Category: <span>Men</span>

The Legacy of a Father

(I originally wrote this piece in 2009 and thought I’d republish it today in honor of Father’s Day.)

I attended a funeral of a man today who passed away in his sleep last Wednesday. His five children officiated at the funeral service. Each one shared with the guests how their dad loved the Lord, their mother, them, and others deeply and sacrificially. Many tears were shed, and many joyful memories retold.

This man had five children—four boys and a girl—all of whom are happily married and walking with Jesus because of their dad’s example. Additionally, this man left 21 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren, all of whom either know Jesus or are seeing their parents demonstrate how a Christ-follower lives. His kids and their spouses all love each other and enjoy spending time with each other—a rare phenomenon these days.

The man passionately loved people. In his eleven-year tenure as credit manager of a large metropolitan hospital, he led countless patients, their loved ones, and his co-workers to living faith in Jesus Christ. As an accomplished musician and entertainer, he offered free concerts annually to benefit the hospital.

Later in life, this man became a pastor in a small rural town in Idaho (population 186). During the fourteen years he served there, he held weekly services in three nursing homes in towns nearby. He sang, preached, visited with, and prayed for the residents. His wife kept track of all those who gave their lives to Christ during those weekly visits—over 450 in fourteen years!

In that small town, he knew and called on every family. He also served the community as an emergency medical technician and volunteer fireman. Many in that town came to know Christ through this man’s life and witness. His church swelled to over 100, more than half the town’s population.

One of the most remarkable characteristics of this man was his undying love for his wife. Just a few years into their marriage, he gave up a blossoming career out of love for his wife. He never looked back, and he never held her responsible for his loss. She meant more to him than any career could possibly offer. When she contracted ovarian cancer, he set everything else aside to nurse her and keep her company.

He loved his wife faithfully, tenderly, and strongly until she passed in 1991. Even before her death, he would longingly speak of Christ’s return. And now that his wife had gone home to be with the Lord, he spoke with even greater yearning to be with the Lord and be reunited with his wife. Because this was his deepest desire, it was fitting that he passed away on the 60th anniversary of the day that he and his wife had met. What a joyous reunion and homecoming that must have been with Jesus and his wife last Wednesday!

I want to live and love largely as this man did, for he was my dad. Thank you, Dad, for being such a godly example to us kids! We love you and miss you!

For Men Only–Part 2

by Rob Fischer ·

Calling vs. vocation—for many years, I had those two mixed up. Actually, I thought my vocation was my calling. I had known from my teens that God wanted me to be a missionary. In my mid-twenties, my wife and I narrowed that “call” to Austria.

So, we worked hard, sold everything we owned in the States and moved our young family to Austria in 1982. As a man, I accepted the hardships of living abroad, learning a new language, and sharing Christ with people in this foreign land as part of our “calling.”

God was pleased to use us there to help plant two churches—no, let me rephrase that. We were privileged to watch God plant two churches while we fumbled through our life and work. We grew to love the Austrians and Austria. In fact, I was so intent on living in Austria for the rest of my life that for the past six years I had conducted my quiet time with the Lord exclusively in German. I was committed for the long-term.

Then, at the height of a growing work and ministry, God clearly led us back to the US. I was devastated. I thought I had lost my “calling,” a calling I had nurtured for two decades. If I wasn’t a missionary, I didn’t know who I was or what I was supposed to be doing.

If you haven’t personally experienced something like this, you may think I’m exaggerating, but I was emotionally crushed. I floundered, wrestling with my identity. This period lasted a full two years. (God graciously and patiently waited for me to trust Him with my “calling” during this time. I always had work and was able to provide for my family.)

Then one day, out of the blue, I was reading Acts 14. There, Paul and Barnabas were returning home to their sending church after spending a couple years on their first missionary journey. It says in Acts 14:26, that Paul and Barnabas “sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.”

And as I read that passage, I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, “Rob, you completed the work I gave you to do. Now, trust Me and move on to the next task I have for you.” I cannot adequately describe the sense of relief and joy I felt from the Lord as I heard this! That’s also when I began to grasp the difference between calling and vocation.

I realize now that our calling is to the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 1:6). Jesus calls us to Himself. He is our calling. He calls us to follow Him, imitate Him, obey Him, and become more and more like Him.

Our vocation, whether we’re a missionary, a plumber, an insurance agent, or whatever, comes under Jesus’ Lordship and His calling in our lives. This is very freeing. It doesn’t matter what our vocation is, God can use us powerfully to represent Him to others whatever we’re doing.

Also, in this regard, there is no higher calling than to be a child of God. This means that there is no hierarchy of vocations in God’s Kingdom. Being a pastor or missionary is no more noble than being an electrician or an accountant or any other vocation. This also underscores what I said in the previous blog post: we get our identity in Christ, not in our vocation.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” (Colossians 3:23)

For Men Only–Part 1

by Rob Fischer ·

As men, we tend to get our sense of worth from our achievements and accomplishments. We hope to find meaning in life from our work. But all too often, we get stuck in a job that we either hate or just tolerate. When that happens, we look for meaning in other places like a hobby, a recreational activity, or worse yet—something harmful.

I’ve known men who go through the workweek like robots. Then on the weekend they come alive at the lake, or playing a sport, running, or participating in some other activity. That replacement activity may even be noble.

We may look for a sense of worth in serving on the board of some non-profit or by volunteering at our church or other humanitarian organization.

Regardless of the focus, however, the idea that we should get our sense of worth by what we do or accomplish is misplaced. There are many things wrong with relying on our achievements for self-worth:

When is enough, enough?
Who’s the judge of what’s good enough?
How do we really know what constitutes a satisfactory or great achievement?
By what measure are we gauging our accomplishments?
We sacrifice other important things (like family) in order to meet our goals.
An accomplishment-based system flies in the face of the Gospel and our relationship with God.
Achievement-based living is a non-relational approach to life.

In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus told a very interesting parable that gets at the root of what I’m talking about. It’s the parable of the sheep and goats. He begins the parable:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Jesus then addresses both groups, starting with the sheep on His right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” Then, He lists all the noble things they’ve done in serving Him and others.

But the “sheep” are puzzled by this and ask, “Lord, when did we do all those things?” And Jesus replies, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me.”

Then, Jesus turns to the “goats” on His left, “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” And again, He lists all the things the “goats” did not do. As before, the goats are puzzled by this and ask, “Lord, when did we not do those things?” To which Jesus replies, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.”

Now, you might be thinking, “That sure sounds like reward for accomplishment to me!” But here’s the key: Jesus separated them by their identity before He commended or chastised them for their actions. Sheep are sheep and goats are goats. Jesus separated them by who they were, not what they had done.

This is strengthened by the fact that neither the sheep nor the goats were aware of their actions. The reason for this again goes back to their identity, because sheep do “sheep things,” and goats do “goat things.”

The point of all this is that we need to find our sense of worth in our identity, not in our achievements. Who are we? “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And this is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)

If you’ve placed your faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross for you, then you are a child of God. That’s your identity. Can there be any greater sense of worth than being a child of Almighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists?

Stay tuned for Part 2…

Men

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