A Cafe that is run with Christian love

I love this idea. I wish more people would engage in ministries like this. I wish we could do it in Norwich. I'd love to support someone who had the time and energy to make a go of a Good Samaritan Cafe in our town to help the folks who need a hand up. This Cafe was for the folks who are a step above those needing a hand out at the soup kitchen. It is for the working poor.

I'm posting this today because God may be speaking to you and calling you to check this out. Let me know if you take the challenge. I'd love to be your first customer.



Cal

God is not shallow

I just watched the movie, Shallow Hal, with Jack Black. For all of its goofiness, it really sends a great message. It is the inner beauty that defines a person, not the external appearance. That's the point of the movie.

Tony Robbins makes a guest appearance in the movie and he tries to convince Black's buddy that most people are hypnotized into believing that beauty is skin deep by intensive advertising campaigns that promote it at every opportunity. As a result we have all become very shallow and miss out on what is most important.

I got to thinking that we do the same thing in the church as well. We have an image of what a Christian is supposed to look like. We look for the signs or external cues and don't ever look beyond that to the heart of the people we meet. I like what the Bible says about David. It says he had a heart for God. We all know that David was a murderer, an adulterer, and an imperfect man. Yet God looked beyond that and saw a person worth redeeming, a person with the heart that was pure.

I think God sees the same thing in many of us. We aren't perfect. We've messed up. Yet God looks beyond that and sees our heart and he calls us to come to him. That's good news. He doesn't look at the ugliness. He sees what is underneath it all. Praise God.

Cal

Let God help you decide

I had an hour and a half to get from Norwich to New Haven. I even thought about stopping at the Clinton Outlets for a few minutes to stretch my legs. I was sailing along down route 395 and had just come over the hill when I saw the line of traffic in the distance ahead. I knew it was going to be a problem. I was never going to meet Rebecca's train on time if this hold up was what it appeared to be: an accident on route 95.

I caught up with the cars in front of me and for the next half hour we inched ahead. Then we stopped for a solid ten minutes. I was a mile from the exit when the slow down started. As I came to the exit I had a choice to make. Should I continue on the highway and hope that the disturbance would clear up quickly or try to take an alternate route I had never been on before?

I laughed as I thought about how we are forced to make this kind of choice every day. We come up against roadblocks and difficulties in our lives and have a choice to make. Wait and hope things get better or strike out and take an alternate route. The decision is always hard. We are often stopped in our tracks because we are afraid to make the wrong choice. too often we end up making a choice by not choosing. That's no way to live.

Last night as I sat in traffic and moved beyond aggravation into resignation, I quietly prayed and asked God to help me decide. My rationale mind kicked into gear and I chose the alternate route. Even though I was unfamiliar with it, I had a feeling it would lead me where I wanted to go. I got off the highway and began to move again and i thanked God.

The truth is that I don't know which way proved quicker but I made the choice with God's help and I got to where I wanted to go. The same is true in life. When you have a tough decision to make, talk to God. Ask Him for direction, wisdom and to help you make that choice. Then go with your gut and move forward. God will be with you and He will direct your steps and lead you on.

Cal

Lisa Kelly sings The Voice

I am still reeling from my night with the Celtic Woman. Their music was so inspiring. I thought I would pass on this clip from one of their concerts so you could be blessed tonight. Lisa Kelly sings "The Voice."

Cal

Giving thanks for the blessings

It was one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong. I received a couple of frantic calls at church this morning. Then I got wrapped up in one project that demanded my attention and couldn't finish the project that has to be set to go tomorrow morning. I left church and stopped at the redi-cash machine and found out I didn't have enough money in the account to make a withdrawal. So I headed to West Hartford with only two dollars. I got caught in traffic on the way to my meeting. Then when I tried to set up my computer to Skype with our missionaries Rick and Mercy Barnes, I couldn't get the camera to work and I kept losing the Internet connection. Aaaargggh. I began to feel like Charlie Brown on a good day. The final straw fell when I stopped at McDonalds to get a chicken sandwich on my way home. I rolled down my window and it came out of the socket. Just then it started raining.

It was a day to remember. Murphy's Law was in full effect. When I got home a few minutes ago I sat down and thanked God that the day had come to an end. Nothing terrible had happened. Nothing irreversible had occurred and I was sitting in my favorite chair in a warm house surrounded by family.

Sometimes it is all we can do but give thanks for the little things. Life can be tough on any given day. The pain may even last for weeks on end. But God is good and he will be with us on the bad days as well as on the good days. On the bad days it is especially important for us to count our blessings. They remind us of the greater truths. They remind us that nothing lasts forever and that God always works for good for those who love the Lord.

Cal

Holding the light

I went to see the Celtic Women perform the other night and they were great. I fell in love with them about a year when I saw them on You tube. Their sound is so pure and the music they sing is so wholesome and clean. I came away from the concert the other night wondering why this kind of entertainment doesn't sell out in every venue.

As a society we seem to crave R rated entertainment. Everything has to have either sexual innuendo or blood and gore. We crave action films where people are murdered and villains go up against heroes in profanity laced tirades. We go after television sitcoms where everything is about sex and drugs. We like rap music that speak about rubbing our bodies against each other and giving it up for love and Country songs that talk about booze and infidelities. Our mystery and romance novels tell stories that don't leave much for the imagination.

It made me question how a Christian nation can tolerate the degree of filth that floods our airwaves and grabs the attention of our young people. I am not suggesting censorship. I don't think that works. What I am wondering is why more of us don't just reject it all together. If we stopped watching objectionable television programs and stopped buying music and movies that contain language and corrupt ideas then things would have to change.

Unfortunately we have been brainwashed into thinking that tolerance means acceptance. We have come to believe that if we reject something, we are being intolerant. The truth is it simply means we don't approve of it for ourselves. If Christians stopped watching shows like Two and a Half Men and going to movies like Saw VI then the ratings would drop and a message would be sent.

We used to say the same thing about sports that began encroaching on Sunday mornings. We said if the Christians would all stand up and say our kids aren't going to practice and play on Sundays, the system would respond and change back. But too many of us backed down. A Roman Catholic friend of mine said he solved the problem by going to church on Saturday. Now practices and games and tournaments are the norm.

We've hurt ourselves with our inability to take a stand. What's worse is the fact that we have let Christ down. We have been called to be a light in the darkness and it has swallowed us up. But there is still a flicker and you and I hold it in our hands. What are we going to do with it?

Cal

When fantasy becomes real

The advertisement read "Join Mickey Lolich, Guillermo Hernandez, Todd Jones and others representing the 1968, 1984 and 2006 clubs, during the 2010 Tigers Camp of Champs." I can't believe I actually got excited. There was a day when I thought the idea of a baseball fantasy camp was silly. Who would want to go out and play baseball with a bunch of old timers?

When I hit my fiftieth birthday last year something strange happened. All the old timers were my age or older. Guys that I watched play as I was growing up were all going to be there. All my heroes were taking part in those fantasy camps. Suddenly it didn't seem so silly anymore.

It is funny how time has the ability to change our perspective on things. As we age and have more experiences we come to see everything in a new light. That certainly happens in our faith lives. Those things we used to see as coincidences are now seen as the guiding hand of God. That person who comes along just when we needed someone to brighten our day is now seen as an undercover angel.

The truth is that God is always there. It's us. We just don't notice him and appreciate him when we are younger. But Praise God time helps us see things for what they really are.

Cal