from their places in the pews and surrounded me all around the piano and scattered over the choir loft and the platform area. It was an incredible feeling I will never forget. I was alone. Someone sensed my predicament and decided to do something bout it. After that, I sang the song and I felt like I could have sung anything. I was empowered, and I was empowered by them. Yet the empowerment came through my own vulnerability and humility and in some cases humiliation. There was no language that night but we all understood. It's not always about what you say. It's about who you are and what you do.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 6 Available]

The language of the heart	Monday, July, 13, 2009
by John Fischer "Have you been washed in the blood?" "No, and I'm not sure I want to even think about what that must be like!" Imagine what would run through your mind if someone were asking you if you'd like to be washed in blood, and you had no clue as to the spiritual meaning behind the terminology. I would wonder why anyone would even associate blood with being clean. Normally you are trying to wash blood off in order to get clean. Something like this points out how necessary it is for us to be better at communicating spiritual meaning in terms that people can embrace without the help of a system and a tradition to provide context. There was a time when you could assume, at least in western culture, that a basic Judeo-Christian framework was at least common knowledge, whether or not it was believed. Not so today. Multiple diversities, ethnic backgrounds and a melting pot of religions, or no religion at all means we cannot assume any common language when it comes to faith. This is actually a good thing if it forces us to know what we are talking about. When you can't rely on a common language, you have to seek how to convey meaning and essence in ways anyone would understand. Ultimately what we are seeking is the language of the heart. Connect to someone's heart and you will have hit the mark in any language.
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

A special message to readers of the Catch	Sunday, July, 12, 2009
by John Fisacher As many of you are aware, I am committed to those willing to make a sustainable difference in the lives of others. This need to equip and influence others began years ago by assembling and teaching other Christian musicians and artists, with a specific emphasis for invoking a worldview informed by scripture that can engage culture in a positive manner. This desire still burns to this day and has expanded to representing Christ within the marketplace through those who know Him – to those in our own back yard and worldwide. To reflect confident hope and trust in the God of the Bible, my hope is to leave even the most secular reviewers to wonder what exactly is happening. The key is grace, which many a musician I have come to know extols as though he has only just discovered it. This is good – very good – because grace is not just a word. Grace is action; it overturns the consequences of our actions and love translates grace unconditionally. It is all my wife’s fault that you receive the Catch. She reasoned, “Why stop with the artists? Everybody wants to make an impact with their life, whether with friends or family (no small scale), or on a grand scale, in changing their communities and beyond. People want to realize the potential that Christ has written on their hearts.” And you, the members of the Catch, have now become the expansion. Through your stories, I marvel at the works of the Lord as you intimately share the hard parts of being faithful within the marketplace, the longings of your heart, the barriers yet to overcome and motivations to keep on going. Toward an effort to continue to expand our message and integrate it further within all segments of the culture, I am making available to you the ability to make your member subscriptions and gifts tax-deductible by bringing the Catch of the Day under the School of Music Ministries International (SMMI), a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization that has partnered with me in various ways since its inception. I am hopeful you will continue with this prophetic challenge too. It can be a defining moment for us: for the church, for our values, and for the culture that we live in. With our faith rooted in the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ, it is not a time to play hide-and-seek with our Christianity when people are looking for the Savior. We need to replace fear with faith; stop the crisis of credibility by embracing grace, and thus ending this hierarchy of "us and them." We are together on this journey to make a sustainable difference in the lives of others, wherever they are and within any venue and I know you rejoice with us in our ever-expanding influence in the marketplace today. While we recognize many are affected during this difficult economic season, your on-gong—and now tax-deductible—contributions are more important now than ever. We are full of gratitude to you for your continued involvement. It means everything! On behalf of my wife, Marti, and the Board the School of Music Ministries International, John Fischer
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 3 Available]

Gratitude	Friday, July, 10, 2009
God's not mad anymore, so why are we? We often speak of gratitude around Thanksgiving, but why not step into the righteousness of God all the time and be grateful (in awe… astonished…) not in ourselves, but for what we can see when we look from His perspective. Gratitude is essential. It is seminal. It is impossible to avoid because the need for it is so great, rising out of the fact that nothing we have comes from us. If one piece of it were mine—one small portion, the result of my hard work, connections, earning power, or pedigree—then I would not need to give thanks for that. I would take it to myself because I deserved it. But that is not the case. All things come from God. The worst and the best are both from Him, and so they both call for us to give thanks. "Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Ephesians 5:20) There is also a reduction principle to gratitude. It simplifies our lives. We are either worrying or giving thanks, complaining or giving thanks, conniving or giving thanks, stealing or giving thanks, lying or giving thanks, envying or giving thanks, lusting or giving thanks, cheating or giving thanks, blaming or giving thanks. See how much easier it is to just give thanks? Only one think to think about. Gratitude is due to the simple truth that everything we have and are comes from God. [Note: All gifts to the Catch of the Day are now tax-deductible. This applies to all credit card payments through PayPal as well as checks via the mail. To receive proper documentation, checks must be made out to S.M.M.I. (School of Music Ministries International, Inc.) and sent to the address noted in the link below.]
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 7 Available]

Living legacy	Thursday, July, 09, 2009
by John Fischer In the wake of Michael Jackson's death and the memorial service that followed on Tuesday, I ask that you consider the following: Michael Jackson broke down barriers. You may not think of Michael as political, but this is good politics: positively changing the way people see the world. As the single most charitable humanitarian on the planet, giving more money than any living celebrity, he used his success as currency, and he spent it well. We think of him as happiest when he was singing and dancing—performing his way back to some spiritual safety—but we were wrong. He lived to give. He just didn't stay long enough to come to grips with his failures when all along he has, and is, having an amazing impact in so many of our lives. It doesn’t matter if you agree with me as to whether Michael left a legacy, or care that he died longing to have a lasting impact on us. What does matter to me—and I sincerely hope it matters to you—is that we bring out our pens and paper and start writing the legacy we want to give to those we leave behind. What will I leave as the gifts of my life to you? And what part of your life do you want to leave as your living legacy to me? I am serious about this. The pen and paper are not just metaphorical. This is an assignment. It is also a matter of the heart. Michael left a little girl, who, in an impromptu moment, shared with the world the legacy of love she received from her daddy. As I said, it is a matter of the heart—a heart full of gratitude, appreciation and prayer. When it comes to life and death there really isn’t very much more worth writing down, now, is there? What will be your legacy?
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 21 Available]

Through eyes of those who know better	Wednesday, July, 08, 2009
by John Fischer It was a day when commitment to family and belief in God won out over the incessant rumble of the public's and the media's infatuation with setting up and tearing down celebrity. Anyone who saw Michael Jackson's memorial service yesterday now has a whole lot of new information to add to what has been communicated to us up until now about the man. For two hours, we saw him, not through the eyes of critics, pundits, and self-righteous moralists, but through the eyes of friends and family close enough to know what they were talking about. And here's what I found out about the man through them: That he liked to laugh. That he loved his family, deeply. That his family loved him. That he loved the world and believed he could make a significant impact on it by bringing diverse people together through his music. That his work was inspired by the love of God. That he had a lot of "know" when it came to his understanding of human nature. That God has a purpose for everyone and Michael completed his. That he saw everything with his heart. That he was fragile. That he made us love each other. That he believed he had a God-given responsibility to give himself to his music and his fans. That he gave all that had been given to him. That he likes eating Kentucky Fried Chicken on the floor with a friend… out of the bucket. That his favorite song was "Smile when your heart is aching." That his heart was aching most of the time. But by far, the most important thing I found out about Michael came through the eyes of his 11-year-old daughter who believes that her daddy has been the best father anyone could imagine. That was all I needed to know. "…and I laid my mantle on the ground, and felt the rain come pouring down—the rain of my religion, falling down like weeping from the sky."
[ Want To Comment?] [ Read Comments - 32 Available]

Friend of God	Tuesday, July, 07, 2009
by John Fischer Here is the best news ever. The greatest truths are often the simplest and most profound, and it's hard to get more profound than this: you and I get to be in this universe with God. Whatever happens, this is bottom line. You and I get to be in this universe with God. This transcends economic downturns, depressions, heartaches, sickness and death. We get to be in this universe with God. And we don't have to wait until we die to realize it. We can realize it now. Regardless of what we might be currently experiencing, nothing takes away from the reality that we are permanently, eternally tied to God through the love of Jesus. Experiencing the universe with God is like stepping through a thin membrane of realization. You're still in the same place, but everything looks different. That God, the maker of the universe, would want to share what He made with us is one thing. That we, ourselves, are the highest example of that life, is another. Made like Him to be His companion. "Let us make man in our image," He had said, and so He did. What greater role in life could there be but to be God's friend? He is not a taskmaster, as we thought, or a mean exacter of behavior, as many concluded. He is full of grace and has made full provision for our sin, so that we might be friends forever. He's done it all with us in mind, so how can we not give him our attention now that we know that?
[