Under the kitchen sink

Posted on June 22, 2016 by jwfisch

IMG_1206I have found out something true about human nature while under the kitchen sink.

Like most Americans, we have two small wastebaskets under our kitchen sink — one for recycled waste and the other for regular trash and garbage. Because space is limited in this house, they are relatively small wastebaskets that both have to be emptied almost every day. We line them both with plastic bags — tall kitchen size, though they are twice the size needed.

More often than not, it seems, those bags are full to the brim, and then some. The challenge is how much stuff you can cram in there before the milk carton or the Coke can you’re trying shove in there puts it over the top and you have to be the one to pull out the plastic bag, tie it off, set it outside to go to the large trash bins, and then line the wastebasket with a new plastic bag.

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How much does God believe in you?

Posted on June 21, 2016 by jwfisch

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How much does God believe in you? An awful lot.

We talk a lot about believing in God, and we should, because succeeding in life comes down to what we believe. Our salvation depends on believing, our sanctification (the process of becoming like Christ) depends on it, and our future in heaven with God rides on believing. “We believe, therefore we speak,” (2 Corinthians 4:13) and then we act on that belief.

However, we talk about believing so much so that we often forget that it goes the other way as well. God believes in us. It might seem a little preposterous, but it’s true.

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We’re not done with Father’s Day

Posted on June 20, 2016 by jwfisch

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I sent out a personal Father’s Day text yesterday to a number of fathers on my contact list and received a pretty incredible response from most of them. There were a few “awesome”s and a couple “made me day”s. I only wished I had had time to complete my list because I ran out of time and didn’t get to send it to everyone I wanted to. So I’m sending it out publicly this morning and I think I might try and take a stab at why it connected to so many fathers.

Here’s my simple message: “Happy Father’s Day. Treat yourself well today. You’re the best father your kids could ever have. God designed you for this.”

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‘Nice try, Dad.’

Posted on June 17, 2016 by jwfisch

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Well there are two sides to fatherhood. Yesterday we talked about the side on which we all share, and that is about having a father. The other side of fatherhood is much scarier; it’s about being one.

Fatherhood is something no one is ready for. There is no such thing as a professional father. There are classes and counselors to help with fathering that we can take advantage of, but not all of us do. Not everyone can afford to. There are books and lectures on fathering that are available, but there is no one who will graduate you with a degree in Fatherhood. Most of us are basically groping around in the dark, trying to figure this out, at least that’s what it feels like to me.

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‘Dear Dad, I forgive you. Happy Father’s Day.’

Posted on June 16, 2016 by jwfisch

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Here’s one of the greatest things you can do for your dad on Father’s Day … forgive him. And if your dad is no longer alive, it’s the greatest thing you can do for yourself.

For just about every child growing up into adulthood, there comes a time when Dad goes from being Super Hero to Super Jerk. That’s because all dads are fallible. We are all broken in some way, and part of growing up with a human father is a process of finding that out. What we do with that information is the key to either getting healthy or perpetuating the same issues. It’s what the Bible calls visiting the sins of the fathers on future generations. But it does not have to be.

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‘Why me? … Why not me?’

Posted on June 15, 2016 by jwfisch

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It’s one of the hardest questions anyone who experiences something catastrophic has to face, and I’m sure it’s on the minds of many injured in the Orlando shootings this past weekend: “Why me?”

Why did I get cancer?
Why did I lose my child?
Why did that drunk driver have to run into my car?
Why did the fire take my house and spare my neighbor’s?
Why didn’t my marriage work out?
Why did I have to lose my job?
Why did I travel to Orlando so I could get shot in a restroom?
Why me? Why did this have to happen to me?

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Desperately seeking justice

Posted on June 14, 2016 by jwfisch

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A little over three years ago we woke to news of the Boston Marathon bombing. The shooter in this weekend’s attack in Orlando made reference to that event. The following is taken from what I wrote that morning and revisited again today. In seeking the Lord for what His word to us now would be, I find this continually relevant.

We all woke up this morning feeling violated. Senseless, incomprehensible, bloody images greeted us in our newspapers and on our smart phones and computers. To some it felt very close. To others, it may have seemed far away only because we didn’t want to let it in. It seemed far away to me until my wife reminded me that if we still lived in the Boston area, our daughter could very well have been running in that marathon. And though it was far away on the other side of the country, just this last weekend, our son participated in a benefit relay race across Nevada and California. Suddenly it wasn’t so far away.

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#PrayForOrlando

Posted on June 13, 2016 by gunsim11

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What you see in the backward glance

Posted on June 13, 2016 by jwfisch
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Love your fur babies.

One of our MemberPartners recently lost a very dear friend. In the process of grieving, she related some of the beautiful things that were shared in this friend’s passing as it appears she was an inspiration to many. One of the things that stands out was some practical advice shared near the end of her life and highlighted in a eulogy given in her memorial.

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Holy punctuation!

Posted on June 10, 2016 by jwfisch

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Never place a period where God has placed a comma. – Gracie Allen

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 absolutes. We want procedures and steps that gain the same results for everyone. We want truth to be something you can describe in 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. When truth is only a period, we have no patience for the process.

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