You know what I just caught myself doing this morning? Putting down someone else’s ministry. Now how is that helping anything? It’s not. It’s only making me feel better for a while, especially when this guy is bigger than me in my eyes. So if I can bring him down, I can stand taller without doing anything. I haven’t grown at all. In fact, I’ve shrunk.
Marti and I were talking in the kitchen last night as we often do in the evening when we were interrupted by a strange noise. It forced us to stop and stare at each other for a moment. What was that sound? It seemed to be coming from everywhere. Was it the rumble of an approaching earthquake? Were the water pipes rattling again? Had a gathering of dancing squirrels decided to throw a party on our roof?
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. (Romans 12:3)
I want to draw your attention to Billy’s comment after yesterday’s Catch. It’s a good one. “We are definitely worse than we thought, and He is better than we could possibly have imagined.”
“Gee, it’s worse than I thought.”
“Yeah but the cross is bigger than I thought.”
Jim posted the observations above on our website following Tuesday’s Catch where I commented on what my sin must have looked like to me 45 years ago compared to today. The picture above was on the back of the album, Inside, where I recorded the song about “the mess I’ve made of me.” Does this picture look like a truly repentant guy? Then why does he look so smug? Just going by this picture, I’d guess he thinks his “mess” is next to nothing compared with yours.
I noticed in the comments from yesterday’s Catch that there was an overwhelming sense of wonder as to what God saw in us that was valuable enough to make us worth saving when we know how messed up we are. And that made me think again, why does God love us? Is it something in us that is somehow lovable? I think not. I don’t think that God is responding to something in us as much as He is acting out something in Himself. His own love for us. That’s why John wrote “God is love.”
Inside
A change is happening on the inside
And it makes no sense for me to hide
What I don’t want you to see
Come see
Everything that lies inside me
‘Cause amidst the mess I’ve made of me
You might see the Lord
From the song, “Inside” by John Fischer
You wouldn’t believe how arrogant I was when I wrote this song about the mess I’d made of my life. If you had asked me about that mess then, I’m sure I would have come up with a few things, but I doubt they would have added up to much of a mess in the grand scheme of things. In fact my arrogance would have been a major part of the mess, but I wouldn’t have realized it. I had indeed made a mess of my life, I just didn’t see it. In spite of the “mess” I thought I was doing pretty good. That’s why songs are so prophetic. You utter truths before you’ve had a chance to actually experience what they mean.
Chandler and I are making our way home today from Tucson, Arizona where we have been visiting this weekend with one of our Vanguard members, Mike High. Mike is a career Air Force fighter pilot and instructor, and Chandler has recently been looking into the Air Force as a possible career. We came to spend some quality time with Mike, and hear his perspective on the Air Force, and what might be the best pathway for Chandler to pursue this dream.
Well here I am late again because the subject matter of these Catches is like Nathan pointing his finger at me like he did to David, saying “You’re the one who has sinned.” I started out this Catch with a statement of sin being underrated among Christians. Well I can truly say I am in that group.
“Are not the gods just?”
“Oh, no, my child. Where would we be if they were?”
(C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces)
by Marti Fischer
There was once a time when I got distressed about the existence of evil/sin in the world and wondered why God didn’t run the world right.
There are three comments currently posted on yesterday’s Catch. There would have been four had not our good friend Robert from Seattle alerted me to the first one that is no longer there. The first one was from my wife, Marti, and she had some strong reactions to my Catch yesterday, and she let me know that in no uncertain terms. Now you have to realize this kind of ruthless banter is common in our relationship, just not something you want to make public to people who might not understand that. The thing is, when Marti clicked “Enter” on her iPhone for this scathing review, she thought she was sending it just to me. She wasn’t; she was posting her private comments on our website.
John Fischer The Catch 