Yesterday I took a chance. I stepped into the light and the light did what it always does – it reveals what is there – and what it revealed was unpleasant for me especially, and for some of you. It really depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for strong, capable leadership from someone who has all his affairs in order and whose behavior is exemplary at every level, well I lost you. If, on the other hand, you are looking for leadership from someone who is willing to be vulnerable, and is at least trying to stay in the light of truth about himself while pointing to the Lord, then you’ve come to the right place. But be prepared to be disappointed. You will be disappointed by me before you will be amazed by the Lord in and through me. That’s actually the way it works. The treasure of Christ is in the cracked, breakable clay pot of our lives for a reason, so the power will obviously be coming from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)
Come on, you guys, if it was coming from me, it would be John Fischer, Inc. and you would pay to get it from me and take it home and find out it would work for a while, but sooner or later you’d be back to you and your incapability while I would be off doing another seminar on how to be capable.
We discussed this in our teleconference study last night and Carole from North Carolina came up with an incredible illustration of this.
She mentioned that she often likes to sit in a chair in her sunroom and watch the birds come feed outside her window. Especially on cold mornings, the warmth of the sun through her window is delicious. But she also noticed that often when she gets up to do a chore or make a phone call and comes back to sit at the window again, the sun has moved and the chair is in the cold.
Here’s my guess. Those people who appear totally capable in life are probably sitting where the light once was. They haven’t moved their chair in a while.
If you want to stay in the light, you’ve got to go where the light goes, and each time you do, you find out something else about yourself that points out how much you need the Lord. That is our message: the Lord’s capability laid over our incapability. Both parts are necessary for the whole story to be told.
When you’re in the darkness, you can portray anything you want. You can control your image, but that’s just it… you’re in control, the Holy Spirit is not. For the Holy Spirit to be in control, we have to be in the light and vulnerable.
Feeling pretty smug? Move your chair. Feeling all alone? Move your chair. Feeling cold? Move your chair. True, it’s a little scary, but the light of the Son is deliciously warm.
John Fischer The Catch 
John,
For the longest time, you have been a hero of mine (don’t get too puffed up). I have most of your albums and books. Over the years I have seen you perfom and speak. What I have most appeciated is your honesty and genuiness regarding your humanity and Christianity. I am glad that you don’t have it all together. Nobody does. I am an example of what a beautiful mess is in this fallen world. I read the catch everyday. I wish I could support it financially. Hopefully someday soon. In the meantime, my prayers are for you and Marti to get through this situation, of course with God’s gracious power.
Continually in His Grip,
Ed
Glad you’re with us!
Your vulnerability is your voice, John. Your weakness is your strength, in Christ. Your willingness to stay in the light is your testimony of faith. It’s all good. When I read yesterday’s post, my only thought was, “Been there, done that.” As you walk through your crisis and share your heart, we who follow your journey are learning from you. We don’t see a “financial screw up” but rather just a fellow human like us. Your taking the light that many of us would run from.
Thinking back on yesterday’s post, I know the arguments about “teleios” (perfect) in Matthew 5:48, but I wonder if Jesus was calling us not to an impossible perfection, but rather to a possible wholeness. Might he be saying we are not to be hypocrites likes the Pharisees, saying one thing and doing another, but rather we are to be “complete” and “whole” like our heavenly Father, our righteousness all fitted together in our spirits without cracks and patches. I believe it is a call to maturity and integrity, not perfection. And becoming whole and mature is a journey, not a destination. In that sense of teleios, your response to your challenge is a great example to us of a man who is pursuing Christ’s call “to be perfect,” to be integrated and whole. Thank you for staying on that path, and for staying in the light.
Well, ClayofCO took the words right out of my heart – in a much more articulate way than I could.
John, what has made you so effective, so approachable, such a caring voice through which God speaks is the fact that you risk being vulnerable. It isn’t the strong, perfect people that most of us can relate to (at least I sure can’t), but those who struggle and deal with their weaknesses in the midst of their faith in God. I tend to get so down on myself and keep trying to hold on to the promise that God strength is manifested in & through our weaknesses, yet somehow I can keep beating myself up when I can’t get rid of them anyway – thinking I have to “have everything in order and under control to be useful to God. But, in & through DOESN’T mean the weaknesses just go away. When I see someone who I truly respect and who I feel is a much needed voice of a loving God admit how he doesn’t have everything “together” it is a HUGE encouragement. One, because maybe that means God can still use me, too. And two, reminds me how very important it is that we are authentic & vulnerable and that we embrace those who are. And that God DOES say that we can’t make it without Him – yet it IS hard when we come face to face with that in ourselves, I think.
John, YOU are loved and respected and an instrument of God’s grace in this world. Thank you for being real. Although it isn’t much, you have my support and my prayers and my gratitude.
Heather in Webster, NY
So encouraging. Thank you!
Marti was born in Webster. Sorry I missed you when I as in Rochester a couple weeks ago.
I see what you’re saying, Clay, and I’m in agreement with you about maturity, but I also feel there always is an element in the demand for perfection that we can’t attain, that puts us in a poverty of spirit that in turn makes us blessed, as in the first “blessed are the poor in spirit.” It’s the cyclical nature of the Sermon on the Mount. Is that one-time poor or always poor? And how do we know that we are always poor? If the standard is always beyond us. “If my reach doesn’t go beyond my grasp, then what’s a heaven for, and for what do I ask?” (I think I may have a new Catch here.)
Thank you ClayofCO, well said, no need for me to add my two cents worth.
Yes, ClayofCO said it well. Only when our clay bodies are broken can the light of Jesus shine through. I stand with you in the light, see your imperfections, recognize my own, and love you (& Marti) all the more.
Well, ClayofCO took the words right out of my heart – in a much more articulate way than I could.
John, what has made you so effective, so approachable, such a caring voice through which God speaks is the fact that you risk being vulnerable. It isn’t the strong, perfect people that most of us can relate to (at least I sure can’t), but those who struggle and deal with their weaknesses in the midst of their faith in God. I tend to get so down on myself and keep trying to hold on to the promise that God’s strength is manifested in & through our weaknesses, yet somehow I can keep beating myself up when I can’t get rid of them anyway – thinking I have to “have everything in order and under control to be useful to God. But, in & through doesn’t mean the weaknesses just go away. When I see someone who I truly respect and who I feel is a much needed voice of a loving God admit how he doesn’t have everything “together” it is a HUGE encouragement. One, because maybe that means God can still use me, too. And two, reminds me how very important it is that we are authentic & vulnerable and that we embrace those who are. God DOES say that we can’t make it without Him – yet it IS hard when we come face to face with that in ourselves, I think.
John, YOU are loved and respected and an instrument of God’s grace in this world. Thank you for being real. Although it isn’t much, you have my support and my prayers and my gratitude.
Heather
I spent years looking for “a church for sinners”. Never found one, until now. I have been a part of this community for a long time and I knew quickly that I had found what I was looking for.
The details of your shortcomings might be news to me, but the shortcomings themselves were not. I found comfort early, in your writing, that you – like me, like all of us – was a sinner too. To me you have never put yourself higher than your congregation.
I know making yourself vulnerable is difficult, but it just adds to my resolve in knowing that this is my home. So thank you.
So glad you’re here.