Once Upon A Time + As We Go

Once upon a time, just a month ago I stood on the other side of a doorway waiting to seeing my bride for the first time. In that moment I stood there thinking everything is about to change. The world I once knew will no longer be the same and the future is just on the other side of the door. The future, the unknown, the adventure is about to begin.

“Once upon a time”… those words at the beginning of every good story that tell you something is about to begin. That moment in which you are about to be swept away to a different place and time, and everything you once knew is going to change. There are a few moments in my life that could be prefaced with the words “Once upon a time”. Like Once upon a time I packed up my car said goodbye to my parents and sisters to set out on a long drive to a small college I had never visited in Kansas. Or once upon a time I lived as a missionary and english teacher in Brazil, South America for six months. Or once a upon a time I packed up everything I owned to move by myself to North Carolina to be a youth pastor.

When I left for Kansas I knew I was setting out on an three year adventure for which I had hoped would bring me the opportunity to learn and get a college degree. The goal was set and navigating the trails was to be much easier than the Lewis and Clark expedition. Then when I set out to go to Brazil my visa only allowed for one hundred and eighty days in the country and so it was obvious when I would return home. In Brazil the future was not as clear cut as college, however, once I figured out how to teach and adapt on a missions field the adventure mostly enjoyable. After living in Indiana, Kansas, and Brazil, North Carolina just seemed liked another place to explore.

However, all of these other “Once upon a time” moments in my life pails in comparison to that moment where I stood waiting for my bride to walk down the aisle. As those doors were opened and I saw her standing there in her white dress any fears I had of the adventure a head of us was swept away with joy. For the first time in my life I realized I was not walking into the unknown future alone. In Genesis God said “It’s not good for man to be alone”, and everyday that becomes more clear to me.

If there is anything that I have learned over this first month of marriage it is that life is meant to be shared. Not just the living space, or the bed or the food we prepare for dinner, but the experience of life itself. The experience of our everyday living should be shared. When we decided to get married we were making the decision to be a community, a family, best friends, and partners in exploration. A team that is committed to love and share as we go through life.

Yesterday at a bible study at the church were I serve we had a discussion about missions and what does that look like to live out the call that God has given us. As you might expect we turned to the typical verse about missions Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV), “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.” Over the years I have been a little skeptical of the people that point to this verse and say lets help missionaries, but do little of anything but send money to foreign fields. We often forget that this was intended for us. For us to make disciples. Our senior pastor made the point that in the greek the “Therefore go” is better understood as “AS YOU GO”. As you go through life make disciples, baptize people, teach and do everything that I have done.

I think we have it all wrong if we think that the only way that we can make disciples is if we have classes or invite people to church. When I look at what Jesus did with his disciples I see a man who was willing to share life with people. To love them despite their faults, to teach when necessary, to forgive always, to tell stories, to travel with, to eat with and to simply live life together. Jesus lived out an example of what it meant to make disciples and so those disciples knew that meant that the future was not going to be clear cut and obvious. They learned that following Jesus was more of an adventure than a college course on truth.

Likewise in the past month I have been reminded that despite how many marriage counseling books or classes I taken, I have to learn to love as we go. I am learning that Jesus can us as a married couple to make disciples out of each other. To walk as Jesus did sharing life as we go.

Once upon a time Jesus descended into heaven leaving his disciples standing there in the field looking for him. They stood there much like I stood there waiting for my bride. Neither of us knew completely what the future would hold but the Holy Spirit has and will give us the strength to go forth into what God has prepared for us.

We the church are the bride of Christ he is waiting for us to walk through the door. To walk with people and to begin to be and do what he has called us to do. I can not say that I will ever fully have marriage figured out and I can honestly say that I may never fully have christianity figured out. However, I am committed fully to both, to living out to the fullest in sharing life with my wife and to following Jesus in this adventure of life. As we go, as we learn, as we share may we fix our eyes on Jesus knowing each moment is a once upon a time story that is just about to begin.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Three Simple Words… Come Follow Me

Over the past few months I have been processing through the simple words that Jesus said to his disciples and the many people he encountered on a daily basis. The words “Come Follow Me”, three simple words that changed everything for a lot of people. Those same words I believe he is still saying to you and I today.

 

Last month I was down in Alabama on a short missions trip with some of the students from my youth group. We went to host a sports camp at the MOWA Choctaw Friends Center which is about 45 min from Mobile in an area that is at or below the poverty level. We taught a different sports everyday and got to know kids of all ages from the community. Many of these kids come from rough family situations and a couple of the kids I found out that their parents would send them out of the house in the morning and not let them back in until the end of the day, so they were on their own.

 

It’s hard to believe this is how people live here in America, but it’s real. I’ve seen and experienced poverty in Brazil, South America, but this was a lot closer to home. Seeing those kids and getting to teach them sports reminded me of how God broke my heart a few years ago to lead and love “The Next Generation”.

 

Despite their situations and circumstances these kids enjoyed life. If anything we gave them a week out of the summer where they can have a positive memory and a glimmer of hope through the gospel that was shared everyday. Those kids are the future of that community and just as the kids that I work with here in North Carolina are the future of this community.

 

While we were down there I was asked to speak to the students that had come and to the staff during our worship sessions every evening. The staff had called me and asked me to speak two weeks before we were to leave and even though I was really busy with vacation Bible school, I felt like God telling me to do it. I felt like at first that I was not going to be prepared to speak because I didn’t have the time I thought I needed to prepare, however, the closer it got to the trip God kept saying just speak from the heart, trust me.

 

So our theme for the week was “You before Me, Last before First, Jesus before Everything”. I tied that into the talks by looking at different encounters that Jesus had with people and how they lived out that theme. We first looked at the rich young ruler and how he thought he had it all together and was wondering if in the new heaven and earth he would be as rich as he was here. Jesus listed of the commandments as his response purposely leaving out the first two. The rich young ruler respond to Jesus by saying all of these I have kept since I was a child. Then those simple three words followed from Jesus mouth, “Come Follow Me”.

 

Yet, the rich young ruler walked away sad. He wanted to go to heaven, he wanted to keep all the rules, but he couldn’t follow Jesus.

 

Why? I think one of the main reasons why was because he would have to put Jesus first, he would have to stop worshiping himself, his riches and the power thought he had. The rich young ruler walked away because he did not want his life to change, he just wanted to guarantee a spot in heaven. He had put himself before God, I think thats why Jesus left out the first two commandments. The commandments of love the lord your God and have no other God’s before me.

 

I think sometimes as christians we can focus more on trying to guarantee heaven then we are about following Jesus. We lose track on putting Jesus first and we put ourselves and our possessions before God. Life was never meant to be lived for Heaven, life was meant to be lived for God.

One of the main points I made in my talks while in Alabama was that “I don’t want you to think that Jesus just came to save you from your sins, but that he came that you might live and show you how to live.”

 

When Jesus says “Come follow me”, he is saying come see how I live so that you might live, because Jesus lived out, you before me, last before first.

 

The second night in Alabama we looked at a little different encounter that Jesus had with some, this time it was with Levi the tax collector. He was rich but not a ruler, he might not have kept all the rules and wasn’t really liked by people. Tax collectors were some of the most hated people in Jesus time because Hared would appoint Jews to take taxes from the Jew for the Romans. The reasons they did this is because being a Jew, Levi would have known who had the money and what he could charge people. Tax collectors were not liked by their own people and were not to be trusted. The religious leaders would have considered them sinners and outcasts.

 

Yet, Jesus comes along to Levi’s tax collectors booth and says those simple three words “Come follow me”. The guy nobody liked, the guy the leaders cant stand, the guy that takes peoples money and cheats them to get rich, yeah that guy is the guy Jesus reaches out to and says come follow me. That guy is the guy that gets it right, then and there. He leaves he tax collectors booth and follows.

 

He could have ignored Jesus. He could have stayed there. Comfortable, rich and disliked, yet he didn’t, he knew that following Jesus would mean things would change and he followed. To me the tax collectors booth represents the selfishness that Levi was living out. He didn’t care really about his Jewish friends and neighbors, we worked for the enemy of the Jews and in all likelihood he cheated them all to get rich. His choosing to follow Jesus in that moment was the start of a long process of growth and learning about life from Jesus.

 

Jesus didn’t come along and ask him if he wanted to be saved, he didn’t point out all his sins, he just said come and follow. Jesus later went and partied with Levi and his friends. Jesus hung out with the sinners and the outcasts. Jesus did what the religious leaders would not. Jesus called Levi even when Levi was in a place where he was living for himself.

 

Levi got it, he put aside the one real thing that was keeping him from following Jesus. I challenged the students and staff down in Alabama to try to identify those things that are keeping us personally from following Jesus. To find those things that we are putting between us and God. Putting those things aside or leaving them behind may be hard, it may be uncomfortable, it may mean everything about us will change but with Jesus he will show us how to live and what life is really all about.

 

When I recommitted my life to Jesus six plus years ago now, I chose to start following, to leave behind my selfish tax collectors booth and learn how to follow. It hasn’t been easy and I haven’t always been the best follower, but it has changed me for the better, Jesus has changed me from the inside. Who I am is not who I was and following Jesus is a process of growth and renewal. Heaven will be nice but my life is not about heaven it’s about Jesus, living with and for him.

 

Jesus is still telling us those simple three words today “Come follow me”.

