Karen's Clan

It's struck me over the last few days that I haven't written from my heart in a while...and that began to perturb me. It's not that I need this to be a journal, or I want every Jane, Sally and Mary to know my inner thought life...but it's this: I most respect the people I know who are honest, open and vulnerable. I respond most to blogs where ruthless trust leads bloggers to share deeply and transparently. I find that honesty and openness so very refreshing - it revitalizes me and makes my days take on a rose colored hue as there is someone being

Truly, it does that to me. It takes my breath away.

And somehow it INSPIRES me to be the real me.

None of this hiding behind my beautiful children or the wonderful ways in which we are learning, or the glorious fun we are having...but the real me, the 'all-of-me' me peeking out and standing tall and declaring - this is me! These are my thoughts! My feelings! What I've learnt! Do you see? Can you relate to me?

...because part of me wants to bleed out onto this page...
...because words penetrate into our souls and lodge there...
...to be recalled whilst we wait at swimming lessons, stand in the grocery line, wash dishes or cook food...
Words can bring life or death, they have the power to build up and tear down...
Simple words....strung together into simple sentences...

So here are my "some things"...

Thing # 1






Life sure is hard.
In so many ways.
And it differs for all of us - financially (I know folk (and not just one family - four families) in some really desperate situations), relationally (how is it that I now seem to be in the age bracket where divorce is the topic of many conversations?), health (a friend has just brought home her brand new baby after spending a month in the hospital)...
And I've heard it said so often recently, that Christ didn't come to make it all hunky dory, but He did come to give us the grace to walk on through it, to rise above it and to be transformed through it. But sometimes,, if I'm honest, that promise isn't enough to make me look beyond the  "life is just crappy" part...very quickly.



Thing #2
When life FEELS like that, and presents us with all this "evidence" that God surely doesn't care as much about us as we thought, we can be tricked into thinking we haven't been good enough to get what we think we deserve (finances, marriage partners, community etc). We haven't been holy enough, or done enough good works...we can start to draw some pretty damning conclusions about God. And you know what? Right now, where I'm at, I'm learning that the good fight of faith means CHOOSING to believe and trust in God and his character no matter what. NO MATTER WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS...



Thing #3
Life is all about relationships.
Everywhere we look.

We were created our of relationship in Eden...
 ...designed for relationship...
... redeemed because of a relationship...
... and eternity is all about a relationship.

We are born as a result of a relationship.
And we spend the rest of our lives relating.

And I am finding relationships to be downright tricky.

To remain connected to the hearts of the ones I love the most requires monumental grace - to overcome the self that is me that so often gets in the way. Relationships can be so fragile, bruised or battered in an instant by misunderstood words. Hearing what you think someone is saying instead of hearing what they are actually saying...and I'm seeing in so many ways that communication is the key.And I've also begun to see that sometimes hurt or strained relationships, as hard and as awful as they are, only serve to deepen relationships. Depth (in some shape or form) always comes out of pain, ...and it always takes the balm of time to soothe it out.

Thing #4


Wisdom comes from actual and costly experience - that pearl of wisdom is straight out of the Amplified and I love it...and am sobered by it. In recent experiences I have learnt ...what I should have done or should have said...(hindsight is a 20/20 vision), which sadly is no good to me now, but I now stand prepared for the future...and with wisdom when it comes to instructing my kids....



Food for thought huh?