The Greatest Guitarist

I have been busy these past few weeks and may continue to do so. But I don't want to miss joining a special place called Spiritual Sundays. Many precious sisters and bros. in Christ encourage me there. So, if you haven't been there, go check it out! Thanks to sisters Charlotte and Ginger for hosting this place.

I'm reposting this that I have written on October 16, 2008. I'm praying that as I was re-reading this, you would be encouraged the way I was and on-going by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Greatest Guitarist. God bless you all and if I am silent for sometime or might not have a chance to visit you, you know why...



When I was 11 or 12 yrs.old, my oldest brother came home for a visit from another country, after being away for so many years. One day, he started playing a guitar and for the first time I saw him, my eyes were glued with his techniques. My stares were just fixed with the way he would pluck each string and made beautiful music. I was carefully observing him then. Inside my heart, I felt a passion to learn something new at that moment!

So, I decided to learn the guitar on my own. Patiently, I studied the dots that corresponded to the way I would place the fingers of my left hand on the frets, as the fingers of my right hand tried to go up and down to try to make a chord. After a few days, my fingers were hurting! I noticed the blisters that had formed on each finger. Though it would hurt so much to try to play again and again, I tried to disregard the pain so I could learn how to really play this instrument. Learning how to adjust the strings many times, more strumming and plucking of each string with the blistered fingers of the left hand positioned to strike a chord, I heard a note formed. The notes became a song that was familiar. Pretty soon, I was playing the guitar chords faster producing a more recognizable song. I was ecstatic, though I wasn't as great as Amy Grant!!! I learned to compose Christian songs and apply the simple chords which in turn, became songs I could use to worship the Lord.

Little did I know, with my whole, entire life, God is doing the same thing for me. I was the guitar He patiently used to create music. I'm sure He got a lot of blisters, too! [when I'm stubborn and not listening nor obeying His Word]. "How many times did He try to adjust my strings [my attitudes in life]?", I wonder....Oh Lord, continue to adjust me. Refine me. So I can be Your guitar that produces beautiful music to others' ears when they hear me, so that others will come to know You, the Greatest Guitarist! May they fix their eyes on You, Lord Jesus and be awed by how well You play every guitar in this world!!! Thank You for Your patience and for always being faithful and not giving up on me!

Psalm 143:5 -"I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that You have done; I ponder the works of Your hands."

Psalm 139:23-24 -"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any grievous ways in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

Psalm 19:14 -"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

Psalm 51:10 - "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

Lazy! Lazy! Lazy!

"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired..." ~ Jules Renard

I was trying to prepare my stuff together as I counted the slow 15 minutes before my shift was over. Then, the kitchen deputy showed up, bringing an injured inmate who was hobbling his way into the Clinic. The chart was given to me.

“What happened?”

“I was lifting a milk crate when I accidentally dropped it on my right foot. It hurts so bad right now,” a young male inmate answered, grimacing as he spoke.

“Remove your right shoe so I can see.”

Slowly, he tried to slide off the blue, soft shoe as he bit his lips. On top of his right foot, redness and tenderness were visible and palpable. He could barely move his toes because of the pain.

Prior to talking with him, I had read his chart to get familiar with him. He was one of those inmate workers, working in the kitchen from 12:00 midnight to 12:00 pm. In his chart, he had a prior claim of feeling depressed. Except his reasoning was because he didn’t want to be there [working].

God only knew if he dropped the crate accidentally or he did it on purpose to sustain injury. Because when taken off of work, he didn’t need to work but his penalty [sentence] would still be deducted with the time he needed to serve to pay for the crime he committed. Day after day. Whether working or not.

[Some of them are that way]…I grabbed an ace wrap dressing and slowly and carefully, I wrapped it around his painful right foot to immobilize and provide a little relief to his right foot.

[They don‘t want to work!]….I prepared the hospital referral form and requested a deputy to take him to our county’s hospital to have his right foot be x-rayed.

