John Fischer The Catch

[Lyrics from “Open Your Heart” by John Fischer on the album, “Still Life.”]

This is decision time. Fish or cut bait. Come down off the fence. This is the seventh game of the World Series; someone’s going to win and someone’s going to lose by the time it’s over.

You can put it off, but how long do you plan on doing that? How long have we got? What are you waiting for? Are you ready? Not yet? Okay… How about now? Are you ready now? Not yet? Okay… How about now?

If you aren’t ready now, you won’t be ready then, and then will probably be too late. Sometimes you have all the information you need to decide, you just have to do it.

You’ve been fooled from the start
Why not give in and open your heart

Can’t you see we’re close to the end
You no longer can laugh and pretend
You’ve been fooled right from the start
Why not give in and open your heart

Jesus calls you why don’t you choose
When you’ve got nothing there’s nothing to lose
If you turn away from His grace
You may never more see His face

This isn’t God being mean. It’s just that even Grace has its limits. We are in the age of Grace. God is favorably disposed. He is offering to forgive everything and welcome you into His family. But the door will close on this age – it will close quickly and permanently. You won’t know before the time, only after, and after will be too late. So are you ready now? Not yet? Okay… How about now?

Don’t go searching into the skies
He’s right here in front of your eyes
You don’t have to go very far
He will come to you right where you are

How He loves you and wants you to see
The full measure He made you to be
With his presence living inside
You will never have to live a lie

You’ve been fooled from the start
Why not give in and open your heart

God has our best interests at heart. Opening your heart to Him is to find what you’ve been searching for all along.

“From one man [God] made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’” (Acts 17:26,27)

So near and yet so far… So are you ready yet? No? If not now, when…? How about now? Are you ready now? Not yet…?

How about now?

Things like this are going on all the time. God is not only speaking through his creation, he is creating through it. Still creating. He’s whispering in the waves, growling in the thunder, singing in the trees, rustling in the grass, sculpting in the clouds and painting in the sunset. We just don’t see it or hear it except for every once in a while when we decide to think about it and look for him. The rest of creation – the natural world – sees it more readily than do we. According to the scriptures, the mountains sing and the trees of the field clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12), and the rocks – well, the rocks are always only a blasphemy away from crying out (Luke 19:40).

The rocks are in their places
The seagulls look for theirs
The flowers wait expectantly
Forgetting all their cares
The curtain clouds roll back to let you know
The show has just begun
We’re about to see the setting of the sun

I was settled in for the afternoon when I wrote this — tucked into the side of a cliff, 50 feet over the waves breaking below, and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere. It was honestly just like I wrote it here – like a show about to begin. The only things missing were the previews and the popcorn.

The sky has turned a yellow-gold
With fading signs of blue
The ocean green has turned to gray
With a shining path breaking through
A lonely seal swims by the screen
Diving just for fun
He has come to see the setting of the sun

The only thing keeping us from seeing this stuff all the time is all the other stuff that occupies our mind and emotions most of the time, robbing us of our spirit and soul. You can get there if you want. It’s just living at a deeper level all the time – or at least today.

And though the sun must set each day
And come back again
There will be a new sun soon
Whose day will never end
He’s the maker of it all
The light of everyone
Soon we’ll see the glory of the Son…
The real one

And worship is always close behind. Try it; you might be surprised what you can find.

[You can listen to “Setting of the Sun” by clicking on the “Still Life” album cover next to this Catch. While you’re at it, why don’t you just download the whole album and enjoy it on your iPod, phone or computer.]

[Continuing our celebration of the re-release of my 1973 album, “Still Life,” here are some reflections on another song.]

Sitting by the ocean with nothing to do but talk to you
Sitting here listening to the whispering waves telling me it’s true
Hiking to the top of a mountain
Drinking water from a cool clear stream
Watching the sunset and talking to God
And knowing He loves me

These simple pleasures
Are everywhere in great measure
I just open my eyes and I can see
The richest things I have are free

What can possibly be more valuable to anyone than a relationship with God? “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” said Jesus (Mark 8:36). There’s simply nothing to compare with the God factor. Lose God, and you lose your soul. Nothing is worth that price. By the same token, have it – a relationship with God – and you have everything.

I always wished I had a little cabin alone in the North Country
I’d sit there in the morning writing a song with the fire warming me
But it ain’t that hard
And it’s not that far
One look in your face and I realize
My cabin is in your eyes

Relationships are everything. We have dreams and plans and these are well and good, but they can never be the ends we seek. What we seek are relationships, and in the eyes of those we love are found everything we are seeking. Jesus said to seek the kingdom of God first, and everything else would come along. This is what this song does: it simplifies things – gets life down to its basic elements. It’s not that life is cheap; it’s that life is basically all about getting a few things right, namely your relationship with God and your relationships with others.

