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

Day 60 “A Year of Thoughts”: What If

What if the world really did need to know?

What if they really did need to know our life stories in memoir form so that they might learn from our joy’s and failures and be encouraged to live more open and honest lives. I hope the world does come to know the importance of story. To know their deepest needs and bloodiest wounds can be met and healed through countless life changing stories. For by telling our story, our whole story and nothing but the trust of our story despite the pain and open wounds the world might come to know the healing that we all so desperately need.

What if we took off our masks, spoke our insecurities as we turn them into confidence.

What if we know the world would end tomorrow would you want everyone to finally know who you are.

What if I told you all my lies and secrets to a world that would listen.

What if people could really see the things that have changed in my life over the past twenty-two years.

What if the ones who know me the best really knew my struggles.

What if I were Honest…

Then what if the world would follow.

What if a small honest life were all it took to change the mind of the world.

Wake up to What if?

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 32 “A Year of Thoughts”: Observe. Ask Questions.

How often do we stop and observe the world around us? While on a walk today with my best friend we talked a lot about a number of things but we came to this point where we stopped on this dirt road that runs between two fields, in that moment we just took in the view. A pheasant spooked us a little when it flew out of the tall grass on the side of the road. Some birds were thought were orioles sung from their perches, the sky was bright blue and the moon stood out though the sun was clearly in the western sky. With each slow in take of breathe I tried to see something new and beyond what I saw I imagined what might be there.

 

In that moment there were four questions I asked my friend.

 

 

 

What do you hear?

What do you see?

What do you feel?

What is troubling your soul?

Ask these questions everyday. Observe the world around you. Take a deep look into your soul, what is troubling you? What we see, hear, touch, and feel, forces us to be honest with ourselves and our world. What are we observing? What are we experiencing?

Observe.

Ask Questions.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 30 “A Year of Thoughts”: Take a Walk

“Enoch walked with God; then he was no more because God took him away.” – Genesis 5:24

“Before he was taken, he was commend as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God’ because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” – Hebrews 11:5-6

On many nice sunny days and warm evenings I really enjoy taking walks through town and down the country roads. But those walks are best when I can share them with someone else. My best friend and I like to get out of town and walk through the fields.

The wind whistling in every direction, the tall dried grass clapping as if a parade were in line, the clouds making shapes like dragons or horses in the sky and the sun slowly setting to the west. The walk is full of adventure, excitement, long conversations and meaningful silence. The birds catch our eyes as they float and turn like synchronized areal swimmers. Our shoes kick up the dirt with each step we take.

Sometimes when we walk we don’t have a certain place to we have to go or anywhere to be. We are simply taking the time to walk together, to experience the day together, to get away and see that there is to see. On those walks we learn a lot about each other, we learn how ti slowdown, to skip together, to run, to sit, to stand and to pause to take in each moment like it might be our very last.

It’s walks like this with my best friend that I picture Enoch walking with God. As if they are best friends experiencing each step together. Seeing the world, God created, together. Each step of theit walk more intimate, God learning how Enoch sees the world and Enoch experiencing little by little the presence of God. A walk hardly a walk without a little conversation, the ones with Enoch and God are long and meaningful but not without pauses and silence that carry just as much meaning.

Enoch lived his faith, he walked with

God, he didn’t just practice the presence of God he got to experience it.

I long for me life to be like Enoch’s. For my faith to move me to daily walk with God, daily grow to know his presence more, to learn him, to be intimate with him, to hear and listen and have long conversations.

The story of Enoch is one of hope. Hope that through the weariness of our souls longing to walk with God, that God is already walking with us. Sometimes we have to wake up, open our eyes and see that God is right there, Maybe you should take a walk, get out of town and talk to God, he’s right there.

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 19 “A Year of Thoughts”: Your Face Tells a Story

Today is Day 320 in my adventure of taking a picture a day for a whole year. Mathematically that means I’m 45 days away from completing my goal. For me this has been a great learning experience and more of a challenge then I thought it would be. There were somedays that just seem to beg for the camera to be taken out of the case and taken on some grand adventure to fins those things worth taking a picture while there were other days that taking a picture was an after thought once everything else the day had to hold had ran it’s course.

I learned to not get disappointed and not compare one day’s picture to another because each day was different. Each day had it’s challenge. Each day had it’s different sunsets and weather to case that sunset was my choice to make. Each day had it’s unexpected and it’s planned moments but when to take a picture was always different.

 

This has challenged my commitment level each day, even though taking a picture is a small commitment it has a lasting effect on me knowing that I can do something everyday for a whole year. Not just something like brush my teeth or take a shower, but something out of the ordinary, something that stretched my creativity and also challenged me to think more outside the box.

 

There were days I would think for hours about how I wanted to take a certain picture or catch an idea or message through a picture and then do it. There were days that I would create something to go in the picture and if it didn’t turn out the way I wanted I would create something else. (This happened a lot actually.) There were days were ideas came fast and quick. The pictures taken could be anywhere from on average 70 to 150 pictures on a good day or as low as 10. Taking a picture a day opened my eyes literally to a passion that I had dabbled in as a kid but hadn’t really considered pursuing until I took on this challenge.

 

There is just something about capturing a moment, or framing a day, or a place, a time, an idea, a message or just anything. For me these pictures have created memories for me. I can tell stories about most of the days from the last year because of these pictures. I like the challenge, I like to be challenged, especially when that challenge deals with being creative.

 

As a little part of this challenge to myself I wanted to explore a little more about myself and getting to know me for me. I know that sounds a little weird, but one of the questions that has come out of this past year in a number of ways is how can I be more honest with myself and others? So why not through pictures. Many of these picture have captured little parts of me, my passion, my heart, my thoughts, my feelings, emotions, travels, stories and life.

