Who is Chuck Carr?
I’m known by a name,
but so much more defines me.
I’m a man formed of the clay God’s hands brought together,
a sculpture of dirt. An artwork in progress.
God’s breath filled my lungs and turned me alive,
though in a fallen world, disease kept me from breathing well.
It tried to choke me many times.
A grandmother prayed, now I breathe anew, and full,
And thankful I am for the life I’ve been given.
§
I’m known by my past.
A record etched in the minds of many others,
of what once was, a home and family planted and nurtured in God’s care.
Disease came, yet so many prayed,
and I also believed fully.
Death swept away, a life was taken, and I stood all alone. Myself.
I stood asking why? alike all the rest,
As I watched a world fall apart,
yet God held me,
unawares.
§
A man purposed to help, I served many,
with God’s songs and messages, words of hope and passion.
I served God’s church, his people with love.
My mission marched on, I saw it well,
until nightmares split, divided, and chased the flock away.
My home now destroyed, the body broken,
by that which God never desired. Factions.
Hurt. A wreckage of his bride.
And so, I stood to help the fleeing sheep
From those who broke the unity of the saints.
Where have they all gone?
§
I am a man born by fire, and the many trials of hard life.
Forged in the strength of wilderness wonderings,
raging, untamed seas, and mountain peaks of frost and bitter cold.
My form and fashion have been altered, sharpened,
polished to a gleaming form, a glistening sword in the right hand of my maker.
Yes, I have been reimagined in different dress,
a suit of ashes, a coat of bronze.
§
After searching my soul to find who I am,
I desire it with all the burning passion a man can possess.
I once waived his banner,
The colors of Christ’s name I waived for the whole world to see.
Yet I sit dismembered, broken, without dignity.
Can one bud forth from the flame that claims the forest?
Ashes surround me, I want life renewed.
§
A fourth time more the world more was taken away.
A strike to the head, bone crushed, along with memory and balance,
I expected waking in heaven’s glory, excited to see Jesus
Though I waited to be brought to him,
my eyes opened in the room of a foreign, chilling place,
a thread sewing my forehead together again.
The dark room, a bright light above me.
Unexpected, my life lived on longer,
Days pained in despair as I watched those around me,
grieve the loss of the same health I mourned.
A life changed; a story suddenly altered.
§
Yet God is good, and no one can trump him.
And what his word says, holds true, I know.
For my life has been repurposed, and my vision cleared
and focused. I am overjoyed.
The enemy mocked the Lord with accident,
but Jesus created me again
and through the pain and hurt and loss
I’ve never been as blessed.
§
My life is a testament of what
Jesus Christ can do.
Taking someone from the ashes, and once formed
strong and lit bright, placed tall again upon a hilltop.
A pen in hand, I ask my Savior to create through me,
pages flow, people read.
And hearts and spirits are mended and healed.
§
Who is Chuck Carr?
One broken, beat, and bruised in life,
Only to be dusted off, given purpose, a pen.
I am a candle on a hilltop burning.
A flickering flame of light to
Illuminate all the world I can reach
As fast as I can,
As fervent as I write
To point the way to Jesus
Because his love has carried me.