[They are lazy!]…I told him to be patient until the transportation deputy showed up to take him to the hospital.

Because some of the inmates believe that they are entitled to all the benefits the jail has to offer. Yet, they contribute “nothing”.

Newton’s first law of motion says that “an object in motion tends to remain in motion, and an object at rest tends to remain at rest.” This can apply to us, people. Some of us are willing to complete plans or projects yet, for others, they need to be motivated just to accomplish something.

There is no room for laziness in a Christian’s life. Being a new creation, we are to be diligent and productive. Out of love for our Lord Jesus. The One Who redeemed us. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” - Ephesians 2:10

God wants us to be awake, be involved and focus on others.

Are you lazier than these "2 people"?

Fly Like A Bird

“I’m leaving tomorrow,” whispered a female diabetic inmate through the thick glass partition window that separated us.

“You are?” I smiled.

“Yes, Ma’am. Thank you for your help,” she added as she put a drop of blood into the test strip in our Accucheck machine.

“That’s great! I hope you will take good care of yourself and will try your best to not be back here,” I softly stated.

“Yes, Ma’am,” as she injected her morning insulin dose from a tiny syringe I gave.

“Please follow up with your primary doctor outside. And if you don’t have any, I just want to inform you that you can also go to the county’s hospital so someone there can treat you for free. Okay?” I advised.

“Don’t be afraid. You can always go there if you need help with your medical condition.”

“Thank you for letting me know. Yes, I will,” as she turned her back and sat on one of the chairs in the waiting area and another diabetic came to me after her.

I was charting all the female diabetics’ blood sugar level in our log book when the thought came to me. I could just imagine the mixed emotions that inmate was going through prior to her pending freedom. Excitement and happiness, yet with fear at the same time. Being incarcerated for so long, she might not have the means to be able to do well at first. Sometimes, it would be hard to find a decent job because of her crimes recorded.

We are that way as God’s children. Watched over and guided as we grow in our character. We need renewing of our minds to gain strength prior to us flying higher to accomplish the work that the Lord had started in each of us. We wait with excitement. We leap for joy with the newly-found freedom. But this doesn’t mean that the take-off is always smooth. Sometimes, we’ll fall. Sometimes, we won’t have the strength we need to fly. But we shouldn’t be afraid. Even if the fiercest storms loom in the horizon. Because fear is not from Him. Though fear is beneficial when it applies to having reverential fear of the Lord. That is the beginning of wisdom [Psalm 111:10 - “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To Him belongs eternal praise.”]

The type that is not beneficial is when we are being overpowered by the spirit of fear. Best thing to do is for us to draw nearer to God. To trust in Him completely.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” - 2 Timothy 1:7

Our Father in heaven knows our difficulties, our sufferings. He knows our desires, ambitions or hope. If we want to soar high, whether we fail or not, just trust Him. 100%. He is the One Who helps us accomplish our dreams or desires, when we commit it to Him. Because He loves us. First.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11


So, now that you’ve found the freedom that comes from Christ, go on…Don’t be afraid…Fly high! Because the Holy Spirit is the Air that will lift us and bring us to places where God wants us to be…


Proverbs 3:5-6 :
“5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Isaiah 40:31:
“but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Crank up your volume and enjoy:

He Made Me Angry

Anticipating a man who might need a med neb treatment for complaint of difficulty breathing, I started preparing all the gadgets I needed to initiate the treatment. So as not to waste time knowing that I just had an inmate who was not responding to any medication from his asthma attack few days ago.

Gathering the albuterol solution, and while telling the LVN’s about this sick call request, one of the medication nurses asked me if it was Mr. W. coming.

“Yes,” “Why? What’s up with him?”

“He got so upset with me because he wanted his bedtime Keppra, yet it was only ordered for mornings.”

“Oh no!” “I bet you, he was more than upset about this and doesn’t really have problem with his breathing,” I sensed it right away.