 

Recently I have been writing a song or poem of sorts about this idea. As you read this let it soak in that Jesus saved you so that he might show you how to live.

 

Come follow me he said

As we stood in disbelief,

Who is this man

Why would he want me

I have no place to lay my head

This is not my home,

These are not my mother and brothers

but I will call you my own

This is what he means

when he said “Come follow me”

 Sell all you have and

Give it to the poor

Trust me for I will

meet your needs

 

Can’t you see

Healing all around you

It’s doing something amazing

Inside of you

 

This is what he means

When he said “Come Follow me”

 

Simple words from a carpenters mouth

That turn the world upside down

Simple words that will change

the heart inside of me.

 

When Jesus says “Come follow me” think about what is holding you back? You don’t have to walk away sad. When we trust him he will lead us into life, life 

is waiting to be lived to the fullest. I will echo the words of my savor not because he has guaranteed heaven but because he has given me life

“Come Follow Jesus”.

 

May God bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Tell a Story, Live the Story

Every time that I read a story or watch a movie I can’t help but feel that I am a part of the story. As if in someway I have a connection to the imagination of the author. I know that is an insane thought however, isn’t that how we should live our lives. If our life is a story or a small chapter in the larger picture of the novel shouldn’t we have some connection to the author.

God is not only our creator but the author of life, We have the opportunity to turn the page each day on new lines he is writing in his story. Lived out in and through us.

Somedays I honestly struggle with the motivation to live and to write and tell “MY STORY”, however, when I step back and realize the story is already being written and I am a character with curtain experiences and adventures that still and always will point back to my author, then i find motivation to pen words that tell of Him rather than ME.

If I am to write, create, paint,speak or live, for that matter, for me than I will never be motivated, never fulfill my potential or ever really matter, however luckily life is not about ME. When life is about me I get lonely, unmotivated to do anything and nothing really makes any sense. But GOD has set out to transform my mind and heart and has placed his story upon my soul.

Humanity is God’s story being lived out full of individual characters and sub plots yet the over arching theme remains. The theme

of humanities struggle for meaning and purpose. A struggle that leaves us lost if we rely on ourselves, confused by the pain we

cause each other in our attempts to edit the story, yet hope though sadly found by the few, those who choose simply to walk out the story and plot God laid before them.

So what is my story that God is asking me to live?

What is that one thing you know that you were meant for?

Doesn’t have to be complex of world changing but it does have to be what God has made for you to live.

I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt God has asked me to tell stories, to live a story, and to share his story with the world. I was created with my potential in the mind of God, my potential has always lay in him and he is my motivation.

As long as God is still writing my story I will keep living.

Think about this…

Perhaps we were all born to do the same thing, to tell God’s story, to live what he has written, yet the way we tell it is in our own unique way.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 58 “A Year of Thought”: Learn How to Live

Last week in one of my classes we were discussing divorce with three couples who have had experienced divorce in some way or another in their lives. I took a few notes during this discussion trying to get a grasp on their perspectives and with the knowledge that I am assigned a paper over this topic that is due later this week. In those notes that I wrote at the top of the page in all caps I wrote “LEARN HOW TO LOVE”

 

One of them mentioned when questioned about what made their second marriage last over thirty years and still be so strong, they replied with “We learned how to love.” Isn’t that the point of life, that all of us are searching for deep down in our souls. To live life. To learn how to live together and enjoy the moments that we have.

 

Tonight I was reading through a few of David’s psalms and Jesus teaching on loving out enemies. I believe David was a great example of trying to learn to live and love his enemies. Not that David didn’t make mistakes but through the whole conflict with Saul, David still tried to respect and love the king. King Saul made himself out to be the enemy and wanted to rid his life of David. Saul has given up on learning to live, to pursue the hatred that was brewing in his heart. He was moving out of fear, a life out of fear is a pathetic excuse for a life. It leaves us empty and unable to love the people around us.

 

So when Jesus talks about loving our enemies he is teaching us to live. To find life to the fullest pouring over in love. Life has very little space for hatred for it forms a black hole in our hearts and sucks the life we are called to live right out of us.

 

But life is hard, loving our enemies is hard.

 

Jesus never said love was easy.

 

Life isn’t easy, but learning to live is worth it. What made that couples second marriage sweet, they learned to live, they learned to love despite their differences. They learned the hard way that love is hard but it is worth it.

 

This has made me thing hard about who my enemies are and who needs my love? Who have I hated (maybe for no reason)? How can I learn to live and move to a place of love? I am learning to live, learning to love and I pray that any small hatred be turned to love that I might learn to live with others and enjoy life to the fullest.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 52 “A Year of Thoughts”: Our God is Greater

To often I forget that my God is greater than all my worries, fears and all that is overwhelming me. I fail to remember that God is greater than any feelings, situations, circumstances and that which is troubling my soul.

