“Lombada”

Last night in youth group we talked about how Jesus has authority over everything and how his authority compels us to go. The question was raised how does Jesus’ authority impact you and me as we follow him on a daily basis?

Does it?

When we came across that question it really made me stop and think, how does this effect me? Am I living like Jesus truly has all authority over my life?

Megan and I are nearing our first full year of marriage and I can honestly say this year wasn’t without some bumpy spots in the road. When I lived in Brazil I quickly learned the word for speed bump in portuguese, “Lombada”. They seemed to be everywhere, even in the middle of the highway. Every time we were about to go over one the driver of the car would yell “Lombada” to warn us it was coming, unfortunately sometimes the warning came late and I hit my head on the roof of the car a few times.

Sometimes we need those lombadas to slow us down or have someone yell out a warning for the bumps coming up. Through all the bumps of this first year of marriage Megan and i had to slow down, refocus, and rub the bumps we got on our heads from hitting the roof. Recently, I would say in the last three months Megan and I have been working on reestablishing the fact that Jesus has authority in our marriage. But even that has not been easy, we discovered our need to spend quality time together each morning and inviting Jesus into that time.

In a way our reestablishing the fact that Jesus has that authority in our lives helps us warn each other about the “Lombadas” up ahead, communication has improved and joy has started to unfold it’s peddles in full flowering blooms.

Sometimes we need to ask hard questions like “Does jesus really have all authority over my life and if so how is that effecting my daily life?” We need those questions to slow us down, to help us think and grow. Because once we see that Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth we should be compelled to go. As followers of jesus we should be relentless to love.

I have been reading a book about David Livingstone, who was a missionary and explorer in Africa back when much of Africa was unknown and dangerous. One of the things that really stood out to me from the book is how relentless Livingstone was, he often didn’t wait for others to give him the approval to go and seek out other tribes and peoples. He went when others would not. God gave him the courage to face lions and dangers unknown.

When we come to grasp the knowledge of God’s authority we will began to live fearlessly because if God is for us who can be against us. We as spirit-filled followers of Jesus need to be more like Livingstone and the early Christians who were relentless to love.

Let our lives be relentless acts of worship to our God. I believe the words in Psalms 150 verse 6, “Let everything that has breath  praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.”

 

-Caleb Hunter

Where Are You?

If you were to ask me if I would consider myself a morning person I would have to say no but I use to be. Somewhere along the way to twenty-four I lost my appreciation of the morning, and to be honest I am not sure why? Perhaps it might have been from the fact that in college I had to get up early for class some mornings and so those mornings that I did not have to wake up for class I rebelled by staying in bed as long as I could. I guess I need to force a revolution of my thinking. “Viva la révolution de ma pensée”, I know very little french but long live the revolution of my thinking is something I do, sorta. Sometimes I just need to rethink how I’m thinking, to stop making excuses and redefine why I do what I do.

This morning I started my day with coffee, a doughnut and some more coffee in my warm office sitting back in my much to large chair reading a book by Henri J.M. Nouwen. Henri was a former catholic priest and theology professor who spent his final years working with the mentally and physically disabled. I have read a few of this books and find his insites to be thought provoking and challenging to my spiritual growth.

As I was reading I came to this quote, “To live a disciplined life is to live in such a way that you want only to be where God is with you” (The Inner Voice of Love, pg 23). Sometimes in the morning when I wake up I ask myself “Where am I?” as I come to in the reality of the day. But perhaps there is a deeper question of “Do I find that where I am, God is there also?”. Thats a hard question that doesn’t come with a quick answer. Do I find myself in a place where God is?

Henri began this page in the book by writing, “When we experience a great need for human affection, you have to ask yourself whether the circumstances surrounding you and the people you are with are truly where God wants you to be” (pg 23). We all long for love, it’s a part of what makes us human but where we find that love is critical to how our lives are shaped and lived. We long for deep human affection and I believe God uses people to show us his love but are we really where God wants us to be?

I know from some of my experiences that I have been in places of great emptiness and there I just find a void of what my heart really needed. It’s hard to be in those places but we don’t have to stay there, there are times we fear change and fear being challenged to think differently. However, if we don’t ask the hard question of is this really where God wants me we may never move on.

This reminds me of Peter and how jesus called him to follow him. Peter had the choice to stay where he was and keep fishing all his life. He probably had a well established market for his fish, he had friends, family, and all the comforts

he could afford in the first century A.D. , but he had to stop and ask the question “Is this where God wants me to be, is this the place, are these the people, is this what I am suppose to do? I am sure Jesus saying come follow me threw him off his routine but Peter’s response was without hesitation, he moved to where God was and lived in a such a way that he wanted to be with Jesus.

Later when Jesus is walking on the water Peter ask’s jesus to call him out on the water, he wants to Go with jesus even if it’s scary and challenging. Peter was willing to Question whether being in the boat was where God wanted him to be or not? He was willing to trust that God was going to provide a way to walk on water. Each day we wake up and ask God is this where I am suppose to be today, if you want me out on the water call me there and I trust you will provide a way. We long deeply for love, we long even deeper to be where God is. Ask the hard questions, challenge your thinking and find out where God wants you to be. He is already there going before us we just have to get out of the boat.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

 

 

Mind Renewal and Butterflies

“Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will”- 12: 2 

I read this verse a few weeks ago in a devotional that I am going through and have continued to come across it in a few books that I am reading. Also a week ago I saw a short video about the brain that mentioned this verse. Finally it kinda hit me this morning as I was starting my day that maybe God was trying to get through to me to stop and think about it for a minute.

