Time
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Red helicopter
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by John Fischer I was helping my seven-year-old pick up his toys last night when I came upon a little red helicopter that was one of my favorite toys of his when he was younger. No batteries or bells and whistles, it only had a simple mechanism that allowed you to “fly” it by pressing on a plastic lever underneath that would make the blades rotate. If you got in the right rhythm you could keep the blades whirling continuously while you imagined you were flying it all around. This toy couldn’t have cost more than 99¢, but its playing value far exceeded that.
I hadn’t seen it in some time so I picked up the red helicopter with a bit of nostalgia as I noticed its condition. The rear propeller was gone and only half a blade remained, but I pushed the lever and found out, lo and behold, it still spun around.
Among the saddest things about kids growing up are the tender stages they leave behind, never to return. I noticed, for instance that Chandler is now saying “helicopter
” properly. That’s kind of a drag because he used to say “hepacollar,” and I liked that a lot better. Just like we used to play with this hepacollar, and now we’re kind of past that.
Something else about Chandler: he treats his toys well. He knows every one of them, and has a place for each one. This is his thing, entirely; we didn’t teach him this. That’s why I was a little surprised when I showed him the condition of the helicopter and he said he didn’t want it anymore. So I gave it one last commemorative flight with its blade whirling around unevenly, and mentioned how cool a helicopter it had been and how much fun we had had playing with it. Then I put it in the trash.
A few minutes later, he went and got it. “I want to keep it,” he said. Chandler is not one to change his mind very easily, so this had a profound impact on me.
Can you imagine what God is pulling out of the trash right now? What life, broken and uneven, can He still fly?
You don’t know what you’ve got
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How fast the mind works, especially when it imagines the worst. Any parent knows this. My wife still counts heads every time a siren goes off. And it doesn’t seem to matter how old your kids are. It still happens.
Our 28-year-old son is currently living in a room we built into the garage. Even though it is separate from the main part of the house, we see him a lot because our office and an extra bathroom are also there. Plus, he loves us and checks in often.
One morning last week when I went over to use the shower, I noticed the lights on and his bed made. That wasn’t too unusual in that he sometimes sleeps over with friends, but then he usually gives us a courtesy call. What really got me going, however, was the fact that his wallet, keys and cell phone were all in his room, and his car was parked outside where it usually is. The only thing I could figure was that he was out jogging. And then it hit me. Why was everything so neat and in order in his room? Why didn’t he come over and say good night last night like he usually does? Why did his room look like he never slept there? What if he hadn’t? That would open up the plausibility that he could have gone jogging the night before and never come back.
As soon as that thought entered my brain, I was a goner. A ru
sh of what-ifs and their accompanying emotions flooded my head. The amazing thing was how powerless I was to stop this. It was like trying to shut off a faucet stuck in the “on” position with a broken valve. I could pray, but I couldn’t stop the emotions.
I immediately had him in the hospital or the morgue with no ID. Fifteen seconds later I was planning the funeral and wondering how to get my daughter back from Colorado. She’d be too distraught to drive. And it’s amazing when this happens to you, how real it is. It seems like its really happening and the feelings seem like real emotions. All I know is that when I heard his voice talking on his cell phone later, while I was in the shower, a wave of relief came over me, and the hug I greeted him with later took him a little by surprise. I had been right to suspect a jog, and thank goodness it was a morning one.
Joni Mitchell sang, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” To which I would add, you don’t know what you’ve got until you think it’s gone. You’ve heard this before, I’m sure, but we can never hear it too often. Hug the people you love today extra hard, and tell them you are glad they are alive. Every moment we have with someone is precious. Lord, wake us up to the value of our moments together.
Temptation
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Opportunity may only knock once, but temptation bangs on your front door frequently.
“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” 1Corinthians 10:13
Prayer
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But thanks be to God…’
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by John Fischer
Well it’s certainly been an interesting week at least here at the Catch. It started out with the futility of Chandler’s and my train ride to nowhere, then the stupidity of cutting my finger twice, and finally culminated in a not so good day yesterday and the not so good counsel from those in a position of authority. So what can we conclude from all this?
Hopefully there were a lot of things learned, not the least of these being our need to walk alongside each other and experience the reality of God through our lives together regardless of what transpires. And then there was a passage of scripture that kept coming to mind that I think will be an encouraging conclusion to this week’s reflections.
“Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ,” wrote Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:12-14, “and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.”
