When I was a young teenager my uncle came out and told us he was gay. I remember some shock from family, but I don’t remember too much overall. There were no mass hysterics(at least not visibly amongst us kids) and he certainly wasn’t ostracized. In essence, nothing really changed inside the family dynamic. The foundation of love still existed. Years later at 19 years old I took a job as an intern at Bayer Diagnostics working with my dad. Not long before that my uncle had been diagnosed with lung cancer after smoking most of his life. He lived fairly close, and having worked there himself at one point, would come down often to visit former friends and co-workers. I spent quite a few lunch breaks walking to the local pizza shop with him and my dad, hanging out and just chatting. That summer means a lot to me. … [Read More]
Posts Tagged ‘change’
Jubilee
June 18th, 2011 
Dana Fisher Creation sees you and starts composing -Michael Gungor As I relaxed on the second floor porch letting the warm breeze rush across my face I watched dark thunderstorms roll over the rockies. Chris was out there with me casually smoking a cigarette, as we somehow began reminiscing about when we were younger. “Remember when we used to catch frogs?” he said after a few back and forth memories going through the years in chronological order. I hadn’t thought about it in so long as a rush of memories came flooding back into the plains of my mind. Bogs and woods, staying out past dark building forts in the most dangerous of trees. I’ll never figure out how one of us or our friends weren’t horribly hurt falling 30 feet out of some tree fort built with old scraps of wood we found behind houses. Not far from our childhood house… [Read More]
Posted in Justice, Politics 
Tags: America, change, creation, cross, God, heart, homelessness, life, lion, Michael Gungor, sin, war 
No Comments »Through a Child’s eyes
April 21st, 2011 Dana Fisher Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ~Matthew 18:3 I got a note from my sister several weeks ago, posted to facebook, that said my nephew had prayed and asked Jesus into his heart. He’s 3. My sister figured he wouldn’t remember but later that night while praying before bed he prayed “thank you Jesus for coming into my heart, I love you God”. Several weeks before, I was visiting my brother in law who is going through some deep struggles of his own. Old Dana would have written him off. Angry and bitter, determined to let someone else’s problems be their own, I would have pulled the knowledge card. I know better, I’d never let myself get there, you deal with it. But when it all happened, as each new detail was revealed, I tried to… [Read More]
Posted in Mercy, Radical Christianity Tags: believer, bible, brother, change, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Community, compassion, desire, God, grace, heart, heaven, Jesus, joy, kingdom, kingdom of God, life, love, Matthew, pray, prayed, praying, radical christian, radical christianity, revenge, struggle, war, weakness No Comments »Hey Rob, I gave Love Wins away
March 29th, 2011 Dana Fisher I gave your book away. With all the controversy surrounding Love Wins, rather than take someones word for it I wanted to read it for myself. So when it was finally released, I ordered myself a copy and had it shipped out. It arrived just in time for a plane ride to Boston and I read half of it on the way there Friday night. Early Tuesday morning I boarded my plane back to Denver. Exhausted from a whirlwind weekend of visiting friends, family, and a missions trip presentation, I plopped into my window seat ready for a 4hr nap. But sometimes that isn’t what the Lord has for us. About a half hour into the flight they moved a lady into the empty seat next to me because her tv didn’t work. With my eyes closed and head resting against the wall of the plane I ignored it and… [Read More]
Waiting by the Pool
March 8th, 2011 Dana Fisher When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” – John 5:6 Community and missions are viewed differently out here in Colorado than it was back home. They had a missions day at church a few weeks back and no less than 12-15 different non-profit organizations lined the foyer. Many overlapped with each other, tackling the same issue and others had multiple goals(helping homeless, tutoring kids, and community renovation all wrapped in to one). I was stunned by how many opportunities there were and how many people were actively signing up on the sheets at each table. I’ve also spoke with 3 different people about helping them set up their nonprofits from human trafficking to a needs based website linking those with extra with those who need. All of this has… [Read More]
Why I love Buddha
