Modern Slavery

Born into this world, a world where love is everywhere
Love is passion, love is ecstasy, love is without reason
True love is compromise


Born into a world of billboards and board games, everyone is played
A Player of this game called "Love" disguised as your Prince Charming
Knows exactly what to say,
He's played this game before


Unknown to you, you're taught the rules
You start-- unsure but smooth words and easy use are your
So-called-proof that he won't hurt you that way
But  you're quickly used


You're coddled and held until your fears are dispelled, but when that embrace breaks, so does your heart
He's gone. Without an anthem or goodbye, not even a wave
He's crashed your room and you are the broom left to clean up
The broken pieces of a real heart


Giving you no time at all, he shattered glass and you broke his mask
Seeing your so called "proof" was just another rule in this game called life
His excuse? You just weren't "in love" anymore


He came and you fell in. This game trapped you like an addiction
Fuel to your ego, you gave him everything
He came with a price and his "love" an expiration date
You were just a temporary until another came with a fresher heart


Tear stained and bloodied, you vowed to never be the victim again
He will be sorry
But your room of mirrors was talking back to you
No wonder he left you
Your height grew taller and your hair lighter
Mouth redder and eyes darker.. your heart harder


No longer will you be the one stumbled, so you became the block
Stumbling even the hardest of preys, you were entered and used
Without a hue of the real color love


You were only a game, played again and again like a broken record player
Until you took that step further
Instead of being held and felt then trashed and used and left
Without a second look behind


You made a deal with a devil
Selling your heart, soul, body and mind for a couple bucks a time
You realized this love sucks


But this devil said you were too far in this time
Who would want you now?
So you became louder
Your shallow laugh higher, your once so precious smile naughtier
Could anything recover you now?


Spat upon, dejected and rejected by even those who were "called" to help you
Could it get any worse?
You were marred beyond recognition, bruised and tattered
Trying to scrape up what was left of your
Once very precious heart


Being thrown down, you were accused. Your charges? Prostitution
They handed that Man a stone and told Him to throw
You already braced for the impact of words, could a stone be much worse?


But what did He do? "Only those who are sinless can throw the first stone."
Sinless? Sinful you were. The least among society they told you
But they still kept paying you


You knew your worth: Nothing. Useless and trashed is what you became
But something stirred you, and that amazed you. No stones
Now there was a gentle hand upon your head saying, "Go and sin no more."
He looked upon you not with lust but love. You have never seen that look before


Now He smiled! Genuine and true, He smiled. He threw no stones;
He only looked at you with love in the depths of His eyes
No disguise. Your mask fell along with the tears that had so long been held in


Suddenly His story came to you:
Hung on a tree blameless and pure; He hung for the blamed
He took your stones meant for you
He fell and covered you. Protecting you. Loving you.


Loving you not for the things you had done, but simply what
He could do for you
So long felling empty and weak, He renewed your heart
Planting within it His promise of Ezekiel 36:26


Hardened heart no more.
Free of these chains that bound you. Free of the lust and lies of so many


Finally, you felt not the need of being louder than that, or prettier than her
You sat quietly in His love. Knowing your worth: Everything.
Because He quieted you with His love


No longer did you feel tired and abused; you met Him and He carried you and gave you rest
Suddenly these billboards, you could see, were covered in lies
Love is not about the passion, it's about the patience. Not the ecstasy and not envy
Not without reason, but with truth


True


Love


Waits


True love is not about what you can give to me, but what I can sacrifice for you.
He gave it all for you


Opening you up, He sewed your heart back together, making it new
No longer was it hardened but compassionate
You were renewed. You had scars that matched His
Showing the beauty in the once broken


Those others were no longer your competition, but now your mission;
His mission.
To liberate the slave and set free the chained


Because You


Were


Saved


Born into this world, a world where lies are everywhere
Your past does not define you. He defines you
And you
Are new

In Disguise

     I want you to humor me for a minute. Close your eyes take a second and simply think of the following word: servant. What is the mental picture that comes into your mind? Is it a gracious prince or princess in disguise? Most of the time that is what comes into my mind; a prince or princess in disguises simply waiting to be rescued and regain their rightful place as royalty. Why does that come to my mind? I once blamed it on being a total romantic. My dad once said that I can get excited even when a leaf falls from a tree.
It’s true. I am a dreamer and romanticize everything, even servants. I have been thinking a lot about my thought process on servants lately and I will tell you why I believe God created me like this. In order for you to understand, I will have to start from the beginning.

