WZFISHER

Many people have commented how much I look like my dad. If he were here today, he and I would listen to you. Then we would find a moment alone. And he would say to me, "If you can't find anything nice to say…". Dad loved to tell jokes. He had great timing. The Lord has timing, too. He has a time and a season for everything. Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us of this fact. God has His timing and it is perfect. May not be *our* timing. We schedule things as if they might happen. God schedules things and they must happen. No other plan can hasten, nor scheme can alter or delay His purpose. We are safe in the timing of the Lord.  On April 16, 2020, God's perfect timing saw fit for our friend and pastor, my Dad, Bill Fisher to enter into his glorious inheritance in Christ Jesus. Just three months shy of his 73rd birthday. He passed in a year no one planned for -- a year when loss and grief seemed to swallow up the whole world. Dad's passing might have been just another drop in

Dear anxious soul, Yesterday was my first full day out of COVID quarantine. It did not go as planned. Somehow I got it in my mind this momentous day would be a complete return to normal. No symptoms. No headaches, dizziness, fatigue, coughing, etc. I was wrong. My first day out was not the first day feeling 100%.  And that's OK. What is NOT OK is having a restless night like I had last night. It’s making today tough. Ugh.  My first mistake was I forgot to take some sleep medicine. Then I was startled awake less than two hours later by a severely congested nose. My body was nice enough to use electro-shock paddles so it could give me its thoughts on suffocating. Yet I remained surprisingly calm. I’ve been here before. I successfully talked myself out of an anxiety cycle (win!) and then used my Netipot before climbing back into bed. This was mistake number two.  I rolled over and it started happening, Drainage like you wouldn't believe. Constant. I told myself it was just left ov

"And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go again,” seven times. 44 And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea.” - 1 Kings 18:43-44 You think you know a room.  It’s been a part of your house since you moved in. You could easily describe it over the phone. A few doors. Couple windows. Rectangular here. Angular there. One color, then another. Furniture. Television. Typical.  But spend almost two weeks in it. Stuck in a stack of convalescence. Nowhere else to go. Eat there. Sleep there. Pray there. Struggle there. Walk its perimeter in the late hours. Longing for escape.  Over time, things begin to stand out. Features surprise. Paint is a different texture here. Blemished there. A scratch that only appears when the sunlight hits a certain way. This door frame is actually bigger than the other one. Noises emerge from what seemed silent.

"The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” - Exodus 33:14 It's early morning. The sun is not even out yet. And I cannot sleep. Too scared. I dozed off for a cat nap and awoke with my typical dry cough but with a new sensation in my chest. Almost burning. Great.  All I could think was, "this is how the end begins". Here is proof my lungs are getting hit hard and I will develop double pneumonia and die. The resulting anxiety left me shivering and wondering. Is this normal? Is this my new normal? Deep breaths. In 4 through the nose. Out 7 through the mouth. Just like I did on all those turbulent airplanes. All of which landed, by the way. The spell has passed. Fluids helped. Pacing did too. Back to the cat naps.  By the time the sun was mid-sky, I learned a few other dear friends tested positive, while others were on the up side of their journey. Someone else got double pneumonia and was put on a ventilator. Though theirs wasn't COV

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. Psalm 139: 7-8; 11-12 The doctor tells me I'm positive. Then he gives me every reason to be positive. "You're young and healthy", he points out. Another highly-decorated medical professional assures me the odds are ever in my favor. Right after she enumerates a medicinal protocol based on the latest research from peer-reviewed sources and established authorities. And then there are all the friends and friend-of-friends who beat it and shouted it out on Facebook. All signs point to a simple fact: I can get over COVID-19. But what the hell do they know? I'm the guy who did everything he could to avoid catching this stuff. I worke