This passage begins with nothing less than a confession. Paul reveals here that he blew a golden opportunity for the gospel (a door that the Lord had opened, no less) because he was too anxious over things not going as planned (Titus was supposed to meet him in Troas). So he left. Did you get that? It’s very important. The Lord opened a door and Paul left and went somewhere
else.
(Note: This is the same Paul who in Philippians 4:6-8 wrote: “Do not be anxious about anything [except when Titus doesn't show up as expected?], but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God [What was that you said Paul, "I had no peace of mind?"], which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Does that make you feel any better? You can teach and preach this stuff — for that matter you can even be the author of it — and not be able to always apply it to yourself.)
But in spite of this — and that conjunction “but” is the operative word here, as in, “But thanks be to God…” — God’s work through us is not lost even when we screw up. Putting that conjunction before “thanks be to God” indicates giving thanks is not what you would expect here. Indeed you would not expect to be thanking God after realizing you just blew it, but that’s precisely his point. We can thank God anyway because God’s work in and through our lives is going on in spite of us. It is ultimately what He is doing, anyway, not what we are doing, that is having an impact on people. It is His presence in our lives that is the fragrance. He leads us through everything, and that “everything” becomes a parade, or a public display, of God’s presence in our lives in and through all circumstances.
I’ve always thought it was a gloriously placed conjunction: “But thanks be to God…”
Come alongside
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Don’t these guys have anything better to do than to sit in their offices and try and figure out another way to tell us what’s wrong with us? That’s unfortunately what you get from a lot of “helpful” books and preaching — a new angle every week on what you’ve got to do to better yourself, or stop doing in order to get better. Why is it that when I seek comfort, I so often find a finger wagging in my face, so that the end result is, I feel even worse? Now I have one more thing to add to what was already wrong wi
th me. Not that any of what is taught is even wrong; it’s just that you never hear that the messenger is having any problems with the message, and so the problem must be with me. And of course everyone wants to be happier, better and more mature, so here it is. Do this and stop doing that. Follow these simple steps. This will do it.
Wouldn’t it be nice for a change if instead of a sermon we got some help, even if only a touch, an understanding ear, and no lecture (even if we did make our own bed and are now lying in it)? Mercy. Thank God for mercy. If only more people could give it out as God does.
Everyday, we can choose alternative courses of action from pointing fingers to grace-filled acts of kindness and love, and in these choices, we share the chance to change so much within our world of influence.
We do not change overnight, nor do our entrenched ideas and beliefs. Nevertheless, this online community exists to recall to our hearts and our minds that God calls us to walk alongside one another, to connect, and to trust Him to work His love through us.
States of Grace
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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Heartache
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“Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” Isaiah 30:20-21
Razor Cut
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by John Fischer
I was washing the windows when I came across a good deal of dried paint blotches. So I went out to the hardware store and picked up some single-edged razor blades—the only thing I know that will get this stuff off of windows.
Everything was going fine until about three windows into this project I pushed on the razor blade and felt a sharp pain in my index finger. In my haste I had picked up the razor wrong and I was pushing against a brand new blade with all the force of my bare finger. So I applied a band-aid, felt stupid, and went back to work. Minutes later, still berating myself for not noticing how to pick up a razor blade, I felt a sharp pain, this time in my back-up middle finger. Yep. I’d done it again! And I had done it while I was still thinking about how dumb I was to do it the first time!
Do you ever struggle like this? You’re jumping all over yourself for falling as you fall right back in? Do you ever wonder how much patience God has for this kind of stupidity?
In Romans 2:3-4, Paul says, “Don’t you think that God will judge and con
demn others for doing [wicked things] and not judge you when you do them?” Right about now you’re wondering how this is supposed to help the situation. But he goes on to say: “Don’t you realize how kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Or don’t you care? Can’t you see how kind He has been in giving you time to turn from your sin?”
Two things. Realize that God is very patient with us. He doesn’t expect instant change. He expects us to want to change and to try and change, trusting in His power in us to do it. But even then, there is a process to this. We will do stupid things. And then do them again. That doesn’t mean God leaves us or removes His love from us.
That’s where the second thing comes in. If we want God to give us a break, as it were, we have to be willing to give everyone else the same chance. You can’t receive mercy and not give it to others. That’s the one disqualification for mercy. That would be like me standing there with two fingers bandaged making fun of somebody else for hitting his thumb with a hammer… for the second time!
