Doorway to eternity

Posted on May 24, 2013 by jwfisch

I used to think it was only the very rich who have two homes; now I realize we all do.

th-1For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. (2 Corinthians 5:1-9)

Sure, Paul. I got this. No problem … What?

I always thought this passage of scripture was strangely reminiscent of Richard Nixon, who would say, “Now let me make myself perfectly clear …” and you knew that was going to be followed up by something completely unclear.

What I think Paul’s saying is that we have two realities when it comes to being home and both are valid. It’s a case of two homes where one home makes the other one worthy. At the same time it is a paradox. God wants us to be comfortable long enough to make us uncomfortable. God wants this to be home so we can find out about another home. This home is important; that home is important. Jesus left one to come to the other, placing meaning on both.

I like to pride myself in being a handyman when I’m really not. I’m a handyman in my head only. So when Marti points out something that needs to be fixed like the light switch in the kitchen that no longer works, or the lights in the garden that aren’t getting any power, or the sprinklers that don’t spray where they should, or the hillside behind the garage that is eroding, or the tree next to it that needs to come down because it’s really just a giant weed … I always think in my head, “No problem; I can do that,” and then nothing gets done because I can’t. That’s when I have a tendency to devalue this home as being less important because it’s temporary. Not so.th-3

There is Jerusalem, and there is a new Jerusalem, and Jesus cares deeply about them both. He wept over one; He’s coming to establish the other. There is this home – my address on earth – and there is my home in heaven, and Jesus cares deeply about them both. This one is made to welcome home those who will find, in our gospel of welcome, a home forever.

So I’ll fix what’s broken and get help with what I can’t, because this is my home, and I want everyone who comes here to feel welcome. After all, it’s more than just a home, it’s a doorway to another one.

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When a house is not a home

Posted on May 23, 2013 by jwfisch

This has been a devastating week for so many in Oklahoma and a rather challenging one for us here at the Catch. We have been planning a monthly subscriber campaign for some time, and we chose to make the three clicks of Dorothy’s shoes in the famous turn of the century children’s novel a fun and catchy way to get you guys to think about clicking your support for the Catch into the future. As you know that story begins with a tornado that throws Dorothy into an imaginary world of adventures from which only three clicks of her ruby red shoes will bring her back. There’s no way we could have known that a real tornado was going to strike at the same time we launched our “3 Clicks” campaign.

In an attempt to stay the course and still be sensitive to so many who lost their houses, I failed to realize that the lighthearted nature of some of our material previously created might appear inconsiderate to some, and for that, I apologize. All talk about house and home becomes painfully raw when you see the devastation wrought by such a powerful, random event.

However, as painful as it must be for many in Oklahoma, and for those of us who feel their pain, life goes on. There is a certain inevitability to this. Even those who will feel the loss of loved ones every day for the rest of their lives, still have to pick up the pieces and keep going. And the sooner we all find something to laugh about, the better.

Besides, home is still home. For thousands of families in Oklahoma, home will have to be in another house, or a hotel, but it will still be home. That’s because a house is not a home. Four walls and a roof does not a home make. People make a home, and that home can happen anywhere. Houses were destroyed, but for many, homes will be made even stronger.

There is a sense in which all of us will eventually lose our houses here, because our dwelling on earth is only temporary, and Jesus is preparing us a place in eternity where we will be home with Him forever. The important thing here is to create a home where God is served and love and acceptance rules — a place where the Gospel of Welcome can welcome many more home into His family. That is our goal, and our goal for you. So while we are here, your 3 clicks will help get us almost home. Thank you, and pray for Oklahoma.

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Home

Posted on May 22, 2013 by jwfisch

th-3Home is where you are welcome. It’s where you belong – where you are always gladly received. And if you’ve been gone a while, then the welcome is even more pronounced.

It’s the father on the front porch, gazing down the driveway, anticipating that any movement he sees could be his son coming home. It’s open arms of acceptance, forgiveness and relief. All is forgiven. Nothing matters anymore except that my boy is home. What was lost has been found. This is the profound message of the gospel of Jesus. It is not a gospel of right and wrong; it is a gospel of lost and found.

There’s been way too much talk about right and wrong when Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost.

The only wrong thing is that you left. The only right thing is that you came home. Imagine causing a party just because you came home. That’s the gospel.

A woman lost a coin and tore her house apart until she found it and rejoiced. That’s the gospel.

A shepherd had a hundred sheep, but one was lost. So he left the 99 and went out after the one that was lost and the joy was in the finding. That’s the gospel.

The Pharisees were all about right and wrong. Jesus is all about lost and found.

The prodigal son was as surprised over his welcome as anyone. He was only coming home to be a servant. He had come to his senses. Better to work for Dad then eat with the pigs. Dad treats his servants better than this. I’ll be a servant.

