Day 54 “A Year of Thoughts”: Stronger Inside and out

“Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers”. –1 Timothy 4:7-16

 

These verses were the topic of the message today in chapel, however, it wasn’t until this evening while working out that it became clear to me. I often hate training. I have all these goals and things that I know will make me stronger in one area or another but I don’t like disciplining myself enough to do them, to go beyond where I am. I had given up on working out really unless I felt like it from time to time, until my best friend challenged me in a way to do it again. We try to work out three times a week now. We have to be intentional about that time and work at it. Sometimes we get distracted but thats part of the learning to train that I need to work on.

I also have a goal of reading at least one book a months and I am behind on that. I have to be more intentional about planning time for that and making my mind stronger outside of the classroom. But when it comes down to it my strength and training must begin with the heart. I want to be a man after God’s own heart. So I have to be intentional and train myself daily in my walk with God. This is what I’ve been thinking on.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 20 “A Year of Thoughts”: The Little things

The little things matter more than you think

The little things speak “I love you” she says

I’ll do the little things to live what I say

The little things give up hope for big things

Someday, someday and I’ll continue to do

The Little things that show that I care.

 

I believe the little things in life are really important. Just like little change often can lead to big change overtime, so also the little things that we do in life have lasting effect and can bring forth the core of our character. I was reminded today by my best friend that the little things I do to show I care speaks love from my heart. There are times when I don’t always do the little things well, I can tell in those times that there are things that I have to change and be more intentional about.

 

To do the little things in life we have to be intentional about doing them. When we are intentional about doing the little things we show that we care. We are being intentional about loving those around us. Love has to care to do the little things. Love is full of little choices, many intentional moments, the little things done well.

 

I believe often times people lose sight of the big things, the goal and why they love because they lose sight of doing the little things. My challenge to myself is to never lose sight of the of the little things and show that I care.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 4 “A Year of Thoughts”: Life Rides a Tricycle Until it’s Intentional About the Big Wheels

Life for me is that the stage I don’t really ride a tricycle around the block anymore… to be quite truthful I haven’t hardly even ridden a bicycle in the past two years. Maybe once right after I got home from Brazil this past summer, I might have got talked into ridding about 10 miles with my sister. It was different getting on a bike after not ridding for so long, I was sore for days because there were muscles I hadn’t used in at all or well for a while. Looking back as to why I hadn’t ridden a bike in years was simply because I had no intention to. I just didn’t. There really isn’t any other reason.

 

However, in those two years I didn’t lose the knowledge or the skills I had learned from my previous experience ridding a bike. I didn’t have to go back to training wheels. I wasn’t afraid the bike would tip over. I didn’t run into a bush like I had when I was first learning. I didn’t regress to the little red tricycle that hangs in our garage. Somehow I was intentional about keeping that learning, because when I got off the bike two years ago I never thought it would be that long before I would get back on one.

 

I say all this because I’ve come to believe that sometimes in life we have areas in which we keep taking the tricycle back off the wall, even though we already had training wheels, we have already had the traumatizing experience of being locked out of the house until we could ride the big wheeler, and we have logged enough miles to come in second place behind Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France two or three times over. People get stuck in stages of life because they keep holding on the baggage of the tricycle days rather than learning to grow. But how do we move on in life?

 

It’s just like ridding a bike. We have to do it with intention!

 

 

 

 

InTention.

 

IntEntion

 

 

IntentioN.

 

 

I capitalized those letters intentionally and I spaced that intentionally as well.

 

We have to live life with intention. We have to move through life with intention.

 

But how do we do that?

Intention to heal,

Intention to find joy,

Intention to be honest,

Intention to love,

Intention to grow,

Intention to never be stagnant,

Intention to adventure,

Intention to be grateful,

Intentional about giving our lives away.

 

Are we living with intention and making the choices now that reflect who we wish to become?

Or do we even know who we want to become?

Do we know who we are?

 

As I’ve thought about this and trying to figure out over the past few years about who I want to be as an old man I’ve realized that there are choices that I have been making and will make that will have a huge part in shaping who I will become. There have been a number of choices that I started making six years ago with intention to grow, to heal, to learn, to mature, and to be challenged. Some of these choices were anything but easy, and at the times when I made them many people said “Caleb, are you sure your not crazy for doing this, is this really what you want to do?” There have been times I have questioned myself and my sanity, yet looking back I know those times I was intentional about my choices, have been the times where I have had major growth in may areas of my life.

 

I could have doubted all the way that I would ever ride a bike. I could have accepted that I was a slow learner as a kid and might always be one. I could have just given up on reading. I could have bottled all my hurts and pains with no intention of ever healing… but this would have left me on the tricycle. If I had settled for less I would never have got to experience some incredible things in life.

 

Recently I came across a story that tells a tale of being intentional. In the book Two Old Women author Velma Wallis tells this story of two old Alaskan Women who are left by their tribe, because the group is starving and must travel to find food, the old women are thought to be useless and would only slow the group down because of their age and by the amount of complaining the two of them did. But there is an interesting twist, for when the group leaves them the women realize their foolishness of settling for death. When they are left for almost certain death they realize they aren’t ready to die just yet.

 

So they some how find strength to live again and travel on their own to where they can find found. At one point in the book one of the women says that they had become like babies in their old age, waiting for others to feed them, but now left alone they had to fend for them selves. They no longer wanted to settle for just surviving or dying in this case, the two women made the intentional choice of keeping each other alive.

 

Life calls for intention.

 

Dying is easy, life means making choices…

 

So when life comes to an end for me I want to still be living with intention. I want to intentionally go through each day finding ways to live it to the fullest and love those that are around me. I may never have to face the cold Alaskan winter with little food and no help from anyone, but like the characters in the story have taught me, there is more to life that must be experienced and being intentional to live that life is far better than settling for less. I would much rather die trying to live an incredible, full, risky, adventure filled, crazy life then to settle for less.

 

Maybe it’s time you got off the tricycle and tried ridding a bike. It might be risky, it might hurt a little, it might mean facing your fears of falling and failing, it might mean letting go of past failure, hurts and wounds, it might mean challenging yourself… life is waiting for you to live it. It’s not easy to be intentional and it’s not easy to learn to ride a bike either.

 

I am learning to live life with intention may it challenge you to do the same

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

 

 

P.S. I wanted to put in this post my inspiration for todays topic came from my breakfast conversation with Paster Paul Romoser, who has been a mentor and huge influence on my life. This morning we got talking about life cycle and challenging people to be intentional about how they are living life. I have intentionally watched and learned from Paul for most of my life. He is one of the first people to intentionally pour a lot into my life and I am grateful for that and all that he has down to challenge me to grow in many areas of life. I hope that in the future I can be intentional like Paul about pouring into others.