When the caregiver goes down

Posted on June 26, 2017 by jwfisch

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I have written a few times about how I have been helping one of Marti’s co-workers with Women of Vision deal with services needed for her invalid husband. She has been her husband’s 24/7 caregiver since he fell last summer and a subsequent operation rendered him bedridden.

Marie is an amazing woman. Optimistic. Hard-working. Willing to put up with the most humiliating of tasks in caring for her husband without complaint. And bull-headed.

Well, one morning last week, the caregiver went down. She was walking her dog, a rather energetic large puppy, who took a leap and yanked her toward the street causing her to trip over a curb and take a tumble that ended in a broken pelvis. Now there are two down and suddenly 24/7 care is required for two people and I stepped in to be that person until she could find someone on a more permanent basis.

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Business (not) as usual

Posted on June 21, 2017 by jwfisch

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After over two decades of working with world humanitarian enterprises and dealing with pressing global crisis situations, Michael McCausland has come to the conclusion that the greatest need in the world today, even here in America, is not food, shelter and clean water but job creation. The greatest need worldwide is for jobs. Give people the dignity of their own jobs and they will become self-sustaining and able to solve the problems of food, shelter and water without becoming dependent on handouts that rob them of dignity, creativity and innovation.

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Restless for a reason

Posted on June 20, 2017 by jwfisch

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She’s an emotional wreck. She feels useless. She has a number of unreached goals in life and she feels too tired to take them up again. Her life seems to be full of inconsequential busyness. She is sad. She feels she has lost a spiritual fervor she once had. She feels like she hasn’t accomplished anything of real value with her life. Her life used to be much more interesting and stimulating — full of theater, art, plays, trips to the museum. Even church doesn’t satisfy. The pastor gets too political and she doesn’t always agree with his politics. She’s lacking in purpose: What is she here for? She’s overloaded with pressure from things that need to be done, but none of these things are going to affect any lasting change in anyone’s life. She’s got errands and schedules that leave her exhausted, but in the end, what does she have to show for it?

So states an email we received this week from one of our most faithful members. It was a surprise, but not really. Many of us are getting to that stage in life where we are asking ourselves these and similar questions. What have we accomplished with our lives? Do we have enough time and energy to change what we might not like about our answer to that question?

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You can’t go back

Posted on June 19, 2017 by jwfisch

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So to complete the Father’s Day experience, it was the case of the two Papas at the ball game, sitting in the upper deck in the hot sun, trying to stay cool and root for the Angels, which, on this day, was a losing enterprise. Yes, Chandler is missing from this picture, but he is just not a fan of baseball and he has already endured a game this year for my birthday, so I decided not to insist on his presence for the Father’s Day version, especially since we already celebrated with our family the day before.

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I am a Happy Father Today

Posted on June 16, 2017 by jwfisch

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Dear Christopher, Anne and Chandler,

Thinking back on previous Father’s days, your handmade expressions of yourselves come to mind — little hands printed in clay,  painted self-portraits, and roughly drawn letters spelling ‘PAPA.’  And I smile. 

Almost every day I smile — recognizing the roads each of you are traveling clearly as expressions of who you are.  While I have often insisted on providing bumpers on your journey to prevent you from going too far off course, your wild ride has been all yours.  What Happy Fathers Days I have had.

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Solomon’s wisdom: How dumb can you be?

Posted on June 15, 2017 by jwfisch

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Have you ever wondered how Solomon, after having been given the gift of wisdom by God, could turn out to be so dumb?

As a young man, Solomon had been offered the gift of whatever he might choose when it came time for him to take over the throne after his father, King David, died, and it pleased God that he chose wisdom to rule as king instead of wealth or power that he could have chosen, so God gave him wisdom, as well as wealth and power. In fact, in his day, there was none wiser or wealthier. He was visited and admired by kings and queens of nations far and near. He was also awarded with peace during his entire reign, although all hell broke loose as soon as he died.

That was because in his wealth, Solomon also acquired over a thousand wives and concubines, many of whom were foreign women from the surrounding Canaanite nations that Israel had conquered — nations that God had ordered them to completely destroy and forbid them to marry. The reason for that soon became obvious. These women had their own idols from their own traditions that they wanted to continue to worship, so Solomon let them have their idols. He even built them shrines and joined them in offering sacrifices to these detestable things, and they became a “snare” to him. As a result of this evil, the kingdom was torn apart by his sons as soon as he died, and nothing was ever the same again.

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Flags

Posted on June 14, 2017 by jwfisch

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On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved the design of the original American flag, declaring: “Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

On Aug. 3, 1949, President Harry S. Truman officially declared June 14 as Flag Day.

 

I almost cut my hair

It happened just the other day

It was gettin’ kinda long

I could-a said, it was in my way

But I didn’t and I wonder why

I feel like letting my freak flag fly

And I feel like I owe it to someone

     – David Crosby

I bet you didn’t know it was Flag Day today. It might have escaped your attention since it is not a national holiday. However, if you live in Pennsylvania you might be more inclined to know about Flag Day because it apparently is a state holiday there. I only know it because it popped up automatically on my Apple calendar and I made a mental note of it because I like to fly my American flag when I have an official reason to do so. I know that’s pretty silly since no one would stop me from flying my flag whenever I wanted, including every day of the year. But for some reason, I like to have grounds for flying the flag. I’m also typically forgetting to put it out on official days like national holidays and only remembering late in the day when it’s too late to bother.

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Who killed Jesus?

Posted on June 13, 2017 by jwfisch

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For our teachings in the Church at the Catch, we’ve been in the Book of Acts of the Apostles which happens to be Marti’s favorite book of the Bible. She loves the Book of Acts because it is full of just that: acts, or what she would call “action.” And since Marti is a woman of action, it’s fitting that she would love these stories of ordinary men and women doing extraordinary things because of the Holy Spirit in them. Which makes Marti wonder why we don’t see similar things happening among us, because we have the same Holy Spirit dwelling in us. To which I can’t give her an answer other than lack of faith, but that’s for anther Catch.

Something that hit me hard this time, however, was the fact that Peter gave two messages in the first two chapters, and both messages were primarily the same: You killed the Messiah.

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Wear your heart out

Posted on June 12, 2017 by jwfisch

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Though we have never met face-to-face, your words reach my heart everyday.

– Annette Marie Carter

Of all the wonderful birthday greetings I received last month (thank you all so much — believe me, I’m still making my way through them) this one stands out in particular. I cannot think of anything I would be happier or prouder to hear someone say than to hear that my words had reached their heart.

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In but not of the world

Posted on June 9, 2017 by jwfisch

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A recent study by the Barna Research Group that concluded the reason the church is losing the younger generation is that “we have failed to equip them to live ‘in but not of’ the world” has prompted me to dust off a poem I wrote years ago and look at it with new relevance.

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