And what does Dad do? He welcomes home his son.

Time to get over all this right and wrong and start welcoming people home.

The ruby red slippers that Judy Garland wore in the film The Wizard of Oz are the third most visited exhibit in the Smithsonian Institute. Does that surprise you, that with all the incredible historical and scientific artifacts that are in this famous museum, that Dorothy’s ruby slippers are the big deal? What’s all the hubbub? What else could it be? They are the shoes that took her home.

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Answering the Unanswerable

Posted on May 21, 2013 by jwfisch

th-4Based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy Gale is swept away to another land in a tornado and embarks on a quest to find her way home again, finally to be told that all she needs to do to get back home is click her heels three times while repeating “There’s no place like home.” Dorothy awakens back in Kansas after being knocked out, with her family at her bedside, learning the other land may have been a dream, but it taught her to value her home and her family.

Friends and relatives of at least 20 children in Oklahoma woke up this morning wishing what they experienced in a real life tornado yesterday had been just a dream from which they awoke this morning. Sadly that is not the case, and no amount of magic can bring them and the others who lost their lives in this tragedy back.

It is times like these that test our faith in a loving, compassionate God, and if it was asked once, it will be asked a million times, “Why would God allow such a thing to happen?” Indeed, we have come to label tragedies such as this one as “acts of God” in legal terms. So God just decided to wipe out all these people and all these homes and cause all this damage and misery? Didn’t He have anything better to do yesterday?

We can dwell on that question, but not or very long, because it’s not a question we can answer.

 The question for me to answer today is not “Why them?” for us who are far away from this tragedy, or even “Why me?” for those who are close. The real question for the rest of us is “Why not me?” Why am I alive today? Why was my life spared to live another minute, much less another day? You can ask this question if you are 5,000 miles away from Oklahoma. It’s a relevant question to every day. Why did God take someone else and not me? Certainly any number of tragedies could have befallen me by now, and believe me, given what I know of my sinful self, I would have deserved any one of them. But God spared me this. He spared my life today. God wants me to live today. Why? He must have something He wants me to do on this planet. Well then, I’d better get busy doing it.

They say it’s one of the psychological hurdles anyone who comes home from a war alive has to face. Why not me? Why didn’t I die there with my friends? I don’t deserve to live if they can’t. The way to healing is to find the positive part of the question — the part you can do something about.

It is tragedies like the one in Oklahoma yesterday that make us look hard into these questions, but there is a sense in which this should be a knowledge we live with every day of the rest of our lives. God could have taken me by now, but He didn’t. Why didn’t He? What does He want from me that I haven’t done yet? The outcome of this question should be to live with a deeper purpose and a greater intensity.

In Baum’s novel, Dorothy learned to value her home and her family when she regained consciousness; we need to learn to value the same things, and our very lives as well. As more and more news comes out of Oklahoma today, ask yourself: “Why am I alive?” because I believe, of all the questions that are swirling around in everyone’s minds right now, that’s one question — and perhaps the only one — you can actually answer. You answer it with your life.

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Welcome mat

Posted on May 20, 2013 by jwfisch

When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, “At home even the hired men have food enough to spare, and here I am, dying of hunger! I will go home to my father….” (Luke 15:17-18) Unknown

Most of us can identify in some way with the story of the Prodigal Son. He had spent all his father’s money on wild living and “came to his senses” when he ended up working on a pig farm just to survive and noticed that what the pigs were eating suddenly looked good to him. That’s when he decided to go back to his father, admit his bad decisions and offer to work as a hired hand on his father’s estate. But something else happened when he arrived.

Going home was a good practical move for his situation. He was willing to settle on being a hired hand. The surprise was that he wasn’t given even a chance to apply for the job. He was welcomed as a son. Before he could get a word in edgewise he was smothered in his father’s love and a welcome-home party began.

What can you do in the face of this? Fall on your knees and worship. God the Father’s great big hands are open to us and we are embraced without judgment. This is like no love we have ever known before or will ever know.

We crawled back home ready for the worst — ready to eat crow. We were prepared for the taunts from the others in the family — even from the servants. We weighed the cost and decided the embarrassment was worth it. We calculated all that. We left bragging and return in humiliation. We left triumphant and return a failure. And yet there is no “I told you so” speech. There is just joy and acceptance.

Worship? It’s all we can do to hold ourselves together. We know what we deserve, and this isn’t it. This is a party! God has done it all for us. One day we were sucking up to pigs, the next we are escorted into our father’s house and in the process, we discover the wonderfully good news that we’ve always had a home here. We never lost our place. This is where we belong.

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Anticipating the unexplainable

Posted on May 17, 2013 by jwfisch

“Click your heels together three times and say, ‘There’s no place like home’ and you’ll be there.”

th-3Marti would have loved to have made this magic work last Sunday when we were seven driving hours away from home, especially when she dislikes driving so much. But is magic the only way to break the spell reality holds over us? Why is the Holy Spirit a spirit if there isn’t something “magical” about Him?

