relationship to God

We All Have A Choice

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

Image

We All Have A Choice

Which way to go?  What is the right path?  What if this or that happens?  Maybe I should wait to decide?  Life is full of choices each and every day.  From many experiences in my life I am beginning to learn to ask different questions like…What is God up to in my life?  or  How does God want to use me today?

I usually run into trouble when I start thinking too much about a decision on my own and I have been a slow learner when it comes to “consult God first and leave it in his hands”.  What I have found is life decisions seem to be easier when I look to God first and ask for wisdom and guidance regarding a situation rather than try to process every “If then” and “What if” I can think of on my own.

I can’t stop thinking about what the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:10 “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, than I am strong”.

To me that says when I rely on God first, when I surrender to his will and not my own, that is when I can be at my best in this world.

In life it all comes down to this….we all have a choice on how we are going to live our lives…are we going to consult the Creator?  The one who made us, who loves us no matter what?  Or are we going to continue to stumble along the path of the fallen world and live writhing in sin without regard for what God intended for us?  (Been there done that)

We all have been given the same thing…..life and some amount of time to live it…what we choose to do with it is up to us.

May God’s peace be with you.

Living In The Present

/ mcalcagno / 2 Comments

Image

Living in the Present.  What does that mean?  I think it begins with making sure you are “present” in whatever you are doing.

To me, being “present” means focused attention.  The world is filled with distractions and when we choose to allow those distractions to take our attention away from everything else by trying to change the past or worrying too much about the future we end up missing what is right in front of us…..the beauty of creation, a child smiling and laughing or a child who needs help, a friend who encourages us or a stranger who we should pray for.  We should stop replaying what happened yesterday or what might occur tomorrow in our minds and live today to the fullest.

So how do we get there?

Answer….The Word of God.

I have struggled for many years concerned about what I should have said in a previous conversation or worrying about how I would handle things in a future interaction.  I would beat myself up for not doing something or worry constantly about what was to come…..as if I really was the one in control of such things. 

Then during a difficult time in our life financially, about 3-4 years ago, I was really down about the way things were going and when I thought they were just about to drop off a cliff completely…we were saved by the Grace of God.  My wife and I had completed all the paperwork to file for bankruptcy and left it with a lawyer…..we thought this was our only option…we thought we might lose our home we really didn’t know how things would turn out…meanwhile I had been looking for work.  One promising position was progressing well and they needed to complete the background check……if that report showed a bankruptcy I would not get the job….a few days had passed since we left the attorney’s office.  I figured I would call the lawyer to see if by chance he had not yet filed the papers, I figured there was no chance….and then God stepped in…..I called and asked “have you filed our papers with the court?”, he responded… “No not yet”……..oh my goodness, I couldn’t believe it.  I immediately put a stop to the process and I got the job and we have been working our way to the best financial position we have ever been in.  After that phone call and seeing the grace of God in our life, I decided I needed to start dedicating some time every morning to devotions and the Bible…..my reasoning, if I have time to read the newspaper I better have time to spend with God every day.

This was something I needed to commit to priority wise so I bought a Billy Graham devotional book and put it with my devotional bible I received from my parents 16 years prior and I began reading and praying for a few minutes every day I could.  This time has become something I look forward to each day…it sets my mind and thoughts up with an encouraging perspective, mindful of how God wants us to think and act and the more I stay focused on that the more peace and contentment I find in life.

For me, the hardest part and the biggest obstacle in becoming a man of faith has been ME!  Once I confess to God that I am only human, I am a sinner and I trust him because as it says in the gospel of John 3:16….For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  After reading so many different parts of the Bible about God’s grace, God’s love and God’s mercy I am so thankful for all that he has done for me that I have to do my best to live for Him.

Peace.

Music, Faith and Focus

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

Image

One of the most important tools I use to keep my faith top of mind most often is music.  Faith based music provides an encouraging and uplifting way to focus on the messages of faith.  As I have stated in earlier posts, around Christmas of 1998 I was looking for something different on the radio and I came across a Christian radio station that was playing faith based Christmas music.  It was during the Christmas season that year that I began a transformation.

I didn’t know it at that time but God was definitely beginning to chisel away the old me who was only concerned with where I was working, how much money I was making, what others could do to help me, etc.  I was like many people focused more on self and less on God.  It is so easy to do…..the world we live in constantly encourages us to only be concerned about me, myself and I.  Even after Christmas I continued to listen to this station.  I had thoughts like “what would this person think if they knew what I was listening to?”  As I enjoyed the hymns on the radio in the car to and from work I heard artists like Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman and BeBe and CeCe Winans.  They sang songs with messages from the Bible.  Some top songs from that time were:

Angels – by Amy Grant

The Throne – by Michael W. Smith

More To This Life – by Steven Curtis Chapman

Heaven – BeBe and CeCe Winans

I really began to enjoy hearing these messages every day.  I have continued to listen to the same station everywhere I can for the last 15 years.  I always have it on in my office, in my car and at home (whenever the kids don’t have the radio control).  The kids know many Christian songs and call the station Dad’s radio station.  At some point, I don’t know when, my wife started listening daily.  The impact this constant reminder has had in my life and in the life of my family is immeasurable.

The enemy uses so many resources in this world to distract us from God and God’s plan for our lives through other music, TV, movies and news that we all need something to bring us back to God.  I was just thinking at church recently ‘I remember when I would only spend about an hour a week focusing on God in worship’…..I imagine my life would be very different today if I was still only giving God about an hour a week.  That means I would be spending way too much time worrying about things I can’t control, working too much trying to climb the corporate ladder, feeling rejected and dejected when things didn’t go my way.

Hearing the messages of faith through Christian music every day for me has been an essential way to stay focused on what really matters…..how I treat others and how I can serve God in our community.  I encourage you to find your source of inspiration to stay focused on God each day.  It will probably be trying something new but give it a shot and see what God has planned for you.

Peace to you.

Mission Trip Day 7 – Meet A Need

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

If you read about or see people working in ministry in some way and wonder “what can I do?”…there are several different types of organizations all over the world that work to help others.  Every city has multiple organizations that work towards helping the hungry or homeless or those with addictions or tutoring for students, etc.  The key to figuring out what to do is ask God to help you identify or guide you to the gifts/talents he has blessed you with.

We can never forget that God created each and everyone of us with certian gifts and if we are paying attention we can learn what those gifts are and use them to help others in some way.  Even if you have never done anything before or you think “well I don’t have anything to offer.” It is just not true because God did provide you gifts to use in this world that will help others and the only way to know exactly what those are is to try new things and see how they fit who you are.

So go ahead…think about the things you enjoying doing and look for an organization that needs volunteers in that speciality.

The most important lessoned I have learned this week is this…..I have been blessed by God and all he needs me to do is go out and try to Meet A Need in our world based on the gifts he gave me!

How great is our God?!