All right, we’ve finally got the video ready or you – the one you’ve been asking for – the one that has Marti and me doing what neither one of us should even try to do for the benefit of the Isaiah House women and their Fashion Show. It’s our “performance” of the Dirty Money hip hop hit, “Coming Home.” I am not a rapper; Marti is not a singer; but there we are anyway delivering a song that so perfectly matches the experience of many of these women.
We’ve looked at it before here, but this song has a simple but profound message. It is one of repentance – something that Jesus said was required in the process of salvation. In it, the singer admits his “mistakes,” “sins” and “shortcomings” (actual terms use in the song), turns from them, goes another way, and thanks the Lord for the second chance. It’s the song of the prodigal who came to his senses, turned around, humbled himself and came home. And for 65 women who have no home other than the one provided by the volunteers who love them, it’s a poignant expression.
Marti and I have been reflecting on why it was important for us to deliver this song. When we first started thinking about it, we knew we wanted to conclude our fashion show with it, but how? We could have just played the song but that wouldn’t have held their attention long enough to grasp the point of it. And later, we realized that if we somehow had Sean Combs himself to deliver his own song, it wouldn’t have worked as well as the two of us boldly – even foolishly having the guts to take on a genre completely out of our sphere of knowledge and experience. We basically made fools of ourselves and that was just what the moment called for.
Maybe it was a sort of celebration of all of us being in a place where we didn’t want to be, but found ourselves anyway – a place where we shouldn’t belong, but strangely do.
And maybe that too is a little like the kingdom of God on earth. It comes in the embracing of our weakness, and the vulnerability that unites us. We don’t want perfection here. Perfection would have driven us apart. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for surely, theirs is the kingdom of God. I think I understand a little more about that now.
[Warning: Rap traditionally has swear words as part of the culture out of which it was formed. As a songwriter, I believe in the integrity of what the writer wrote, so I delivered it that way. If it is offensive to some, it probably was meant to be, and I’ll gladly take the “rap” for that.]
John Fischer The Catch 
Way to go, John and Marti!!! Glad to peek at ya’ll and the ladies of Isaiah House!
Thanks, John and Marti, for letting the Catch community be a part of this amazing ministry.
You both were great! Video let’s us be there instead of just reading about being there. Great ministry moment. And that’s a (w)rap.
John and Marti – Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful moment with us. It actually brought tears to my eyes and NO not because of the singers. 😉 God bless you both for all that you do for the women of Isaiah House.
Great job! They used this song for one of the dance routines on So You Think You Can Dance this week and it was one of the best routines so far this season! http://www.fox.com/dance/videos/1017266688001/sasha-alexander-top-20-again?sortby=date&bctag=performance
I only knew the song because of being introduced to it through your devotional!
Priceless! You being you will let the women be them!
I saw this routine, too, and it was very powerful. I couldn’t understand a lot of the words to the song, but definitely caught the redemptive gist of it and especially loved the part where I could clearly hear “Thank you, Lord,” and the dancer raised his hands in joy. That was really awesome. Wondered if any of the dancers or audience truly got the meaning of the song.
They got the meaning. As homeless and some of them incarcerated, they’ve lived the meaning of this song. Also, if you go back a couple weeks in the Catch, I printed the lyrics. Also, everyone had as copy of the lyrics at the event, so they got it.
I think you should forward your video to P.Diddy himself, tell him of the mission of Isaiah House….who knows, you might get a contribution!
You go, John and Marti! I agree with Toni about sending it to P. Diddy himself. You never know how far God might take this. (Perhaps even a new recording career for you, John, with your wife! Ha ha! 🙂
Anybody know how to do that?
Fantastic, you guys! You know, whether it’s at an intimate setting like Isaiah House or in front of an international audience, if I may paraphrase Paul – whatever the motives (and/or medium)… “the message about Christ is being preached…so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice!” (Phil. 1:18)
Thought you might appreciate this video clip from a recent episode of “Late Night wth Jimmy Fallon” featuring his guest Jennifer Hudson. In it, she sings “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” The reaction of Jimmy and the audience is not dissimilar from that of the ladies at Isaiah House after your rendition of “Coming Home”.
Perhaps this is simplistic but when presented with musical messages of encouragement, hope, and true peace – it doesn’t matter who does the singing as long as the song is honestly, courageously and humbly sung from the heart; And, whether we or ‘they’ acknowledge it or not, every one of us wants to both hear AND SING that song in sincerity. Here’s the link to the video – http://www.hulu.com/watch/238186/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-jennifer-hudson
What do you mean that you can’t “rap?” You did a great job. Thank you John and Marti for what you mean to the ladies at the Isaiah House and for what you mean to the “Catch” Community. Rock on!