Jesus expressed “magical” powers when He was here on earth. Changing water to wine, walking on water, making fish suddenly appear on the other side of the boat, and ushering Him and the disciples immediately to the other side of the lake were ways in which He demonstrated His power over the natural elements of life — things we think of as concrete realities. Jesus broke the rules. Why would we not think He could do it again in our lives today? Was He just playing around with His power when He did these things, or was He telling us something about what our lives can be like, and what He wants to do for us?

Pixie dust, magic slippers, the yellow brick road … we all love a good fairy tale and every fairy tale has some magic in it. We respond to these stories because our lives bog down in harsh realities and repetitious boredom. Our feet are firmly planted on the ground. Life is heavy and sluggish. We all need some magic in our lives – something that takes us beyond the explainable, and something that takes us beyond ourselves. Raise your hand if you think you’re experiencing all that God has for you … I thought so.

Why do we have all these fairy tales if there isn’t some truth to what they seek? If God had meant for all of life to be explainable, why would He have dealt so often in the unexplainable, and if He did, why wouldn’t He have some unexplainable things to do in our lives right now, today? What is the Holy Spirit longing to do in your life today? A lot more than we let Him I fear.

My feet are much too heavy. I stay put and find comfort in sameness. Marti is constantly quivering with anticipation of the supernatural. She is waiting to be swept up. She tried to fly once when she was a child, but broke her collarbone instead. Would she try it again? In a heartbeat, if she wasn’t tethered to me.

Here’s something I do know: the fairy tales are only make believe; the Holy Spirit is real.  That’s information we should do something about.

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Our town

Posted on May 16, 2013 by jwfisch

th-1Thank you. I received some good advice and counsel from some of you, but most of all I received your love. You reached out to me and responded to my need. Are you uncomfortable that I am struggling? Do you come to this place for advice and encouragement and find someone like you who needs it? Good. That is the way it should be.

Pardon me while I pass on what has been passed to me. This one, from Arthur, is worthy of wall space: “Real courage and growth comes with each tiny step you take into your discomfort zone.” Thank you Arthur. I am thinking of the children of Israel who didn’t see the Jordan River open until the priests with the ark first stepped into the water.

And June put things in perspective with: “Cherish the time you all have together down here in our ‘non-permanent home.’”

And thanks to Eddie just in with this: “You can therefore be confident in every circumstance of life, however baffling, that it has been permitted in your own best interest by the wisest and most loving of fathers who knows our ‘load-limit’”

But Darin surprised me the most with this little homily on home. The surprise is the story that went before it that made this kind of positive reflection seem incongruous, but that’s the way it is sometimes with faith.

Home is the safest place in town when everything falls apart. Home is where the most tears are shed. Home is where most prayers are prayed. Home is where most Bibles are read. Home is where the best meals are served. Home is where the softest pillows are found. Home is where laughter relieves the most stress. Home is where mom and dad / husband and wife do their best work.

Home is where the peace of God works best. Home is where the still small voice of God is heard the loudest. Home is where the best plans are made.

I want to go to my Heavenly home when my time comes. But until then, I will live in exile as head of this household. As planned. Because it is in this home, in this town, where Jesus does most of His best work on my heart.

So Darin, does that mean if you or I avoid this tension, the work never gets done? I bet it does.

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Home away from home

Posted on May 15, 2013 by jwfisch

imagesIn the Book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament, Chapter 29, an account is given of the Lord’s plan to turn His people, the Israelites, over to the Babylonians for 70 years of captivity before rescuing them and bringing them back home to Jerusalem. It is from this passage that we get the oft-quoted verse: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'” (verse 11).

Meanwhile, there are instructions as to how they are to live while in exile, and most of it comes as rather a surprise to me: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, 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” (verses 5-8).

It sounds to me as if He is telling them to make a home for themselves, while in exile. This is not their permanent home, and yet the Lord wants them to carry on as if it were. Seventy years is a long time. Many of them will not live to see God’s plan fulfilled. Don’t postpone life in the meantime. Live it the same way you would live it were you at home in Jerusalem.

I believe there are obvious lessons for us here for how we are to live in a world to which we don’t belong. Christians know that their permanent home is in heaven. God is preparing a place for us, and He promises to take us to it. Meanwhile we are in exile on this earth (for 70 years), and yet the Lord wants us to make a home here – a place we will settle, carry on our business and watch our families grow. While we are “almost home,” we make this our home away from home.

I love talking about and living for our permanent home in heaven. I like knowing that this is not it. “This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through/My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue/The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door/And I can’t be at home in this world any more.”

