Cara Colleen

The Weight of Glory

As sunset-lit moon rises up in the sky
While its colored dimness grows beautifully bright,
So we who belong to the King reigning high,
From glory to glory increase in Your light.
We’re reflections of You, Lord, with faces unveiled,
Beholding the glory of God in this place,
Displaying for others a glory much paled
Through troubles and trials with vision and grace.
Your Spirit brings freedom and light to our lives
As we bow our hearts and our wills to Your love.
“Light afflictions” teach faith as our outer man dies
While our inward man fixes our eyes up above.
Holy Spirit, please, help us keep turning to You,
For Your holy, eternal, glorious weight still renews.

2 Cor. 3:16-18 “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

2 Cor. 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

I Dare You

[Note: I found this a couple of days ago. I have no idea WHEN exactly I wrote it. Maybe Sept. 2005 or July 2008. I don't even remember writing it, except I seem to have just ranted on paper, put it in a Word doc, formatted it, and then emailed it to myself so I wouldn't lose it. It's definitely my style, and it's just the word I needed to hear right now. ~Cara]

Life can be really difficult sometimes… and unfair…
And just generally unbearable in moments of crisis!
It has been so for me at least,
Not only on a personal level,
But for close friends and family as well.
I rail at what most people call fate, thinking,
“What did we do to deserve this???”
The answer of course is “nothing”.
The perversities and hardships come crashing in.
Everything falls all in a heap about our ears,
Heedless of tears and prayers and pleas for mercy.
Push the right button on each of us and we blow up.
Life blows up… KABOOM!
We end up making do with what we’re handed out
Or sometimes starting from scratch all over again.
The thing is that
Everybody has issues, stresses, problems,
Crises on various levels.
If you start talking about who deserves what,
Well, then, I mean, REALLY,
Who doesn’t deserve problems?
We’ve all done things wrong.
Nobody’s perfect.
We all make mistakes and bad choices.
Sometimes those have direct consequences.
Sometimes they have indirect consequences.
And (sigh) sometimes things just happen.

You run over a nail in the road and your tire blows out.
The nail was just there.
No one put it there on purpose.
You couldn’t see it and so couldn’t avoid it.
Now, you have to stop traveling
(Towards whatever goal you can name),
Get out, and fix the problem.
That, my friends, is where we really face the fire.
Are we bitter? Do we resent having to stop and deal?
Will we just keep going and avoid the issue?
Will we lose our temper, expending needed energy?
Or can we take our lump,
Focus our intellect and strength on changing the tire
(i.e. dealing with the problem), and
Thank the Father above, for a moment,
For the mercies we have on other days.
You know-
The days when the road is clear,
Our tanks and our bellies are full, or at least, not empty,
The weather is fine, and we can continue,
Unimpeded, on our journey.

So, life is difficult and unfair and sometimes unbearable,
But we’re breathing, aren’t we?
Every moment we breathe is a reminder
That our life is sustained by mercy and grace alone.
We can accept the mercy, stand on the grace, and
Extend that same mercy and grace to others.
Or waste our lives throwing tantrums-
Instead of moving forward with each new day.
The earth spins on its axis and
Lets us see the daylight dawning
With a brand new perspective.
God didn’t promise to deliver us from fire and water,
But He did promise to walk through it with us.
It’s been awesome realizing I’m not alone… ever.
By His Word, I am sustained.
By His Spirit, I am comforted.
By His Blood, I am forgiven and able to start afresh.
I dare you to try trusting Him if you haven’t.
You’ll be surprised at how much difference it makes!

Meditation: Psalm 23

Please take a few minutes to read this page. I hope it blesses you.

http://caracolleen.com/about-my-prose/meditation_psalm_23/

First Time Camping

It was unanimous… Site B8 with an extra tent pad,
Lots of trees, water close by and the showers not too far…
Area B was all ours for two days in a slow season!
Three excited teenage boys jumped out,
Scurrying around trying to do everything at once,
Hours later with tent set up, fire lit,
Dinner cooked, and “what now?” looks,
Lethargy attacked with unbearable humid heat.

Three X-Box addicted boys asked constantly,
“What do we do now, mom?”
I just shook my head and sent them to bed early.
At sunset it was easy to promise
Next-day swimming, canoeing, hiking….
Funny, even without an X-box,
They managed to amuse themselves with stories.

Morning brought leisurely showers…
To cool off from a hot night and hotter morning,
Then into swimming suits and down to the beach.
The shallow water was on the cool side of tepid–
Perfect for lounging and playing and splashing.
After lunch, thunder and lightning showed up,
Canoeing postponed, nature center trip instead.
Evening brought grilled burgers and s’mores…
And a movie in the air-conditioned van.

Then to the tents and a major storm,
Thunder, lightning, pouring rain…
The full experience included a small river of mud
Running down the hill ending in front of
The boys’ tent, and wet items all ’round
Where the water seeped through.

Charcoal briquets cooked pancakes
In the rain, under an umbrella…
Rain and all, though, with no more lightning,
We got in our canoes out on the lake!
Lunch, packing (all our wet stuff), and
Home to civilization.

Could have been better,
Could have been worse.
Despite the misery of heat,
Camping still rocks…
Next time will be better!