Learning from the Grand Canyon’s secrets

Posted on April 1, 2013 by jwfisch

sunriseWatching the sun rise over the Grand Canyon on Easter morning was worshipful, but a bit anticlimactic. The sun came up and the canyon, for the most part remained dark. But just you wait. The secrets of this place are revealed over time and repetition.

The first time you stand on the edge of its huge chasm and feel the expanse of this vast hollowed out hole is breathtaking, but repeating sightings — which is pretty much the only way you can experience it — can prove a bit boring, at least I could see that from Chandler’s perspective. You come to it from a new angle, and, sure enough … there it is. Once you’re over the initial impact, the canyon doesn’t do anything; it just sits there. Now if you could brave the rapids of the Colorado River below or skydive down into its depths, that might be something, but just to look gets old without patience and a deeper understanding.

The Grand Canyon is primarily a canvas across which God draws his brush as the sun arcs overhead, revealing changes in color and shadow, mixing with the often-volatile weather to create an ever-changing masterpiece of color and grandeur. You see this in the thousands of photographs that have captured the painting in a moment in time — no one exactly like the other. You have to have patience with this process.sunrise3

About the second day, I realized the way to truly experience this place would be to spend an entire day, from sun up to sun down, sitting in one place and watching God draw his brush across it. Read, pray, think, meditate and take it in. Some things are just meant to be experienced this way. Like the slower traveled Route 66, time reveals treasures.

This whole trip began with Chandler announcing his desire to take a motorcycle trip with me to the Grand Canyon when he was old enough. I decided, why not go now in preparation for that so we would know what we wanted to do there the second time. After being there, he has revised his wish. He now wants to take a motorcycle trip with me over the old entire historic route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica (something that can now be done aided by only a few sections of Interstate). The stakes have just gone up, but I’m game. (More on that tomorrow.)

I must admit, that will be some trip, but at the same time, the Grand Canyon will still be there standing as a silent witness to the power and creativity of God. Perhaps Chandler will want to make a stop there, just to make sure.

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After the off-ramp

Posted on March 29, 2013 by jwfisch

3eccbde7-d4ec-3267-89d2-8fec1df0a960I woke up to a Good Friday in Flagstaff, Arizona, in a motel on what is left of the historic Route 66. They still post it here as “66” with the highway shield, but in a light brown color with the words “historic Route 66.” It’s not an official highway number you can find on a map, but it is a route you can still travel today if you have the time and the patience. There are numerous books out with guides to discovering the sights and segments of the old road.

Chandler had me drive some of it and we found a section that took us a ways out of town — a two-lane road with patches of concrete that had not been covered over with asphalt, and driving over it brought back that hypnotic “flump flump” of the tires over the uniform seams in the concrete. After talking about this for a while, I finally realized Chandler was searching for something — he was looking for the town of Radiator Springs, the fictional city from the Pixar movie, “Cars.”

According to an article in the “Route 66 News,” the real city that best resembles Radiator Springs is Tucumcari, New Mexico — “a small town that boasts a bunch of vintage motels, a Mexican restaurant shaped like a sombrero, lots of neon lights, a Route 66-themed grocery store, and the well-preserved Odeon Theatre, which still shows first-run movies.” If you love the movie, “Cars,” like I do, you will appreciate the article which ties characters and themes in the movie to those in real life — that rich part of small town America that the Interstate passes by. As the article so well concludes, “Life begins at the off-ramp.”

Perhaps this is what we are all seeking… Chandler … you … me: life at the off-ramp — getting off the fast track of what we are after and focusing instead on the life in front of us that we already have. These are the things that give our lives meaning. I’ve wondered a number of times along this trip so far if I could afford the time and expense, but then I consider the quality time it is affording me with Chandler and I realize this is one of those priceless things MasterCard can’t touch.

Maybe our next road trip will be to travel the old 66 to Tucumcari.

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Route 66

Posted on March 28, 2013 by jwfisch

th-1Chandler and I are starting into the third day of our Grand Canyon Road trip. I am happy to report that Chandler appears to be the one Fischer who seems to be capable of enjoying this with me. Having grown up in a family that took a Route 66 road trip from California to Texas every summer in a 1950 Ford, it’s in my blood. Even though I’ve got the gps lady on my iPhone directing me where to turn, I did go to the local AAA office and have them help me plan our trip on a real road map. I want Chandler to experience following along on a map with the paper folded and creased to show your trip and nothing else. So far he’s impressed, especially asking lots of questions about the original Route 66.