As I was laying down the stuff I needed, a shackled inmate walked in, escorted by their unit deputy. He was belligerent and was just talking, complaining rapidly, demanding for all his needs. He was so loud that every medical staff’s head turned to him.

I motioned for him to sit down, next to all the gadgets I had prepared earlier.

“Sir, what brings you here?” “Are you really having trouble breathing? What are your medical conditions?”

“You should know that! Don’t you have my chart? You guys don’t do anything anyway.”

Trying to remain patient, the deputy cut him off and warned him that he would be put to discipline for disrespecting me. Usually, I would allow the deputy to do their jobs of yelling at the inmates being disobedient or just plainly rude with staff, like me. But this time, seeing how he was acting, I couldn’t tolerate his behavior and knew I had to say something about that.

“Sir, for the record, yes, I do know your medical conditions before you came down here. But I always ask anyone who comes here sick, to double-check with them. So that if there are any medical or mental problems that are not addressed before, I usually add it and have the doctor see….”

“What? You don’t give me my meds anyway? How about my medication for my emphysema?” he loudly interrupted me. Sensing that the deputy was truly upset with him this time, I felt that he wanted to shove him against the wall for being so disrespectful with anyone from the start. But giving respect to me, he remained calm and hearing that I was able to defend myself, he let me do my thing. I nodded at him as if to give me time to talk with this belligerent inmate.

“You are not having trouble breathing, I can tell you that. Do not fake your medical emergencies or I can put you on discipline. You are down here because you want your meds that are not given. May I tell you som…”

“I don’t really care. I don’t give a _ _ _ _! You guys don’t do anything!”

“One more time…You’re gonna’ get it! Do not interrupt her! I’m warning you again! Don’t interrupt her!” intervened the deputy while he kept on letting me speak for myself.

“Where are my bedtime meds?” he continued to mumble.

“It was only…”

“How come they didn’t give me my bedtime dose?” he interrupted me again.

This time, I raised my voice a little with authority, “Will you let me speak? Every time I try to speak, you keep interrupting me with your dirty mouth! How are you going to understand if you are not giving me a chance to even review your chart? You come here like you’re the only sick inmate. There are more than 3,000 of you here. And a big number is sick, a lot sicker than you. But if you are being patient, our doctor here tries to address everyone’s medical issue.”

I’m surprised that there was no interruption this time. He just glanced at me and shut his mouth as he didn’t expect for me to raise my voice.

“The doctor just ordered your medication to be twice a day. It wasn’t put in the computer yet as we are still doing the orders from our doctor. When you asked the LVN earlier in your unit, she couldn’t give it to you because the new order for twice a day was not put in our system yet. So, I’ll go ahead and give you the bedtime dose now.”

He remained silent with me, but still was just talking back with his unit deputy. I’m glad the deputy remained calm. I knew he was giving me respect…Still…this man would be put on discipline because he talked back with profanities to the deputy. Getting up from his chair, his mouth continued to complain…

“Thank you, Ma’am,” uttered the deputy.

“No. Thank you…” I knew he got my message of him being calm despite the nasty behavior we witnessed. And of him letting me speak for myself!

The inmate couldn’t look me in the eye. He remained loud the whole time but was not even looking at me nor complaining to me.

I got angry at that inmate. With his disrespectful behavior. That was just uncalled for. All of us struggle with anger…Don’t we all say “Jesus showed righteous anger?” He did at the temple. But it was because he saw that people were disrespecting God. And taking advantage of the poor. Jesus got angry whenever the poor were mistreated. He became indignant when the children were not allowed to see him. His was all display of righteous anger. He got angry when others were mistreated yet he wasn’t angry when he was treated unfairly. How did he react when people treated him unjustly? He said on the cross, “Father, forgive them.”

Anger is not always wrong but we have to be careful that it doesn’t turn us into evil. If our being angry just serves our own desires or purposes, then that’s not righteous anger.

“26In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold.” ~ Ephesians 4:26-27