 

I have taken over 120 self portraits over the past year to help me understand me. To catch a moment and look back and try to think through what I was thinking through. The self portraits are not because I want attention on me, or need everyone to remember what I look like, no the self portraits tell me stories. As if my own face is telling me my story over the past year. I think I read somewhere or I’m making this up that a photographer can look at a picture and always see beyond it, in it and though it, they were in that moment so the story is there for them. The rest of the world my not understand the story but they get it. Now I get it…

 

One of the pictures that has come to mean a lot to me from the project 365 and is one of the self portraits is this picture I took while sitting in a bed up against the wall in a room that my friend David and I used as our teachers lounge while I was teaching at the International school in Carpina, Brazil. The picture was taken in the midst of my trying to stop crying because for two hours I had the worst homesickness of my entire twenty-two years of life. In that moment I had been telling God he had to carry me through the rest of my time in Brazil. I was tired and worn out and I had three months to go. In that moment I knew all my tears were not in vain, I realized how human I was, how much I needed God’s strength and how deeply I really wanted to learn how to love the students I was teaching. That for me was one of the defining moments in that trip.

 

 

 

 

 

Another portrait that I really like is this one where I’m looking through a magnifying glass. I remember finding the magnifying glass somewhere in the school after I had gotten done teaching for the day. But in the picture you can see parts of the sky behind it. I wasn’t planning on catching the sky but it happened. The picture is a reminder to me of how much I love to adventure and find new things, to find the unexpected and to look close at life. Life interests me more than any other subject. How we live each and every day of our lives must be examined, experienced, and sometimes looked at through a magnifying glass.

 

 

 

 

One of the cool self portraits that I took came when I discover my interest in lighting. With different lighting you can create different effects on the face or object. I don’t think I really thought about lighting until I started taking pictures each day. This one picture basically was just my face pressed as close to the light bulb as I could without touching it and seeing if I could get half my face to disappear. It took me a while but it worked. So I have the picture to remember.

 

 

 

 

There are obviously many different pictures that I have taken over the past year that are “self portraits” and each tells a story but to share them all would make for a really long blog post that even I might not want to read. However, the last one that I want to share is a picture that I titled “Justice” it’s a self portrait that I took in response to human trafficking and the sex trade. I feel strongly about these things and finding justice for those who cannot speak for themselves. To me the pictures says a lot with saying very little.

 

Through project 365 I have been able to learn a lot about my self and my world. I believe many people assume they know themselves and they assume they know the world around them but I challenge them to take a picture, to really be honest with themselves, to look deep into their own life. To take a real honest look at the world, did you know that there are human’s enslaved right here in the USA, did you know that most of our youth, the next Generation are broken and longing for healing, did you know that most people go through life without meaning or purpose, did you know that your face tells a story every single day.

 

You are telling a story… Remembering your story, understanding yourself honestly will help you tell that story.

 

Even when this project is over I hope to keep learning and being challenged to become a better photographer and help people tell their stories.

 

How will you live?

 

How will you tell your story?

 

-Caleb Ross Hunter

Day 13 “A Year of Thoughts”: Expanding Theology

 

My theology is expanding not because God is changing but my understanding, experience and relationship with him is expanding, growing, and changing.

 

I can’t put God in a box.

 

Everyday is a chance to experience him through the world that he has put us in. Today I had a very good conversation with my friend Isaac on the topic of life and theology. He expressed his frustrations with the christian buzz words that are often said without real honest action and I talked about my heart for the broken. These are a few of my thoughts after this conversation.

 

Many of the people around us have brokenness but they are unable to move past it because often as the church we have spent so much time talking rather than moving forward, finding healing, and facing the fact that we need healing.

 

God has so much more for our lives than we believe.

 

There is so much potential that we have, Why do we limit God?

 

Why do we not explore more of the world God created?

 

Why is our theology set?

 

Why is it not growing? Expanding?

 

I believe my God is bigger than I can ever understand but I will not settle for putting God in a box.

 

I Can’t put God in a Box.

 

My God is amazing beyond amazing. He is without limits. My theology is expanding because God is still working on my life. He is healing my wounds, loving me more each day, his forgiveness is endless.

 

Do you get God is not in a box. He is right beside you as you make your choices in life.

 

LIVE LIFE

 

Stop Talking

 

Start Living

 

Start Loving

 

Start Forgiving

 

Let God expand your theology

 

Let him expand your world

 

 

– Caleb Ross Hunter

To Live to Show the World There is More…

In the midst of life the world is often a mess.

It’s as if God is giving us a huge part to play in the restoration of the world.

A chance to show love, to start over, to face the pain and change.

Everybody wants to change but no body wants the pain it takes to change!

 

The world didn’t use to be like this mess and this is not how it’s suppose to be…

 

Jesus didn’t say that we are first and foremost sinners, but we do sin and that makes all of us sinners,

 

BUT

 

That does not define us,

It does not trap us in the wreck

It does not chain us to the past

 

 

Our identity is in Christ.

Children of God,

Made to be creative,

 

Full of Love

Full of Joy

Full of life

 

Not that we deserved anything but DEATH

 

BUT

 

We are made whole and made to live to show the world that there is More…

Love, when the world asks, Why?

Love, When the world asks, Why?

The world will look at us
With their questioning eyes
They will be moved to speak
And they ask us why?

Why such joy?
Why such peace?
Why? Why? Why?

The world will always say
Isn’t this a hopeless place?
Aren’t these war torn hearts?
And they ask us why?

Love shall be our response.

-Caleb Ross Hunter