What is it about roads and maps and driving that intrigues me? I’ve often wondered about that. Is it just that my most vivid family memories are on this trip or is there something inherent in the whole process of planning and executing a trip?

Surely there is something to being able to map out where you want to go when the rest of life seems so unmanageable. There doesn’t seem to be much in our lives that wants to cooperate with a map.

Solomon commented on this in Proverbs 16:9, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” The plans of the man and the direction of the Lord may or may not have anything to do with each other. I happen to think the Lord will take into account the plans that we make for ourselves but He will be directing our steps through the fulfillment or the change in those plans. Somehow He’s going to work it all out to His glory. That does not mean we don’t make plans. It just means the fulfillment of our plans may mean nothing if God isn’t directing our steps. God’s direction is more important than our plans.
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Today, I plan to drive a little of the old Route 66 in Flagstaff, Arizona. I wonder if the Starlite Motel is still there. It was always our first stop after having crossed the hot desert in the cool of the night.

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Who we are

Posted on March 27, 2013 by jwfisch

So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. John 8:57-59

b1e13c9d-5b68-3053-8814-a7de07050a10“Before Abraham was born, I am.” There He goes again, rewriting the language, messing with the tenses, breaking all the grammatical rules. Jesus is pre-existent. He precedes and surpasses time. He is the perpetual present. Before anything was, He is; after everything has been, He is. He turns language on its head.

Jesus has to break the rules because He cannot fit into our mental space. Jesus didn’t make this up; He got it from His father. God used the same trick when He talked with Moses:  Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:13-14). Uh … okay … makes perfect sense to me. f0f96f0c-e0f6-339a-8b3c-ae94e5a1cae6

This is no doubt why the Jewish leaders picked up stones to throw at Jesus. No one was allowed to speak this way — no one but God. The testimony of Jesus speaks for itself. He communicates as He can in our language, but when our language fails, He has to go outside of it, just as His father did with Moses.

There is yet a way in which this is true for us. We are who we are. Nothing to add to or take away. We are who we are as well as what we are becoming, and because of the Spirit of God within us, we are something. We are who we are and that would include the unpredictable Holy Spirit in us, showing up at the same time we show up with all our mortality — vulnerable, needy, but empowered.

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An unlikely Easter hymn

Posted on March 26, 2013 by jwfisch

And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watchingth-1
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said “All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them”
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you’ll trust him
For he’s touched your perfect body with his mind.

Spend some time with the lyrics of this song by Leonard Cohen and tell me if you don’t see a Jesus…

Who knew all about how to sail a boat including where the fish were and how to regulate the wind and the sea;
Who walked on the water;
Who was lonely;
Who is the savior of drowning people (indeed, you have to be drowning before you can even see Him);
Who will lead all who see Him into freedom;
Who was broken;
Who was forsaken;
Whose death covers all time even before the sky opened over His baptism, His transfiguration and His death, indeed before there was a sky;
Who was human, but somehow different;
Whose wisdom is wiser than the wisest man;
Who wants you to follow Him though it means believing in what you can’t see;
Who shares His own mind with those who trust Him;
Who will perfect our humanity through His death and resulting life.

Happy Easter week, and keep  your eyes and ears open to the truth which can show up anywhere.

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Palm fans

Posted on March 25, 2013 by jwfisch

thWe were out of town for Palm Sunday yesterday and attended church in a nice, Bible-believing body of Christ in a beachside community. People were friendly, the worship music was heartfelt and the sermon was entertaining and thought-provoking. The bottom line of the message was that the attention Jesus got during His triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey came basically from people who were fans of Jesus, not followers. The sermon showed in many ways how this was true and left us with the encouragement to be followers of Christ and not just fans — a good sound thought — but I left with something to be desired and it’s taken me until this morning to figure out what it was. Turns out it’s the same thing that bothers me about most evangelical preaching. I know this because I am guilty of it myself when I get an opportunity to preach.

There are unwritten rules of evangelical preaching that go something like this: Don’t ruin somebody’s Sunday. Make them feel good. Don’t give them too much to do or they might not come back. Above all, don’t expect change. Preach in such a way that people come back but stay virtually the same. People go to seminary to learn how to do this — how to wow people from Sunday to Sunday without demanding anything from them. What’s missing is what Marti would call the “So what?” of preaching.

Here’s my guess in regards to yesterday’s sermon: people who would get up on Sunday morning to get on time anywhere, much less to endure an indoor meeting in an ascetically-challenged building on a beautiful sun-drenched beachside day with their heads still throbbing from the night before, are most likely already followers. Fans would not do this. We could have gotten this fan/follower thing out of the way in the first paragraph, patted ourselves on the back for being the followers we are, and gone right on to what it means to follow Jesus in concrete, down-to-earth everyday terms, and most of that content can come directly from what Jesus told his followers to do and not do.

Here is a brief list of what just came to my mind, without citing scripture references: Don’t make money your God. Don’t take up revenge. Don’t harbor hate in your heart. Don’t judge. Choose the last place instead of the first. Return evil with good. Pay Caesar. Love God with everything you’ve got. Give your neighbor as much attention as you give yourself. Give, but don’t trumpet your giving. Tell other people about Jesus. Encourage others to become followers of Christ.

Now here’s the truth: I am failing at some level with each one of these, but at least I know what to focus on. And if I take just one of these and seek to be more like Christ in that area, I will be a better follower of Christ.

Bottom line, I didn’t need to leave church yesterday wondering if I was really a follower of Christ; I needed to leave knowing I was, and what I should be doing about that. My writing this morning is just a roundabout way of getting us all to do the same.

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Dead and gone, but wait…

Posted on March 22, 2013 by jwfisch

Easter comes early this year, but it’s never too soon for a resurrection.

thGreat things come out of resurrections. Probably the most important being the acknowledgement of God’s power. No one does resurrections but God. You don’t grimace real hard and resurrect yourself. Jesus didn’t resurrect Himself; God did. God proved He was God and that Jesus was His only begotten Son at the resurrection.

It’s the same way God proves Himself in our lives — when we become helpless and God brings us back.

“Welcome Back” is a resurrection song. It says we were lost but now we have been found; we were blind but now we see; we were dead in our sins, but now we are alive in Christ, and Christ has a better plan than sinning. He has a plan to bring good out of our lives in such a way that we, and everyone who knows us will say: “God must have done that.” Or even: “God is doing that.”

When something is dead and gone, only a resurrection will bring it back. Dead things have no power.  “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). That’s because the power of God takes over in death.

Look out your window and you can see it — buds forming on dead branches; crocuses th-1pushing up through the snow; a butterfly on the wing; a bird’s song piercing the darkness. It happens every year.

It happens every day — every day you or I meet up with the end of ourselves and the beginning of God. Every day we fall, fade out, lose or give up there’s something there. Resurrection power. Someone to pick us up, and it will be something that makes someone else say: “How did he do that?” “Where did that th-2come from?” “She’s back!” “He’s alive!” “He’s sober and in his right mind.” “She got her life back.” “He got his ministry back.”

“God must have done that.” “God must be doing that.”

Easter is coming early this year, and it’s a good thing, because we all need it badly. We always need it.th-3

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Don’t blame the mermaid

Posted on March 21, 2013 by jwfisch

We received a package yesterday from two of our reader/supporters that had me a little puzzled at first. It was accompanied by a note: “My wife Colleen and I came across this and thought of you.” Too large to be place mats, it appeared to be two linen cloths — perhaps dish towels — folded and tied together with a bow. The first one had a pattern of red and blue nautical anchors, and I thought: “Uh … okay … what is this?” and then I unfolded the other and found a picture of a sailor and a mermaid with the title “Catch of the Day.” It brought a big smile to my face.

IMG_0263 2I later showed it to Marti and she suggested I write about it. At first I didn’t see much to write about until, looking at it more carefully, I discovered some interesting details. First, it seems that she is happier than he is. He seems to be bothered by something. Then I noticed he is pointing at her. What could that mean? And finally, she has a cloud over her head that is twice as big as his.

After some thought, I have come up with this: She dives into life and finds the happy part of anything. Though she has much that troubles her (she has all that stuff going on above her head) she chooses not to let that keep her from entering into other people’s joy. She swims in a sea of trouble but comes alive when anyone is around her. It’s as if she is able to pull the smallest joy out of someone, blow it up, and give it back to them as a gift. Her thoughts don’t stay inside her head; they are constantly leading her out of herself into expression through engaging in the lives of others.

He, on the other hand, has less but more troublesome things going on in his head, and because he keeps things more to himself, they get trapped inside making him less engaged with those around him. The little bit he is able to focus on at a time troubles him to the extent that he loses focus and forgets sometimes why he is a sailor.

His finest catch is his mermaid, but she has also became his biggest problem. This is because he has used her so much as a scapegoat that he actually believes his problems are all her fault. As long as he believes this, he doesn’t have to fix anything. He needs to quit pointing and do more productive things with his hands like fishing for men. It’s what his Captain sent him sailing for in the first place.

Meanwhile, she’s going to go on diving into life, holding things only long enough to share them with someone else. She’s just giving him back what he’s unwilling to keep, and if he sees this, he will be able to pull up anchor and sail to greater things.

Thank you, Steve and Colleen for thinking of us and for what you couldn’t possibly have known was just what I needed.

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What we can learn from Francis

Posted on March 20, 2013 by jwfisch

thThe new leader of the Roman Catholic Church is a Jesuit priest. That means he is more into serving out in the world than being cloistered and apart from it, more into humility than pomp, more into frugality than lavishness. This could be good.

This comes at a time when similar movements in these directions would be good for all Christians everywhere, but especially in America, where a Christian subculture has obscured rather than advanced the gospel.

The reasons for cloistering may be different, but the result has been the same. Fear and the need for safety have fostered a circle-the-wagons posture toward the world among American Christians for at least three decades now. This has been fueled in large part by the products and services of a Christian subculture which has offered “safe” versions of education, entertainment and politics that have in effect separated Christians from the world rather than sending us into it as Christ did. For centuries monks and priests have separated themselves from public life in search of a holier, more sanctified existence. Christians have done the same thing for a safer one.

We would all do well to pay attention to this man, because we need a new sensitivity towards the world. We need an inner sanctity expressing itself in compassion rather than an outer one championed by a Christian T-shirt. We need a quiet, coming alongside witness, bolstered by the Holy Spirit, versus a pompous, power-seeking presence in the world bolstered by numbers. Christians have been in bed with political pomp and power for long enough; it’s time to get down on our hands and knees and wash some feet.

It’s time to find out what the Lord wants us to do out in the world and do it. It may be that this pope — this new Francis — can help us figure that out.

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Family fun

Posted on March 19, 2013 by jwfisch

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” Matthew 25:23

thI have an Apple software version with a rendering of a galaxy as the default desktop. I’m assuming it’s our Milky Way, as if someone could travel outside our galaxy and look back. On my screen, it’s a ring of gasses and light with a bright glow in the center. In there somewhere is our earth, traveling around our star, the sun, but there are hundreds of billions of other stars just in our galaxy alone, and if you google how many galaxies there are in the universe, you get the same answer: hundreds of billions of galaxies. And then you find this: “This is a difficult number to know for certain, since we can only see a fraction of the Universe, even with our most powerful instruments.”

Let’s review. That’s hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, and hundreds of billions of galaxies in the Universe, but that’s not all there is in our Universe because we can’t see to the end of it. In other words there are plenty of galaxies to go around if God wants to hand out some in heaven. Marti believes that she is going to inherit one to look after. In her book, there’s no sitting around on clouds playing harps in heaven.

Jesus does talk about sharing responsibility in heaven. He talks about putting us in charge of His possessions which sounds like it could mean galaxies. Marti may have something here.

Regardless of speculation, the point now is to be faithful in the little stuff. No biding time until heaven. We’ve all got jobs to do. We are servants, and it is required of a servant to be found faithful.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a lot to cover in a short amount of time. I have been faithful in some things but not in everything. I’ve got three sheets of paper I’m starting on my desk this morning. One has “Marti” on it, one has “Chandler,” and the other has “house.” I’m tracking my responsibility to my family because I believe God won’t entrust His family to me without me being faithful to mine.

The pages are filling up, but God hasn’t given any one of us more than we can handle. If it seems like more, that’s only because we need Him to fulfill it. It’s all doable in His strength. It has to be; otherwise, how would we ever be able to take on a galaxy and find it fun? Did you notice that in the verse above? Sharing in the master’s happiness is found in being put in charge of many things. Now does that sound like work, or fun? The answer will determine what we do.

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