Meet My Friend… Jack

In 1979, a young man named Jack Fischer came to hear me speak at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa. Jack was a nationally-ranked gymnast who was training for the 1980 Olympics. After my message, we met and talked (it was exciting to spend time with an aspiring Olympian)! However, just a month later, he broke his neck while practicing a dismount off the parallel bars. He would be a quadriplegic for life. Thankfully, Jack grabbed hold of the biblical insights I had shared that night at Calvary Chapel – plus, he went back to college, got his degree, and has been teaching school locally. Jack recently retired… and is now a volunteer at Joni and Friends (I couldn’t be more thrilled)!

Some may look at Jack and wonder if God gave him too heavy a cross to bear. But one writer answered this way: “The cross God sends is a cross that He understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for the person to whom He has given it.” That’s true for you, too :-). So was God being fair in allowing Jack’s accident? Especially on the brink of this young man’s Olympic dream? A good answer is found in 2 Thessalonians 1:5: “All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.” Something to remember if your cross feels a little heavy today :-).