March 6th, 2011 Dana Fisher Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. -1 Peter 4:8 A few years ago, me and Dave would grab coffee in downtown Quincy after serving meals at the Crisis Center and just talk about controversial topics in Christianity: war, soldiers, guns, world religions, etc… Having grown up together, we could do this with civility even with opposing views because we loved each other regardless. Our differing views didn’t prevent either of us from going to heaven, we weren’t debating whether Jesus was just a man, but merely things with which many a Christian struggles to define. He had already known where I was coming from, both growing up in similar church surroundings(and sometimes the same one), and I wanted to understand better where he was coming from. The ideas he was throwing at me were strange, yet sounded and felt right in my… [Read More]
Jesus Creed
February 23rd, 2011 Dana Fisher This was originally authored by John Shorack and posted by a friend of mine, Tim Colegrove on his blog site Tanks to Tractors. I couldn’t help but repost again. Manifesto We confess that Jesus is Lord, the full revelation of the God of the Old Testament and that before Him every knee will bow. We confess that Jesus is Christ, Israel’s Messiah, and Savior of the world who conquered the power of evil on the cross. We agree with Jesus’ call to undivided allegiance to God: “No one can serve two masters…” (Matt 6:24), and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…and your neighbor as yourself.” We also reaffirm that: “God so loved the world…” and has sent us with that love to society’s outcasts and our country’s enemies. Like Jesus, we must say ‘yes’ to the kingdom of God, and ‘no’ to all allegiances that compromise the furthering of… [Read More]
Posted in Non-Violent Resistance, Prayers Tags: America, Broken Stones, change, Christ, Christian, christians, church, cross, death, evil, forgiveness, God, heart, Holy, Holy Spirit, israel, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, kingdom, kingdom of God, life, Lord, love, messiah, old testament, peace, power, Repent, resurrection, revelation, satan, Savior, sin, sinner, Spirit, violence, war, witness No Comments »Wielding your Knife
November 10th, 2010 Dana Fisher Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ~Genesis 22:10 As I made my way through customs on U.S. soil I knew the attacks would be coming swiftly. No sooner do we come down off the mountain with Jesus then the wave of doubt and destruction and hardships come crashing against us like the ocean hitting the sea wall. Sure enough, I set my bags in the car, sat down in the passenger seat and it began. I would be headed to Denver soon, uprooting my entire life, leaving my friends, family, and church behind. Most of my possessions would be gone and I would be traveling with only what would fit in two cars. It was not an easy decision by any means and one with which I wrestled for a very long time(and even still struggle with even after the fact). It… [Read More]
Lausanne Movement – Fresh Perspective
October 29th, 2010 Dana Fisher As the Cape Town 2010 Congress wrapped up I got to spend my last full day there doing some site seeing with the group that came down from Elmbrook church in Brookfield, WI. One of them, Dave, was my roommate and invited me along for the day. They rented a tour bus, complete with a guide and decided to go to the Cape of Good Hope. Our tour guide was amazing and recommended a loop which consisted of Simon’s Town to visit the African Penguins, Cape Point, Hout Bay, and the Twelve Apostles. For 13 days we had basically lived in the conference center, working tirelessly from roughly 8am to 12am every day. Everyone had expressed how beautiful Cape Town was but from our perspective we had only seen the inside of a building and it didn’t seem all that impressive. Our day off completely changed that as we wound… [Read More]
the fog
October 1st, 2010 dave fogs seem to go on forever. sometimes it’s nearly impossible to see one foot in front of you, and you certainly can’t see a destination on the horizon. that pretty much sums up where I have been over the last 2 weeks. it seems that i have allowed responsibilities (failed and forthcoming) to overwhelm me. this may come as a result of the fact that i am a (self-proclaimed) dreamer (jen would probably affirm this). i spend a lot of time with my head in the clouds, envisioning where we will be someday down the road, but it seems that I live my day to day life with zero visibility. i spend so much time thinking about how things should be or how I could help make things better, that i neglect the little things that would allow me to faithfully lead my family. my prayer, as of late, has… [Read More]
Posted in Christian Living Tags: change, faith, faithful, God, life, light, pray, prayer, revelation, sin No Comments »