Truth be told, I don’t like being almost home, I want to be home. I have made convenient spiritual alliances with my heavenly home that in my mind excuse me from the responsibilities attached to my temporary Babylonian home. I like spiritualizing this, but in fact, that form of spirituality is a copout.

We spent the better part of a year fighting to save our “almost home.” That fight was all Marti and many of you who jumped in to help, but not as much from me. That’s because this home spells responsibility. This home represents sacrifice, duty, and facing into lots of things that have become barriers to me.

It’s interesting that the Lord told the children of Israel to build houses, not just set up tents. I would have thought tents would have been the way to go. After all, it’s only 70 years; and yet 70 years is a lifetime, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that their time in captivity coincides with what the Bible allots as the average amount of time a person is allowed on this earth.

All this means I have some work to do before my 70 years is up, and I need some help. I need to get my heart into this. You guys get it. You stepped up when our home away from home was in jeopardy.

Forgive me while I try to work this out in front of you, but pray for me, and if God gives you something to pass onto me by way of encouragement, send it along.

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Looking for a home

Posted on May 14, 2013 by jwfisch

Suzan said it well: “There is something here on Earth in our everyday lives we are to be, see, do, know. Why else would our amazing and omnipotent God put us on this planet rather than just create us already home? If we spend our time here not having been, seen, done, or known, I believe we are being awfully arrogant in the face of our God, who gave us this extraordinary gift!”

God did not bring us into this world already home. We came into this world screaming our lungs out — virtually homeless. In fact, that’s what sets us breathing. If we’re not crying at birth, there’s usually something wrong. th-5

We do not begin life in this world celebrating our homecoming; we begin wrenched away from the only home we’ve known so far: our mother’s womb. No wonder we cry. We are alone, destitute, helpless and if you pick us up, chances are you will get a piece of our mind about it, not happy cooing. And from that moment on, we are looking for a home and never fully satisfied that we’ve found one in this world.

Some of us are fortunate enough to find it in the warmth of a loving family. That family creates in us a sense of home, but we soon find out it is temporary. If we live to a ripe old age, we discover that home dismantled, and ourselves, seeking to create another home for those we were a part of bringing into the world. We try with varying levels of success and dysfunction to make a home, but even then, we are constantly aware of the limited nature of our efforts.

They say home is where the heart is, and that is why we at the Catch are purveyors of a gospel of welcome — one that welcomes all wandering souls without distinction.  As Christ has welcomed us in our sin and dysfunction, so we welcome others who, like us, are seeking a place to belong — a place where they are accepted, forgiven and loved for who they are, no questions asked. The body of Christ on earth is our true home away from home, and because of that, we are home and almost home at the same time.

Realize, today, the sense in which we all are without a home and be that home for someone, as Suzan wrote, “Be, see, do, know.” Be that welcome. Be a home away from home. See the need. Give acceptance, forgiveness and love to someone today, for is that not truly what we all seek?

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Almost home

Posted on May 13, 2013 by jwfisch

th-4Marti hates road trips, and anything longer than an hour in a car for her is road trip.

Having lived significant parts of my life in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, I have made the trip between these two cities hundreds of times. It’s a five to seven hour drive depending on the actual distance and time of day. I can practically make this trip in my sleep. To me, it’s a half-day trip. It’s nothing. Not for Marti. When we were first married, we had to make this trip. It took us three days, two nights. She requires stops for meals, shopping, sightseeing, potty breaks, antiquing … anything to break up the time in the car.

Life is a lot like this. As they say, we are here today; gone tomorrow. Seventy years seems to be about our allotted time on this planet, and the closer you get to the end of that, the shorter it seems. You could say all along about this life that you were almost home, but the key is: What are you making of the journey?

When I make the trip between San Francisco and L.A. in a few hours, the time disappears. It’s down time – nothing time. I’m not really expecting anything more out of this time than getting there. When Marti makes this trip, it’s like the trip disappears. Time is spent seeing and doing. Memories are made, as in, “Remember when we stopped there?”

Almost home is a way of focusing not on the shortness of life, but on the value of living. Something is to be said for Marti’s approach to road trips – to make them almost nonexistent – to make it so that all the while you go you are almost home, but living life on the way. As Christians, we believe we have an ultimate destination that makes this life a road trip. Now you can sit in the car, make the fewest stops possible, and try to make the time between disappear. That’s almost home, but with the emphasis on “home.”

Or you can turn you focus to the trip. What is the journey like? What is along the way? What can we do along the way while we are here? How can we make it better for those around us? This is being almost home but with the focus on the “almost.”

We revisited this trip this weekend to attend a wedding in Carmel Valley and we are currently on our way home. We were originally going to be home last night, but one stop led to another and here we are again, turning a half-day trip into two. I can honestly say this morning that we are almost home. We will be almost home most of the day. We will be almost home until we actually get there, which should be some time today, but then again…

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