Everybody’s buying and trying to keep up with the cost of life
Getting paranoia when the prices annoy ya you can’t see the light
When real simple pleasures
Are everywhere in great measure
Why just open your eyes and you can see
The richest things in life are free

Well is this timely or what? Was this written 38 years ago or was it just yesterday? Remember, it’s not that life is cheap; it’s that life is full when you choose correctly.

[You can listen to “Simple Pleasures” if you click the link below. You may sample the songs even if you choose not to purchase them.]

[If you are new on the scene, I am celebrating the re-release of my 1973 landmark “Still Life” album by reflecting on the writing and lyrics of some of the songs. The album and individual songs can be downloaded to the right.]

Title cut. The song that sets the tone for the entire album. If I remember correctly, I think it came late in the game, after most of the songs were already picked. In fact, I think we were talking about how we wanted the cover to look, and one of the artists said it should resemble a still life painting. Well I heard that and immediately thought about the double meaning of “still life” as in a life that is quiet enough to notice what is important, and I knew we had something.

Still life…
We were always meant to live a still life,
But somehow we got trapped into the fast life—
The cast life—
Where everyone plays a part.

You play a part when you are being something you are not. It’s okay for actors, but not okay for the rest of us. Playing a part is less than real—less than who you are. We’re talking about stopping long enough to be real.

You lose yourself in the fast life,
In the fast pace of the rat race,
Where no one knows who you are
And nobody cares.
If there really is a God,
And He has something to say,
We would never hear it
‘Cause the noise is in the way.

I wrote this on the verge of the digital age, and nothing could be truer today, 38 years later. We’re plugged in, tuned in, text-ed out, and something seems to be running us 24/7. Our phones bling us to attention. We have different rings for different interruptions.

Still life…
We were always meant to live a still life
Where everyone can see our real life.
Be still and know who is God.

“Still” and “real” team up here to form something we can know. “Be still, and know that I am God,” said the psalmist. “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10). The important thing here is that God is knowable, but only if you quiet down everything else and stop long enough to hear.

Adam stood in the garden
And thought that no one was watching
And he was free to do whatever he pleased
No one would see
But he failed to see
That he was part of one humanity
And all who came after
Would suffer for his own selfish ways
All of their days

There’s no way Adam could have possibly had any inkling of what it was he was bringing into the world when he and Eve sinned. They were just doing their own thing as it were. That’s pretty much in keeping with our culture, which has a tendency to isolate people from each other. God forbid that we would be in a position to have to share! Everybody’s got to have everything. To each his own.

You can’t imagine that you have the right
To live your own life
Thinking you’re the only one
And no one will care what you do

When you live in an isolated way, you begin to think it doesn’t matter what you do. You become disconnected from the human race. You lose a sense of responsibility for others. This is something that is becoming more and more evident on our planet. Just look at the following taken from something Chandler wrote in his school workbook. At his young age he’s already understanding the necessity of being connected.

“How can I help our planet? There are many things and here are just a few. Stop polluting. Recycle. Pick up trash and stop littering. Prevent oil spills in the ocean. Maybe someday our planet will be better because of me.”

You don’t live alone
We are all one in the Lord
You don’t sin alone
We must all bear the same load

Actually, if we realized we don’t sin alone, we might think twice about sinning. Being a part of the whole is preventative medicine. You don’t get to go off and do whatever you want. You are part of the body of Christ.

You don’t live alone
We are all one in the Lord
You don’t sing alone
We must all sing the same chord

We are all one in the Lord. There are no solos here, only choirs – lots of people making a joyful noise together. We’re all going to be together in eternity. Might as well get used to it now.

Don’t you know that we are all together
Don’t you know that we are all together
Don’t forget that we are all together
Remember we are all together in the Lord

Don’t forget.

Today I’m thinking of my more favorite songs on “Still Life” since we’re celebrating its re-release. Take for instance “Matthew’s Blues.” I knew this was a stretch when I wrote it. I was thinking about the Gospel of Matthew and singing the blues has always been about more than just being sad. Singing the blues has also always been the truth, even if it hurts. So I’ve got a kind of reincarnated Matthew singing the blues about the kingdom of God. Matthew was the expert on the kingdom. He was always talking about the kingdom of God this… and the kingdom of God that…. I purposely wanted this song to be somewhat ambiguous. I was on my way to join a team ministry at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, and I wanted a song that would invite reflection and open the door on the things of God. I think I got one.

[Here is a very cool thing to do. Download at least this song (why not the whole album?) and play it while you follow along through the lyrics. There’s enough time between each lyrical verse to read my current notes without stopping the music. By the time you get done, if you haven’t gotten any chills along the way, you’re not paying attention.]