     I am currently reading Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Being only one-hundred pages into a almost nine-hundred page book, it doesn’t seem like I have the right to an opinion quite yet. However, these are simply my initial thoughts pertaining to a minor area of the book—and that is the character Levin’s compassion and love toward the peasants and poor versus the wealthier Russian society.

     In a nut shell, Levin is a man that lives in the country, works with his hands, and thus realizes he is a common man. (I feel like it is necessary to add: Probably due to never having had a boyfriend, I fall in love with qualities in fictional characters… and Levin, so far, is no exception. He is humble, compassionate, innocent, intelligent… Well, I suppose I should get back to my original thoughts, because where I am going is enough to fill a novel. Anyway…) while in town, he meets with his friends, who are very wealthy distinguished individuals. Levin gets into a conversation in which his “friends” are teasing him about even giving thought to the poor and meek. Because what hope do the poor have? They are destitute, lacking education, food, clothing and title. For lack of a better word, they are losers. Anna Karenina was written in the mid-1870’s; however the culture’s views still have not changed much, even in America where “all men were created equal.”

     It is circulated throughout the world that without money you are nothing. You cannot have an education, nor play sports. Even in an interview for a job to earn money, one must look good. And in order to look good, one must have money. Of course, we give yearly to such-and-such organization simply because spiritually our culture feels justified when we do. Plus, if one tithes ten percent each pay check, he might get a few extra points in his favor when he reaches the pearly gates. So, when someone says without money you are nothing, they say it with a half-smile, half-joking tone, because we don’t want others thinking we are as coarse as all that. Nonetheless, money gets you places.

     As I have just described, our modern world and Levin’s friends that Tolstoy has created in the late 1800’s still have the same unspoken view: Money gets you places and the rich will rule the world. The meek and poor are, simply, losers. (Don’t worry; I am getting to my point.) This is the world we live in, right? Well, my King of Contradictions is the Loves of the losers.  He is like Levin in the sense that He is the defender of the weak. But my King does not just defend the meek, he does what no other can, He gives the poor a portion and inheritance of Heaven itself. He makes the servant princes and princesses and will one day rescue them from the “destitution” the world has deemed them with. He gives them honor so that they might glorify His name.

     Don’t get me wrong, I personally don’t believe that everyone is called to never own any possessions, live in the woods and beg. Nor sell themselves as slaves in some odd country floating somewhere in the seven seas, simply for the sake of being a “servant.” No, you see, I was blessed to be born into a family with a dad that works hard to provide for his family, and he has. So, I do not condemn money. However I was even more blessed to be born into a family that is very compassionate. I do not believe money is the root of all evil. But I believe wholeheartedly that the love of money is the root of all evil.

     I also believe that servitude is a heart response; laying one’s life down for his friends. Giving time, money and energy to others. Loving not for what another can do for you, but simply for what you can do for the sake of Christ. We must be imitators of Christ, because “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.” (Matthew 20:28)

     So those are my thoughts. God made me a romantic (among other reasons) so I could recognize that the world’s got it backwards when it comes to the rich and poor. You might call me a romantic, or a loser, or simply a girl. And I would have to respond by telling you that you are completely right. But I am not just a girly romantic loser, I am God’s loser. A princess in disguise, serving until my Heavenly Conqueror rescues me… “One day He is coming, oh glorious day.”

So let us love. Let us serve for we are more than conquerors in Him who first loved us. We are servants in the physical, but eternally, princes and princesses living in a world of abuses. Temporarily, that is. So blessed be all the lovely losers.

     “It’s not for the strong, the beautiful, the brave. Not for the ones who think they’re got it made. It’s for the poor, the broken and the meek, it’s for the ones who look a lot like you and me.”

- Jason Gray, “Blessed Be”

The Room

Cluttered and crowded was the Room

Piled with the trash of the past months to minutes

Down trodden and plastered it had become

Entered and used, sugar-coated and fake

Too small to fit even pieces of You

There I sat after the revelry subsided

Pretending to give, it came and attacked leaving

Nothing but broken pieces and shattered glass in Its wake

Only but a memory is left to show peace even existed

Years seemed like lifetimes looking back

We had it here once, that peace and shelter searched for

Love and romance filling the Room that once was

Big enough even for the little things

But I left the door open, the mice and dust floated in before

I could stop it; it became a vacuum sucking out the carefree life

Leaving in its place a Vice

Sitting—feeling hopeless and alone, I pushed and shoved,

Not wanting to look into the Eyes that I once felt perfection and protection

Sure the shame would follow—I pushed You out

Leaving me alone, I took hold of the Vice

It led me here, pushed me there, showing and leading

Me to where I thought I could win it all—leading me to believe

I would once again see my Love-Inspired Prize Fighter

But instead it led me to an open Road

I wandered and walked, submitting not to what I should

Until it led me here: a dead end road with nothing but a drop

It caused my Room to squeeze smaller and

Smaller because of the clutter I was led to let in

My Vice left me there, alone in my small little Room

Surrounded by the cluttered trash and my broken Spirit

My Vice led me to what I believed to be

My dead end Road and left me there with

Nothing to cling

Then I stood and stumbled, tripping over This

And falling over That until I reached the Door

That contained my past mistakes

I slammed it shut for I would not let another Soul in

I felt tattered and used, fake and crushed

My Identity had been stolen, can it ever be recovered?

Wallowing and pouting I fell into it all, nothing

Could recover me now

A knock sounded, confident and sure

I couldn’t dare let another in, my future is shot

It sounded again, surer than ever before

Curiously I stood and cautiously opened the Door to my Room

And that’s where You stood, I looked again into those Eyes

Expecting shame but receiving grace

Gingerly You stepped in and frozen I stood

Wanting to shove You out before You could see

What I had amounted too

But when You did, I’ll never forget, You lovingly held my marred

Hand in Yours that was scarred and uttered,

“I love you anyway.”

Despite my want to struggle against You

As You lifted and read into my very secrets and

Sins, I could do no such thing for as the blood

From Your scars touched the clutter, it vanished

Leaving nothing but a mark of love; a stain

That can never be erased because it is lily white

Filled with nothing less than wonder and awe, I watched You

Make the small Room big enough again to hold not but a piece, but all of You

Wandering again through the Valley of Perfection

I sat with You; laughed with You, and found my

Identity once again, in You

All because You knocked, and I responded

Next a life of joy and lily-white bliss followed

Leaving Love in it’s wake

My Vice no longer had Its hold on me because

I am Yours.

Although I still dreaded opening the Door to my Room,

Fearing the glass would shatter again

You took me by the hand—both of ours having scars—

Your gaze said, “My gift is here.”

The joy I felt formed a smile, but You challenged me

You said, “It is waiting for you. The Knight I long ago promised is waiting.

But this gift is on the other side of the door.”

Longing for the Knight, I asked of You, “Will You open my Door for me?

I am afraid.”

You but smiled and said, “Your Room is safe in the arms of this Knight.

Dare to trust him. Trust Me.”

Holding Your hand I stepped gingerly to my

Door ready to brace against the impact of shattered glass

My Door slid cleanly open with

Not even a noise, revealing nothing but love

Formed in a Smile

And then I knew, my Room was safe in the arms of my Knight

And under the wings of my One True Desire

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me."  - Revelation 3:20