“Jesus said, ‘No doubt you will quote this proverb to me, “Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” No prophet is welcome in his own hometown’” (Luke 4:24).
John Fogerty’s group Creedence Clearwater Revival is unforgettable to anyone who has owned a radio in the last 50 years. Once, in an interview with Dan Rather, Fogerty was remembering a key moment in their formative years.
The group was one of many bands to perform at a particular event. As the final group to warm up, and thus the first band to appear on stage, suddenly CCR found they had been unplugged. John Fogerty yelled to the sound man to plug them back up, that they weren’t through. The technician did so reluctantly, then added, “You not going anywhere anyway, man.” Fogerty said, “Okay. Give me one year. I’ll show you.”
One year later, the group was so hot with hit record after hit record (“Proud Mary,” “Born on the Bayou,” “Bad Moon Rising”) that “we were too big to play in that place any more!”
Turning sarcastic putdowns into a healthy sic ’em!
I was 25 and the newly called pastor of a church on Alligator Bayou some 25 miles west of New Orleans. I was in my first year of seminary. The church ran forty in attendance, just as it had done for the two decades of its existence.
Sunday morning, I’m standing outside the front door shaking hands as worshipers exit the building. Behind us, just emerging through the doors, two men were talking. They had no idea I could heard them. One said, “Well, this little church is doing about all it’s ever going to do.”
The other fellow agreed. But it was like a spark to my powder keg. Everything inside me said, “We’ll show you!”