When I am able to place God as the ultimate authority in my life then he is able to use me, transform me and move me where I need to be. To daily remember that God is greater and that he is the one I need the most in my life must be my goal. He is writing a story where the main characters are you and I and Him but we must not remove him.

 

Live each day truly knowing and Believing God is Greater.

This is easier said then done.

It will be lived though we try to forget God

He doesn’t forget us.

Our God has given us life.

Be Joyous!

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 47 “A Year of Thoughts”: No One Wants To hear It.

Complaining. Growing up my mom use to say “no one wants to hear it” when one of us kids was complaining about something. In the course of my day I found myself complaining, I didn’t start the day right and failed to remind myself not to complain. That complaining attitude came through throughout the day. Inside I was complained about the homework I needed to do, yet I waisted time and didn’t do it. I found myself complaining about the little jobs that I had to do at work. Complaining makes me unhappy, I complain about my complaining.

But as I prepare for sleep I have hope that I will be able to not complain tomorrow and find ways to enjoy everything in life. I want to consider life pure joy. To focus and not waist the time so that I have nothing to complain about.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 46 “A Year of Thoughts”: Learn Their Interest

Relationships must be intentional

Get to know not just what you like

But learn their interests.

Relationships should shape us and

Help us to Grow…

They should move us

Motivate us and

Enable us to

Take the focus off of us and

Learn about them

Enter their world

Through relationships we should

Learn a lot about us

How we communicate

What we value

How we invest

How we love

How our lives will be lived

Love Helps

Learning their interests

Opens doors

For learning to love them.

Who are you getting to know…

Do you care?

About them and

Their interests

I’m learning to care…

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ,

if any comfort from his love,

if any common sharing in the Spirit,

if any tenderness and compassion,

then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love,

being one in spirit and of one mind.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,

not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Philippians 2:1-4

(NIV, my own emphasis)

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 45 “A Year of Thoughts”: I Love You a Hole Punch

 

Today was a wonderful valentines day. For those of us who have a valentine the day finally had meaning. One of my friends sadly

commented how without someone to love valentines day is a silly holiday, but he also said if your married or have someone to love than everyday is like valentines day.
I really enjoyed today and sharing it with my girlfriend but one of the highlights was getting a valentines card from my mom. I really love her and everything that she has done for me. This card had a hole punch on the front and on the inside it had a heart punched out and it read “I love you a hole punch.” This made my girlfriend and I laugh.

I love hearing “I love you” from certain people but from my mom it’s special because she will always be my mom. Twenty-two years and beyond and I will still be her son.

Today was a great day!!!

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 41 “A Year of Thoughts”: Speak From The Heart

 

There are times when I fail to speak love from my heart. God has created us as human beings to love from the core of who we are. Yet we collectively fail at love each day.

 

I’m dying of heart failure for all the times I’ve failed to speak love from the core of who I am.

 

I’ve been selfish, withholding love. I fail at patience, I fail often at kindness, my words lack meaning and become that of a clanging cymbal. If my heart were a symphony I am the one instrument out of tune. My pride withholds love from those I might know to need it. If I am to live love, love always trusts, can I trust myself when my past is full of lies that lack trust, the failure to hold honestly to the truth.

 

                  But there is hope. 

 

Love still speaks because love keeps no record of wrongs, love forgives, it rejoices with the truth despite the evil of the past. It speaks through silence and pain, through joy and
laughter, love speaks when our hearts bleed. When we open them so that God’s love might begin to heal our wounds, so that we might find confidence to love despite our failure to love.

Love helps, it heals, it hopes, it’s kind and patient even when we aren’t. When I say I Love you I hope my heart speaks out of the core that I am.

 

1 Corinthians 13

 

Love speaks from the heart.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 40 “A Year of Thoughts”: For Fun

 

When your having fun life is really enjoyable. Tonight I went and played indoor soccer. It’s been a while since I have played but it felt really good to go and kick around a soccer ball. It really didn’t matter who won or how many goals were scored. It was all for fun. I really believe life was meant to be enjoyed, meant to have a little fun and lots of laughter.

 

Sometimes for fun I just like to laugh.

 

To relax a little and take in the moment.

 

While in chapel today the speaker was talking about how as a Chaplin of a prison there are many people that have lost all joy and hope, inmates kill themselves because they don’t believe when or if they get out that they will be able to enjoy life. I’ve never been in prison and I hope not to be, but I have been in places in my life where there seemed to be no joy and no hope. My sin was deeper than I could see and thicker than prison bars. BUT GOD, he has restored my joy, he has given me hope for a future, and he has been walking with me, or is it I with him? For fun stop and think about the joys, find hope in that fact that you have life. For fun laugh and enjoy each moment.

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter