“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

Restore My Joy… Enable Me To Go

“Yet I will Rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of the deer, he enables me to go on the heights.”-  Habakkuk 3:18-19

In October of 2012 I moved from Indiana south east to North Carolina, I left my family and a great group of friends behind. I didn’t fully realize how much those friends really meant to me until I found myself battling loneliness in my little apartment. I missed the deep philosophical conversations about competition that my friend Bobby and I would have over a game of cards. I missed the late night runs to Stake N’ Shake and our off key renditions of the Avett Brother’s song “Shame, which I’m sure we sang a thousand times. I missed the random weekly get togethers at someone’s house. You can’t really recreate that atmosphere of joyful community we had. That longing to just be together with others went with me when I left.  Ever sense those first few weeks here I have been praying for a community of people that I could just worship with and be myself. People who were more interested in being the church rather then doing church.

Over the months I started to get more discouraged and more lonely. I was discouraged by the fact that even in the church that I work at as youth pastor, there wasn’t that community. The doing of Church was all there, but the level of community and openness that I have had before was not. I found that it is much harder to lead when you feel like your running on empty. I am such a people person it hurts when I have to be alone. I think this probably has to do with the fact that I was raised in a house with four sisters and parents who always welcomed in our friends. When you are around people so much like I was growing up sharing life is just part of living and so when I am in a place where I am less able to share life with others it feels like I start to die. It’s as if my souls is fragile and weak outside the context of community.

Slowly, I started to make a few friends through some retreats that I attended as a leader and started to see hope again of community. Hope is a powerful thing, when hope takes root the world starts to seem like such a brighter place than before. So as I got to know these people a little more I started to hang out with a guy also named Caleb, which I find ironic. That was the start of God answering my prayers. I had not given up, but my hope had been fading.

Two weeks ago Caleb ask me if I want to go to a house concert in Greensboro where a local band was playing. I didn’t know the band but that didn’t bother me because concerts are one of my favorite things. So we went to the concert in someones living room where we knew no one. There was maybe 30 people crammed in the front room of the house. The small intimate space made for an awesome setting and the music started playing and I felt my soul coming back to life. Every word of the each song sounded like sweet worship to my ears.

After the show we were leaving and ran into the lead singer in the street. We started talking and just out of the blue he invited me to a monday night worship gathering that he and some friends have every week. I was stunned and excited because in my heart I knew thats what I wanted, really what I needed. A rough week went by and I sorta forgot about it. But then monday hit and I remembered the invite and looked him up and asked him where the gathering would be. He told me but said he wouldn’t be there. I thought about not going because I made the excuse I wouldn’t know anyone but I felt God kept saying you need to go, just do it and trust me. So I went, I drove up the greensboro to a neighborhood I had never been to, to a house I had never seen to hang out with people I have never met and it was exactly what I needed.

When I showed up I knocked on the front door but no body answered, after making sure my directions were right, I knocked again and realized the door was unlocked and cracked a little. I would’t recommend this but I let myself in. I heard some people talking in the back so I yelled hello and walked in. There were two guys there who welcomed me as if I was suppose to be there and just like I was a friend.

Others started showing up about 20 of us were there and we all shared a meal and talked. It felt like home to me. I didn’t know anyone when the night started but I felt like I was suppose to be there. After we ate we all moved into the living room and two of the guys started leading worship. There wasn’t sheet music or hymnals, they just picked a key and started singing and everyone joined in. As we sang I was reminded of my time in High school where we use to have a time of worship every wednesday night, where we would just sing worship songs together, no set order of songs or set time. We would all pray for those who needed prayer and just share together.

As the the group sang “Restore the Joy of my salvation God, be my hope oh Lord”, I was filled with Joy again. Joy that i could just be with people that just wanted to be together and sing praises to the Lord. People who just wanted to share a meal and conversation for no other reason than to be in community. It says in Acts that the early church met together, broke bread, prayed, worshiped and just were the church. The church was the people the community. I realize my faith is much stronger in the context of community. When in a place where I can be myself and just sing with all my heart for the Lord. Where life is shared in open honest community.

As the night closed the group shared praises and prayer requests.  There was both joy and sorrow shared with no hesitation. I told the group that I had been praying for a place, a community where I could just worship with others my age and felt like God had lead me there that night. It’s one of those God things. You look at it after the fact and say wow, I didn’t see that coming but I sure am glad it happened. As I drove away I felt God restoring the joy of my salvation.

When I woke up the next morning, I turned on my Bible app on my phone and read Habakkuk 3:17-19 “Though the fig three does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stall YET I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights”

The Lord has restored my Joy and he is my strength, out of the loneliness and times when nothing seemed to be going right God was still working. He is faithful to restore, even when it doesn’t seem like it in the midst of the drought. He will enable us to God where he leads. I hope to go back again to be with this group of people, to be in community and to go where God leads.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Introduction to: “A Year of Thoughts”

“A Year Of Thoughts” will consist of a few of my thoughts for each day of this year that we have just began. It is collaboration of my goals to expand my creativity and my deep desire to write a few books in my life time, that really is the reason for starting this now. With these goals in mind I am setting out on a journey, an adventure and take the challenge to see this year through my writing. This “A Year of Thoughts” I hope it will be a way of sharing my experiences of this year with others.

I do not yet know what the topics or style that I will be writing each post but as an exploration I may write about the same topic over a few days or weeks. I may write stories, or poems, or just give a word picture of the day. Sometimes these may be about my day and sometimes I may just be about something that I am thinking about this day. If I were to know all the things I was to write about this would be far less appealing and exciting for me. I find writing to be something that has to flow out of the mind, heart, soul and experience of life. There may be times where my writing may come across as raw, unrefined, honest and hard to read but my hope is that these would be the thoughts that are most needed to be shared with those who care to read them. Though this is very public I hope to be able to look back on next january first and find 366 posts that capture this year in thoughts.

As a reader I hope that you take time to find something that challenges you. I wouldn’t even require myself to read every single post until the year is over, however, let even just the idea of writing a little each day challenge you to do something. Life is best lived fully alive. Writing is part of life for me, find what is part of who you are and pursue that, chase your dreams, through off the doubt and fear, be honest, be vulnerable, but most of all be who you are made to be. If you don’t know who you are or even if you do think you know who you are take a deep look into your thoughts and find something you have never known before or hadn’t thought about in awhile.

 

 

Life is a learning experience so never stop learning.

 

 

So

 

Here we Go…

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter