A generous spirit makes life meaninful

She came up to receive her award and said thank you to me. I almost fell over as I looked into her eyes. This little girl had given her life savings to go to the food pantry at our church. She had been saving her pennies over the last two years so she could get something special. When the walk-a-thon came up for our pantry, she decided this was going to be her special thing. So she handed over $50 in coins to feed the hungry.

(The kids from Wild wood Christian Academy raised over $1400 for our pantry.)

We can all learn something from her. Jesus once said, "Where your treasure is, that is where your heart is." At a very young age she learned that sharing with others can bring the greatest joy. This is a young woman who will be very happy in life.

Too often we get caught up in the consumer mentality that has taken hold of our country. We want this or that and we keep buying new toys. Unfortunately, we soon find we are never satisfied. The more we have, the more we want. I think this is what Jesus was talking about when he mentioned moths and rust. We stockpile our toys but never find total satisfaction.

Yet, when I look at the happiest people I know, they are the ones who live the simplest lives. They give away more than they keep. They invest themselves in the people that they love. They find their joy in serving others. Maybe Jesus was right. Maybe we should look to the children, especially this young lady, to find our way.

God bless her. May we all be as happy as her.

Cal

A song for each generation

I am working on Sunday's service and I came across this video on God tube. It made me think about what I was preaching on Sunday. My message is entitled, "You Are Not An Accident!" and the point I will be making is that God created each of us with a purpose.

When I came across this piece it made me stop and think about some of the music that the kids are listening to and asking for in church. I went to the Hillsong Church when I was in Australia and some of the music is pretty loud and rowdy. The kids there loved it. They were jumping around and singing and praising God. It was a far cry from what we see when we sing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus!"

I have some friends who are really down on Christian rock and even have problems with some of the upbeat contemporary choruses. Maybe we all need to rethink our positions on this music and the people who embrace it. I don't think it is an accident that God put a song in these artist's heart. God is timeless and he has his ways to speak to each generation.

Tonight some members of our congregation went to see Bill Gaither and his band in concert at the XL Center. I remember 25 years ago there were some in my congregation in Rhode Island who thought the Gaithers were too radical. Can you imagine that?

So listen to this song and you tell me. Is she called or not? I think she is and she has a message for the young people in her music.

Cal

Give them an example to follow

This marks my 400th post on Dancing with God so I thought I would go a little lighter. Each week in church we pause for a few minutes to talk with the children about God in worship. We invite them to come down front and I ask them a few questions and then share a little story that reflects God's love.

Sometimes you wonder if they are listening or if they really get anything out of it. Well this cute video suggests that some of them do.



The truth is that children watch us and learn from us. It isn't so much what we say, but rather what we do. That makes it all the more important to be loving, caring people who reach out and share the Gospel in tangible ways. That will make a much greater impact on our children than just telling them to be good and to love God and their neighbors.

Cal

Wait til next year

Tonight I have to face the fact that my Detroit Tigers have suffered through a terrible season. They are tied for last place in the American League Central Division. The Baseball writers will debate all winter long what went wrong with the team with the third highest payroll in baseball, the team that was declared by many of them as the best team to ever put on a Detroit Tiger uniform last April.

They started the season with an 0 -7 record and got a little better by the end of April. But they never seriously moved beyond the .500 mark all summer long. They showed flashes of brilliance at times. Then they settled back into a pathetic display of either poor pitching or a lack of timely hitting. Mercifully the 2008 season is coming to an end and the team is limping up to the finish line.

I am so glad that this season will soon be over. Do you know why? Because once we close out the final game it will be forever behind us. It will be done... finished.... kaput... over! nothing else can be done to improve or take away from it. And almost immediately we can begin to talk about next year.

When we talk about next year we can begin to dream and hope again. The losses that piled up in the past do not count against us any more. They have been expunged and forgiven in light of the dawning of a brand new season.

It's a lot like the sense of forgiveness we get when we accept Christ and are born again. It no longer matters what we did in the past. It can't drag us down any more. It is a brand new day. It is an opportunity to start all over and to do better. Hope springs eternal. Anything is possible.

Don't think so? Just ask any Boston Red Sox fan. With two World Series Championships in the last four years and another one within reach, they know better than anyone else that the ghosts of the past have no claim over you when you put your hopes in the future.

so dream on and walk with Christ and enjoy the hope of a brand new season.

Cal

Behind the scenes

I watched the movie "For One More Day" tonight and was forced to think about reality as we know and experience it. The main character in the movie lived his whole life with certain suppositions and understandings of the way things happened to him and his family. Yet as things converge in an unexpected tragedy, he begins to gain new insights into what was really going on. There were things he never knew and never suspected that were happening and he was protected from the truth by those who loved him.

I was reminded of my own beliefs as a twenty year old. My parents were divorced when I was ten years old. For ten years I tended to blame my father for the break up. I wasn't hostile. I just let him know in subtle ways how I disapproved of divorce and felt he could have done something to prevent it.

At twenty years old my father figured I was probably old enough to hear the truth. He began by telling me how much he wanted to stay married and the great lengths that he went to try and keep the marriage alive. Then he shared stories of my mother's alcoholism and the self destructive patterns that she engaged in and even threatened my brother and I with. A whole new picture of my young life began to emerge as I realized that he was sharing truth that I had been shielded from.

This also applies to the circumstances of life and God's role in things. Too often we view calamities as God's doing. Whenever something goes wrong from the devastation of a hurricane to the tragedy of a terrorist act we ask why God allowed it to happen. Or sometimes we even ask why God did this to us. Yet, these questions only come up because we don't know everything. The truth is that God is involved in these terrible events, but not the way we think. He is the one who picks up the pieces. He is the one who mobilizes an army of volunteers to reach out in love. He is the one who shields those who do make it through. Only when we look at it through the eyes of a mature faith do we begin to see things more clearly.

Praise God. For he is there when we need him. He is the faithful one.

Cal

Showing you care

This morning at church we celebrated the special ministry that Doris and Ricardo Mayol have with the Mayans in southern Mexico. As Doris talked at the World Mission Conference yesterday, she told us that the first thing the missionaries try to do as they go into a community is to learn all they can about the people.

Doris said that before the people will begin to trust you and listen to what you have to say, they need to know that they can trust you and that you care about them. So by learning about the people and their culture, what they believe is important and how they relate to the world, you begin to build bridges of trust that allow you to talk about the important things in life, our faith in Christ.

The Mayols shared some moving stories about the way Christ has changed lives in the hills in southern Mexico during our worship service. Ricardo shared a Mayan greeting with us during Sunday School. After church some of us bought some of the crafts that the people make to support themselves in the ministry.

This whole thing made me think about our ministry to the people around us. It isn't about passing out tracts or pushing our views down people's throats. Our ministry should be the same as the Mayols. We have to get to know the people around us. We have to let them know we care. As we walk with them, then all we need to do is let Christ shine through us.

I like the story of Andrew in the gospels. He wasn't as outspoken as Peter. Yet every time we turn around he was introducing someone to Jesus. That's our job. As people get to know us they will see Jesus and want to know more. But it begins with us showing we care.

So get out there and love people for Christ's sake and let him work in their hearts. Miracles will soon be flowing around you in abundance.

Cal

Restored and made like new

I am the recipient of a miracle today. Not the kind of miracle where some3one is cured of cancer or something truly noteworthy. It only involves the restoration of some lost photos on my digital camera.

While I was in Australia I inadvertently erased about twenty five pictures I had taken at the Tarango Zoo. It is funny because half way through the day I asked myself if I was taking too many pictures. I shrugged it off with the realization that this was a one shot deal for me. I would never be there again. So even if I got some shots that were not particularly memorable, it didn't hurt to have them. That is also the beauty of digital photography. You don't pay for what you don't print.

Well, later that night I came home exhausted and was going through my pictures. I noticed one shot that was quite blurry and decided to delete it. The next morning I went to look at the photos and they were all gone. I deduced that in erasing that one, I must have erased all of them by accident. I was heart sick.

The pictures were gone forever... but then I had a thought. I quickly emailed my friend Matthew and asked if he knew of any program that could resurrect my images. The next day my answer came. He sent along a little freeware program that was sure to do the trick if I hadn't taken too many photos afterwards and corrupted my disk.

Last night, shortly after I got homer from my trip, I finally had a chance to check it out. This little program recaptured most of the photos in miraculous fashion.

As I looked at the pictures of kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, elephants and lizards, I suddenly thought about Jesus and the way he saves those who are lost. I know. I am a preacher and everything comes back to Jesus. But it is true. I have lived long enough to see some people who the world had given up on come back and find new life. I have known people who felt that their life was over only to see it begin again.

The truth of the gospel is that God can take that which is lost and forgotten and turn it around and restore it like new. Looking at these pictures is an affirmation of what God can do. He does it even better than this program for he brings us back into a perfect relationship with him as if we never strayed or sinned. He makes us like new again.

Praise God. Cal