Romans 12:2 is one of those verses I could just easily just pass by without thought. Its a obvious verse that is often over quoted and I have read a million times. STOP for a second if I have read it a million times and heard sermons preach about it why then have I given it so little thought. Maybe because When we stop and really think about our lives, the way we think, the way we act, and the way we do anything for that matter we might just have to rethink thing because our patterns are just like the world.

While reading yesterday in the book “Plan B” by Pete Wilson I came across the verse again but this time the following paragraph from the actually made me stop and think about it.

“So what is the pattern of this world? If we look closely, we can probably discern several distinct patterns. There is the pattern of hurry -now, now, now, faster, faster, faster. There is the pattern of debt- enjoy now, pay later (if at all). But one of the patterns I see every single day in the lives of people I rub elbows with is fear and anxiety. I truly believe there is a pattern of fear in our culture, probably made worse by our constant media presence. We’re constantly alerted to the possible sources of danger, conditioned to see threats all around us. We’re instructed to cover our tails, to trust no one, to avoid failure at any cost”- Pg 56-57

Hurry, hurry, hurry… this seems to often the one we ignore and I believe like Pete it is out of fear of many things that keeps us from slowing down long enough to listen to what God has to say. I can say all the times that I read through this verse in the past few weeks were more than likely out of hurry, hurry because well often times for no other reason than to feel like I accomplished something which in turn is fed by a fear that comes from being told you better not fail and better do everything right. I can say I am in the process of letting my fears go and trusting God but I have to slow down to do it.

It’s interesting to me that the word transformation is in this verse. Transformation is one of those buzz words for me that makes me excited and thoughtful (most of the time when I slow down). Transformation is simple put the Process of Change. The word is closely tied with the greek word for metamorphosis, which as most boys who have ever been fascinated by bugs understand is the process of going through the stages of a caterpillar to a butterfly. I use to be obsessed with bugs, but thats another story, however, understanding that transformation is a process helps when connecting transformation to the renewing of our minds.

We often point to the caterpillar and the butterfly when we think of metamorphosis yet we don’t ever really think about the cocoon stage. We like the beginning and the end. Doesn’t that sound familiar, as humans we love birth and celebrate or morn death but rarely do we focus on how we have changed through those times. We hurry from birth to death so we can be in heaven, sadly we miss out on so much of the life that Christ already offers us here when we hurry through everything. Jesus wants to blow our minds here, make us STOP and really think through life. To be renewed in mind through the slow process of thinking through what patterns we are living and how we can allow God to change us if we let him.

A caterpillar will eat and eat and often die before it get to be a cocoon because it over eats or gets squashed by some little kid, hurry and eat, hurry and eat, but for the caterpillar to reach the cocoon stage it has to stop and allow the shell to form around it.

It has to stop hurrying, it has to change every pattern of life that is has ever known. 

That statement alone can define what a christian life should be like, it changes everything we know. It change us to the core and shapes us into something we never dreamed of, yet, often times when we hear that being a christian, following christ or simply

renewing our minds means we might have to change we simple respond in fear. We continue our patterns of worry, hurry, and fear because flowing jesus might mean changing everything.

If you want examples of what what looks like just look at the disciples, look at paul, or any one in the early church. When we truly

encounter Jesus Everything changes.

The caterpillar has to trust God that he will make it out of the cocoon someday. I’ve seen caterpillars that never made it out but Idon’t think that the fear of not making it ever kept them from not trying. We have to stop fearing failure and start trusting that God knows what he is doing even if we don’t make it out, even if following Christ is an experience that is painful, hard, and often full of times that we fail by the worlds standards.

It’s your choice. Your life and your mind. You can choose to stop and examine life and seek change and allow God to truly transform you through the renewing of your mind. The promise is there that we are better able to discern the life God has for us when we stop and allow him to change us.

As for me. I’m setting out to continue this process, to follow Jesus no matter what even if it does mean I have to change everything about everything that I ever knew. Its a challenge and though in my humanity it comes with fear I hope that through the renewing of my mind daily that fear will become so small that I will walk with confidence through the valley of the shadow of death.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Watch this: http://vimeo.com/54866496

Other Side of Your Hand

Many

 

Which I might have been

 

One

 

have feared to create.

For to create means to

 

Explore… The Unknown.

 

We would rather cover in comfortable

 

Fear

 

than explore the other side of our hand.

We fear

 

Exploration…

 

Exploration

 

is a vital part of

 

Life.

 

God created the world

God created us,

God created you

To explore that world…

Created to explore,

Created not to fear, hiding behind a blank hand

When the

Colors

Lay waiting to be

Explored.

For I, I choose to face my fears

Create

Explore

Live Life…

-Caleb Ross Hunter