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Tag: Christian Living

The Initiative Weapon: Look Up!
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Top Stories

The Initiative Weapon: Look Up!

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice We've spent a lot of time with nursery rhymes lately. Today, let's trade Mother Goose for a swimsuit. Have you ever done something wonderfully weird? Nearly 14 years ago, while celebrating our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, Sherrie and I traveled to Cozumel, Mexico. One morning we signed up for a snorkeling excursion in the beautiful Caribbean Sea. Our guide took us by boat to a coral reef two miles offshore, and before long we were floating above one of the most breathtaking displays of God's creation I have ever seen. It felt like swimming through the world's largest saltwater aquarium. Schools of tropical fish glided effortlessly through brilliant coral formations while strange sea plants danced with the rhythm of ...
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The Thriftiness Weapon: A-Tisket A-Tasket
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

The Thriftiness Weapon: A-Tisket A-Tasket

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice A-tisket, a-tasket, a green and yellow basket. I wrote a letter to my love, and on the way I dropped it. Like most children, I never gave much thought to those words. I imagined a little girl happily skipping along with her colorful basket until, somewhere along the road, she accidentally dropped it. It wasn't until years later that I realized the basket wasn't really the tragedy. Baskets are replaceable. The real loss was what she was carrying. She dropped the letter to her love. The older I get, the more I realize that's exactly how life works. Most don't lose everything overnight. We lose it one misplaced treasure at a time. Looking back, I wish I had been a little more thrifty with the things that mattered most. I'd gi...
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The Hidden Trust Weapon: Olly, Olly, Oxen Free!
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The Hidden Trust Weapon: Olly, Olly, Oxen Free!

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice "Olly, olly, oxen free!" If you're smiling right now, you're probably remembering the same thing I am. Long before smartphones, video games, and streaming television, neighborhood kids had an amazing ability to entertain themselves. We'd ride our bikes until the streetlights came on, play baseball in empty lots, build forts out of scrap lumber, and, when the evening shadows grew just a little longer, someone would shout, "Let's play hide-and-seek!" The seeker would cover his eyes and begin counting while the rest of us scattered in every direction—behind bushes, under porches, between parked cars, anywhere we thought no one would ever find us. Of course, we weren't nearly as hidden as we imagined. Looking back, I can still ...
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The Sincerity Weapon: Jack Be Nimble
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The Sincerity Weapon: Jack Be Nimble

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Jack be nimble. Jack be quick. Jack jump over the candlestick. As children, we rarely stop to think about what this little rhyme means. We simply picture a boy leaping over a candlestick with speed, courage, and just enough daring to make us smile. Maybe that's why it has endured for generations. Every child dreams of jumping over something exciting. I know I did. Growing up in Southern California during Evel Knievel's heyday was nothing short of inspiring. Every bicycle became a motorcycle, every curb became a canyon, and every homemade plywood ramp became another opportunity to attempt the impossible. Like millions of other boys, I dreamed of flying through the air, sticking the landing, and hearing the applause. Evel was...
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The creativity weapon: Loving the crooked man
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The creativity weapon: Loving the crooked man

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice When I was little, one of my favorite people ever was Grandma Ivy, still is. She wasn't famous. She never stood behind a pulpit or wrote a book. But she was a superhero. During many of my toddler and elementary years, she was my guardian, my safe place, and my greatest teacher. Like so many grandmothers, she had a way of turning ordinary moments into lasting memories. One of those memories was a simple nursery rhyme she taught me: "There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile. He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile. He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse, and they all lived together in a little crooked house." Back then, I thought it was just a funny rhyme. I smiled because everything in...
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The award wasn’t the greatest gift of the weekend
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Don't Eat Toast Naked, Approved, Commentary, State

The award wasn’t the greatest gift of the weekend

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Don't Eat Toast Naked Drake Hunter reflects on receiving Rocky Mountain Voice's Trailblazer Award during RMV Freedom Fest and why the weekend's greatest lesson came after the applause ended. Some weeks are so full you don’t know where to begin. This was one of those weeks. For more than two years, I’ve had the privilege of serving alongside the incredible team at Rocky Mountain Voice. What began as writing a weekly devotional has grown into friendships, opportunities, and experiences I never could have imagined. Over the past several months, that journey has taken me to places I never expected—including attending Turning Point USA in Phoenix with Heidi Ganahl, flying on a private jet for the first time, and helpi...
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The Deference Weapon: Ring Around the Rosie and the Second Mile
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The Deference Weapon: Ring Around the Rosie and the Second Mile

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Ring around the rosie, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down. Most of us learned Ring Around the Rosie before we learned how to tie our shoes. We held hands, spun in circles, laughed, and then intentionally fell to the ground together. Nobody was trying to win. Nobody was competing for attention. Nobody was demanding their rights. For a few brief moments, everyone moved together…Then we grew up! Today, it seems we've forgotten how. Everywhere we look, people are fighting for position. We fight for attention, recognition, influence, and control. We fight to be heard, to be right, and to make sure no one gets ahead of us. The cultural message is clear: stand your ground, protect your rights, and never let a...
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The Self-Control Weapon: Don’t Pull the Plum Yet
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The Self-Control Weapon: Don’t Pull the Plum Yet

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, eating his Christmas pie. He put in his thumb, pulled out a plum, and said, "What a good boy am I." Most of us learned that nursery rhyme as children and never gave it another thought. But through the lens of Jesus, Little Jack Horner tells a familiar story. Jack sees something he wants, reaches for it, takes it, and congratulates himself for getting it. That sounds a lot like us. We live in a world of immediate gratification. We want answers now, comfort now, success now, relief now, and pleasure now. Yet one of the greatest lessons Jesus teaches is that strength is often found in waiting. You see, before Jesus preached a sermon, healed a disease, or called a disciple, the Spirit led hi...
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The reliability weapon: Humpty’s wall
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The reliability weapon: Humpty’s wall

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again. Most people think the lesson of Humpty Dumpty is about falling. It isn't. It's about trust. You don't sit on a wall unless you trust the wall. You don't climb high unless you trust what holds you up. And you don't build relationships unless you trust the people around you. The real tragedy wasn't that Humpty fell. Everyone falls. The tragedy was that when he broke apart, nobody knew how to put the pieces back together. That's where the nursery rhyme collides with the teachings of Jesus. The world says reliability is showing up, keeping your promises, being on time, and doing what you sa...
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The generosity weapon: This little light goes to war
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The generosity weapon: This little light goes to war

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine…” The many weapons in the Kingdom of God seem weak; some include humility, meekness, joy, and now, generosity. None of these sounds like weapons capable of winning a war, yet Jesus teaches that life's battles are won differently than the world imagines. While the world fights with power, pushing, positioning, and preferences, Christ fights with goodwill and character. His weapons transform hearts, heal relationships, and illuminate the goodness within all reality. Generosity is one of the greatest weapons in Jesus’ arsenal, not the generosity the world offers, which is merely giving something away, but Jesus style, where everyone benefits.  Generosity, when properl...
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