The world is trying to get it together,
Trying to help their fellow man;
Hoping we can make it better.
Do you really think we can?

This is a little like Paul telling the people of Athens that he noticed they were very religious. Lead with the positive. Everyone wants to make a difference with their lives.

You go to school to find the answers
And graduate finding there are none.
In our youth we fight all kinds of battles,
But in the end we’ve never won.

Idealism sooner or later faces up with reality and the limitations of well meaning people.

The history books are all against us
Destruction is upon us still.
To change you’ll have to find a way
To make a river run uphill.

Real change is always an uphill battle in any generation. When I wrote this, Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction” was still on everyone’s mind. Is it any less true today? Even more so, I think.

The people who are optimistic
Are really way behind the times.
The geniuses are all sadistic,
Just eat and drink and wait to die…
American Pie…
Whiskey and rye.

Don McLean’s “American Pie” had been out for two years. Originally written to remember the untimely deaths of Buddy Holly and Richie Valens, it quickly turned prophetic in its prediction of the death of the creative, meaningful protest music of the 1960s. One more statement of our hopelessness against the tide of world events.

But something many have forgotten:
There’s more than merely meets the eye.
A quiet kind of revolution
Is coming down on us from the sky.

God’s movements in history are unannounced and often unnoticed.

You can’t read about it in your textbook;
You can’t see it on your TV screen.
But just the same it’s all around us,
And what’s more it’s always been.

God does not need any publicity, and usually shuns it, which is one way you can tell the Christian subculture is less Christian than culture, because it has always reveled in publicity.

So if you want to know about it
There’s one book you really ought to read,
And take a walk in a virgin forest,
And let the maker let you see
The kingdom of God.
He who has ears let him hear
The kingdom of God.
He who has eyes let him see
The kingdom of God.

No need to be too persuasive here. God has always shown His stuff to those who truly want to see and hear. Are you one of those?

Matthew’s blues gonna show the news to you
Matthew’s blues gonna show the news to you

Okay Matt, do your stuff. Those Holy Spirit inspired words are still opening people’s eyes today. Can’t help but do that. It’s the word of God, man. It’s the truth. And it’s powerful.

Okay, I’m trying to be casual about this and not get caught up in nostalgia (Marti never likes it when I look back for too long), but I can’t help it: “Still Life” is back. Yes, I’m talking about the 1973 recording that launched the musical part of my career 38 years ago. (See the column at right.)

This was a magical record with lots of TLC going into every step, from concept, to arranging, to engineering, to band selection, to even packaging (the original printing was s fold out LP with all the lyrics on the inside).

My good friend and producer of the original project, Dan Collins, has been sharing memories with me, like the painstaking effort the late Clark Gassman put into getting a string section to play on the song “I’m Human.”

Clark, who arranged the album, was so committed to having the songs maintain the integrity of my playing them alone that he had me record everything first by myself and then put the band around it. This is relatively easy to do with most songs by recording to a “click track,” a sort of metronome in your headphones. The same clicks are then used later for the rest of the band so they play in sync with you.

However, “I’m Human” is a song I play completely legato – totally out of time – and Clark had to put strings over my free-form piano version. He did it by counting out the whole song with numerous time changes to incorporate my slowing down and speeding up so that the string players could play an actual timed musical score that fell in line perfectly with all my changes. In other words, he put my out-of-time to time. He organized my chaos so others could join me and it would sound like we had recorded it all together under a maestro’s direction.

You know, I think God does this with the movements of our lives. He takes all the out-of-sync moments – the seeming chaos of our existence – and writes it into time and eternity, so that the whole universe can play along, and the final production will resound as an orchestrated symphony to the glory of the Great Composer himself.

And then there was the cricket on the opening song, “Still Life,” that was actually in the studio the day I did the song’s vocals. We started to get rid of it when we realized a cricket would actually enhance the feeling on that first song, so we just left it to chirp along with me. …and so it is.

I have a black eye. There’s no damage to the eye, just dark blue blood under the surface of the skin that has drained down around the eye from a bump higher up on my head. I’ve been speaking in public for the last three days like this and I’ve had the “You should see the other guy” line ready just in case, but hardly anyone has asked me about it. Actually, the other guy was a doorknob, and the doorknob is just fine.

It all started when Chandler wanted me to carry him to his bedroom. Even though he’s 11-years-old and about 80 pounds, he still asks for me to carry him sometimes, and, as long as I can, I will. This time was a little different, however. He wanted me to carry him, carrying the Chihuahua. I figured 12 more pounds wouldn’t hurt. Whether it was the extra weight or something else, I don’t know, but I took one step with them both in my arms and my feet somehow got tied up together and down went Dad, son and Chihuahua in one big heap on the floor. The Chihuahua stood there awkwardly for the longest time (I thought he might be hurt) and then turned and walked away disgusted. It wasn’t until Chandler screamed at the goose egg on my forehead that I realized I’d even hit anything. And it was a goose egg, as if someone sliced a golf ball in half and slipped it under my skin.

Whenever I get an injury like this on a visible part of my body I immediately calculate to my next engagement and wonder how silly I will look. I actually had a trip in three days, but when the swelling was way down the next day I was relieved. Two more days and no one will know anything happened. But the second day, a black and blue spot started to form over my eye and by the time I left for my appearance in Texas, it was across my eyelid heading down the side of my eye. When I woke up to speak in chapel at LeTourneau University, it was under my eye and starting down my cheek. So much for that quick heal I hoped for.

What really surprised me was something Chandler told me when he saw the black eye forming. “You should borrow some make-up from Mama.” That he would even think of that was one thing; that he would care is another. He amazes me sometimes.

I didn’t give the make-up thing much thought until I was teaching 200 student leaders on Saturday about our tendency as leaders to cover up the things that make us human and accessible to others, and I realized I hadn’t told them about my black eye. So I told them the story and that I could have covered it up, and that we should think instead about what I gained by not covering it up. (I got a lot of laughs over the story, I became more human, I got to tell about Chandler and our Chihuahua, and everything else I said carried more credibility as a result of being honest about this.) And I think anyone would agree: we were much further down the road together toward understanding God’s grace in our lives with my black eye shining than with it covered up in make-up.

Job argued with God. Moses bargained with Him. Jacob wrestled with Him. Nehemiah changed His mind. What do these amazing stories tell us about God if it isn’t that He wants a relationship with us probably more than we want one with Him. What does it tell us about God if He is willing to be persuaded, cajoled, bargained with and wrestled? It tells us He created us like Him so we could participate in a relationship with Him that means something in terms of integrity. It’s no small thing for God to be swayed by a puny human being, but such is the wonder of His will.

The Psalmist has declared a similar wonder when he wrote, “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you have set in place—what are mortals that you should think of us? For you made us only a little lower than the angels, and you crowned us with glory and honor. You put us in charge of everything you made, giving us authority over all things—the sheep and the cattle and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents” (Psalms 8:3-8 NLT).

In other words: What’s the big deal here? We’re the big deal. Does this bring us glory? Yes, but that only brings Him more. That He would create us with this much power and authority says a lot about our Creator and what He created us for. He created us with intelligence and emotions. He created us like Him so He could relate to us and we could relate to Him. And He gave us the right to refuse Him, accept Him, argue with Him, badger Him—even tell Him to get lost if that’s what we want to do. Think about that. Even unbelief has integrity. What kind of God would create a being that might not even believe in Him? A God who wants a relationship with him when he does.

That’s why the very next verse of this Psalm reads, “O Lord, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth” (Psalm 8:9)! We are part and parcel of God’s glory. That He would do it this way—that He would create a world, people it with beings like Him, and then give them authority over that world—even the opportunity to believe Him or not—says as much about Him as it does about us. You and I are a big part of God’s glory. Imagine what we could accomplish if we really believed this!

Laura confessed that she saw yesterday’s subject line and got a little nervous. “The political entity known as the ‘Tea Party’ scares me,” she wrote. “I find more and more non-Christians figure that I’m at least a conservative Republican if not a ‘Tea Party’ booster — until I tell them I’m neither.”

It never occurred to me but of course it would be on many people’s minds. I’m sure Laura was not the only person who wondered about this. Me? I never thought about once. In fact I’m a little proud about having a tea party without any political ramifications, and not even realizing it.

It pains me to see Christians so stereotyped today. The degree to which Christians can be lumped together into one homogeneous cultural/political profile is the degree to which the gospel of Jesus Christ is being wasted on those who care more about power than service. This should not affect us, however, because we are not stereotypes, we are prototypes – seeking new ways to bring Christ to our culture

One of those ways is to have a tea party for the women without homes at the Isaiah House. It will be held on Wednesday, April 20, and we are calling it a Garden Party with teacups. And this is where you come in. We are inviting any who would like to take part in this celebration to send us a stray cup and saucer. We want every woman to receive her own mix and match cup and saucer with which to sip her tea, or plant her own small garden from the seeds we will be providing. Cups and saucers can be mailed to us at our SMMI address: 1278 Glenneyre, Laguna Beach, CA 92651.

Help us put on a tea party that is nothing more or less than just that – a tea party. Thanks in advance for your contribution.