Life By The Spirit

October 17, 2013 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

In the coming days I will explore what I think it means to live by the Spirit. In the Book of Galatians the apostle Paul is writing to the people in Galatia about how to live a Spirit filled life. Because God has blessed each of us with free will, we all have a choice regarding how we are going to live our life. What attitude are we going to have? What perspective are we going to take, a positive one or a negative one? Nobody else can decide these things for us unless we allow them too…that happens to be a struggle for many of us. We let the words and actions of others dictate how we feel and act. When we meet with God daily and begin to seek life in a new way and let the Holy Spirit flow through us the results can be transforming. In the picture above what would life be like if you decided to go through that opening…….?

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

I will be back tomorrow to discuss the first fruit…Love.

Peace.

What is it about Time?

October 6, 2013 / mcalcagno / Leave a comment

What time does it start? What time does it end? Is it time to go? What time are we meeting them? How long will it last? Do you know what time it is? We are constantly focused on Time…In the beginning God only spoke of two times, day and night and it was good.

When we came into this world as infants we didn’t wait to be born until a certain time…we weren’t regulated by the numbers on a clock for anything in life, as a parent of two I believe I can say no infant cares about the time on the clock. During life the world begins to impose its will of Time on us. “We are trying to get him on a normal sleep schedule”…”He should be walking by now”… as we grow we start to have a ‘schedule’ or ‘routine’ to follow. The human race has been very specific about when everything should happen in your life. Then as we age into the late stages of life the details of Time and the pressure of the schedule begin to fade away slowly until we are on our last few breaths and once again we are not concerned about what Time it is…

So when we are physically closest to God at birth and death we seem to have very little need to be so stressed about Time, then why do we choose to let the world dictate what Time we should be there and when we need to be here? Don’t get me wrong I don’t expect the world to live in chaos, completely unstructured. Take a moment to think about our world though, every new thing created by humans is designed to save you time! Why? What are we saving it for…to fit more stuff into a schedule that is already overflowing with commitments and promises we can barely keep up with now?

When is it time to slow down? When will we choose to be present in life and not focused on what’s next? I always love a huge snowstorm…why? Because the world gets really quite…and several ‘activities’ on the schedule get cancelled. Then you get to sit and just spend time with whomever you are with at the time and the world finally seems peaceful if only for a moment.

The Bible has plenty to say about Time…you can find great information in the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. One of my favorite verses in this book is this…

“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them’…”

Ecclesiastes 12:1

This verse is one of the reasons I want to spend so much time working with the youth in our church…the earlier in life we have a firm foundation of faith the more “Time” we have to live out God’s plan for our life.

Peace.

Faith Is a Journey

October 2, 2013October 2, 2013 / mcalcagno / 2 Comments

Even when we feel like asking like a child “Are we there yet?” …we need to continue on the journey of faith. Just like going on a trip you will have highs and lows, sweet surprises and unfortunate disappointments. You will encounter unexpected events as well as amazing grace. The title of this blog explains my perspective of the journey. Remember to “Take Your Faith With You” wherever you go.

Think about when you are going to take a trip…do you plan and gather resources? Typically you pack a bag, at least one. Sometimes people make a checklist to be sure they have everything and sometimes people just grab a few things and head out. Do you bring a map or I guess now it would be a GPS capable device as a guide? When you are on the trip do you spend time regretting not taking a turn or trying to change something that didn’t go well on the trip? Or do you continue to press on…knowing that things will be ok, looking for ways to improve yourself and your decision making in order to have a better experience for yourself as well as others with you on the trip. Do you find that when you are lost or not sure where to go that the map/GPS is helpful in guiding you to a better situation?

For me every day is another day on the journey to discover more about and engage in faith with life. I start by consulting the guide book or spiritual GPS called the Bible. For any thoughts of worry or concern I offer them up to God in prayer, this helps me remember to keep a positive perspective on the events in my day…it reduces stress, frustration, etc…I also pray to help me see his work in the world and to bless every interaction with others in my day. Just stating such a prayer each morning helps me remember God throughout the day. When others share good news or bad news I praise God either for the blessings of the good news or for wisdom to see what he wants us to learn from the bad news.

Through it all, as a human, I stumble and sometimes I fall down completely…I still get mad, I still feel frustrated and I still feel sadness at times…I am not a robot. We all still have all of our emotions…the difference is how we choose to respond to those feelings and emotions and whether or not we share those feelings and emotions with God. After all, he created us…he knows us better than we could ever imagine. The hard part is learning to trust him more and more and including him in your daily walk for every situation good or bad.

The more I have engaged in this behavior the more I am amazed how he guides me to do more for others and how wonderful you feel when you really stop focusing on how everything affects me or makes me feel. The focus on self alone is the work of evil and will keep you from God…he created each of us for far more than we could know and the only path to discovering that is to walk with him to ask him questions, to speak with him. To take direction from the spiritual GPS…here is a good instruction to start with…

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be people of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.”

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

After that start reading everyday…the book of Proverbs is a great place to start in the Old Testament. I pray that each day we all can work on inviting and trusting God to guide us and be with us every step on our journey to the life everlasting. Amen