Master & Servant

In every person there is a master and a servant. Those of us who sweep our lives beneath the kitchen rug, at our best, are servants. Others who dictate the feelings of others are, at their worst, masters. But don't let these extremes take away from the balance of each lifestyles if tempered. In order to tie our shoes or eat our food, we must be masters. In order to say, "Hello!" or listen to music we must be servants. So how do we find the balance?

The Servant...

The servant takes care of everyone else without thought of how they personally may be affected. As noble as that is, this gift, if not tempered, can become the ruin of a person. How you say? Because this gift also can become an escape mechanism. A tool used in order to avoid dealing with things without guilt or shame. After all, "I was helping ____". You were present elsewhere when you should have been present in your own life. It's fulfilling to help people, but at the cost of losing yourself and those close to you it is meaningless. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?- Matthew 16:26" It doesn't matter if you gained the whole world for selfish or selfless reasons. What we do only has meaning if it is ordered by God. Everything else just gets in the way of what God wants to do in other people's lives and in our own.

The Master...

It's easy to assume the negative effects of solely becoming a master. Our mind immediately goes to a sort of dictator or abusive controller. How about someone who holds grudges? Let's see if I have this correctly.."You weren't able to master the situation, so in order to alleviate your anxiety you believe, by harboring anger, in your heart and remembering every detail of how that person wronged you, you are in some way mastering the situation or overcoming it by "Never forgetting"? I'm always taken aback by the mercy of God when He says, "Love keeps no record of wrongs- I Corinthians 13:5". Or what about when you can't face other people because, "I'm not good enough". In your solitude you are only mastering how to hide your feelings of doubt.

Ask yourself,

"Who am I today?"

"Am I a servant to help others? Or to help myself?"

"Am I a master of other people, or am I a master of my own actions"?


Who ever you are today, believe you can become someone different tomorrow--and you will be. Jesus died so that we may live-- not so that we would be in bondage to a life of imbalance.

I AM With You

I am with you when you're alone...

I want you, I want you, I want you.

I see you when no one sees you.
I see when you see the invisible.
I see how you are blind to hatred.
I see why you hurt inside.

I hear you're every word,
I hear what you are too afraid to say.
I hear that they misunderstand,
I hear when no one else can.

I know why you smile,
I know where you go,
I know when you sleep,
I know.

I want your anger,
I want your disappointment,
I want your hands, and your feet.
I want your mouth and I want your love.

I died so that you could see.
I died so that you could hear.
I died so that you could know.
I died so that you would...

Want me.
See me.
Hear me.
Know me.

Die for me and I will live for you.

False Change/Failed Hope

It sounded good for a perfect world,
Change for the people stuck in tradition's mire.
You offered hope for the hopeless and freedom from oppression,
Wallstreet's crime and God's brimstone and fire.
I've yet to see what's really gone right.
This economic downturn has people just "livin' the life",
Forgetting your vision and remembering the pain,
Drinking and "poppin'"- all things remaining the same.
The only change can come from within,
The hope of glory and the redemption of sin.

Dance, dance, dance

Round and round we go...we play the part so well.
A dance of illusion, a dance of passion.
Substance? Where is it?
Commitment? No where.
This is the tango boring,
The dance for the neglected,
The dance 'til morning.

An Emotional Day at the Bank...

And it was all to do with art! Maybe I'm melodramatic..perhaps even hormonal eek. Nonetheless. I had a full-out crying moment in front of customers today while working. Yes, but I wasn't embarrassed. No, I was too captivated by the artist's reverie.

I think it's the combination of bright colors, light and subtle exposure of thoughts that just illuminates my life when I look at them : D

Thank you Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema for taking my breath away...

Who am I?

By name You called me, formed me, loved me.
I am Maria, full of You. So true that like the flower,I sway in the wind, I change on a whim,I wilt in the storm,Yet I bloom in your Light. I look up and thirst for Your water, a taste of You, the grace of You. You surround me with trees, with roots that mold me, shift me, hold me. My colors impress the world around me, but my colors are a reflection of you. I want that if every man could know your beauty, It is because they have come to know me.

Untitled

Her mind is unsettled and her heart is weeping,
She knows not what her future brings.
She knows not what her past has taught.
Secretly she observes and ponders her beginnings,
"This life so short, this life of meaning."

"How is it I walk through life with daily tasks at hand?
"Tomorrow to the store." "Tomorrow with the band."
But how is it I feel so helpless,
I do nothing, feed no one, and go no where.
No where! I am no where."

Progress seems to be happening, change is on the scene,
"I am woman from this world!"
I am is desperate, I am needs freeing.
I am, is who she is not,
Scarred is what we see,
Confidence has left her, Beauty's fading dream.
"Strength's gone? It cannot be!
It cannot be, I AM, it cannot be!"

But then she will sleep, tomorrow anew.
A new sunrise, a new meal.
She will look different and feel more absolute-
"Nothing in this world is real,
Nothing in this world for free."