Many of us are searching for identity throughout our entire life’s journey, it is a foundational part of what makes us human. Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper :” A Theory of Human Motivation”(Journal of Psychological Review). In his paper, he proposed a hierarchy of human needs which were broken down :1. Basic needs,2. Psychological needs, and 3.Self-fullfillment or self-actualization. Basic needs are described as physiological needs such as food, water, warmth, and rest. Also in the list of basic needs includes security and safety. Under psychological needs, we see esteem needs: prestige, feeling of accomplishment. Belongingness and love needs, ie intimate relationships, friends. The self-fulfillment needs, includes: self-actualisation-achieving one’s full potential, including creative activities. This hierarchy is a main base in knowing how effort and motivation are correlated when discussing human behavior. Maslow’s contention was that each of these individual levels contains a certain amount of internal sensation that must be met in order for an individual to complete their hierarchy- ultimately final goal is to reach self-actualisation. Present scholars believe that these levels of achievement overlap quite a bit and throughout our lives , which means the lower levels may take precedence back over the other levels at any point in time. Hardships, difficulties and many trials present these types of circumstances as we journey through toward fulfillment. What makes some people give up the effort, and others sink their teeth in the goal to reach self -fulfillment-no matter what diversions, what unfortunate circumstances? In my own personal story, I had no role model to look up to, no clear reason to believe that I may ever climb out of the bucket I was in, nor did I have a clue what I was reaching for. I am sure this is a familiar story to others. There is an old saying” There are no atheists in foxholes”. In my story , God saved my life from a traumatic assault which took the life of my first-born child, I too; almost died during this assault. Some may say , there is no God that should allow such a thing to happen, (there were family members who did say these exact words.) But I knew different, I knew that if it was not for God, answering my plea to help me, to let me live, I would not be here today writing this to you. Did my feelings get in the way of my choices, and what was right or wrong? Over the years, yes many times. We are always searching for fulfillment of who we are , always searching through each hierarchy level, floundering between levels at times, but always reaching for who we are. My faith in God has kept me stable in my quest- though feelings are hurt, understanding those pains that cause those feelings is more important , my faith has helped me grow more and more each day, if we succumb to our feelings we will always be in a state of instability. I know that I was not alone that day when the attacker let me go to. I lived to speak about that day. I thank God for saving me. Write about your feelings, get to the bottom of why you feel the way you do, learn to understand your feelings and learn to heal and grow. Give all your pain, and all your grief to God, He will also help you grow past hurtful moments in your life.

When my mother was much younger maybe in her 60’s I used to notice her busy doing a project, then all of a sudden a song would come on the radio. Her stoic feet would begin to tap, her backside would sway and before long , she would break into a joyous dance. Music can gives us chills, make us cry and sooth our hearts. Studies done at the University of London by Nidhya Logeswaran and Joydeep Bhattacharya proved that music may make us see visual images differently, happy music was shown to cause people to view visual images as happier, and sad music wrote a visual story of a sadder nature. A quote from their study, ” music is exquisitely emotionally evocative”- almost as if music contains some distinctly human elements. Music repatriation goes back to an early “seventeenth century usage applied to living bodies. Repatriation itself is derived from Latin which means” back to one’s fatherland”.(Gunderson, F, and Woods, B. “Handbook of Musical Repatriation”.

What is a human element of music? One is our expressive speech, which may be just as abstract as the diversity of language throughout different cultures. However, most of the emotion of language is in the meaning which is different from culture to culture. Knowing how much my mom loved music , she would have most likely kicked up her feet to drums from any country. I love the hit Linda Ronstadt recorded, Different Drummer. The first line says “You and I travel to the beat of a different drum, Ah can’t you tell by the way I run every time you make eyes at me……” We may not all celebrate music in the same language or with the same emotions, but music expresses something human that each of us may find refreshing in many different ways. This post is dedicated to my mother who was the reason music is in our family.

There was a woman at the well who came to get water for her animals and there at the well, she met Jesus. She had been through a lot, a rough life some might say. She came to the well looking for water that would quench a natural thirst, but instead she received a living water, water that would cause her to never thirst again. You may find this story in John 4:1-42. This woman had never been truly accepted not by man or by her community, she was never given truth and most important of all, she had never been redeemed. Jesus did not know the woman in life but He had Godly revelation about what had happened to her in the past , after Jesus shared with her things that only she knew and had never shared with Him or anyone, her eyes were opened to His truth. Once we drink of His living water , His acceptance, His truth, and then choose to believe in Him and make Him Lord of our life; we receive His forgiveness and redemption, and we will never thirst again. This story reminds me that Jesus is our Living Water and that He desires for everyone to believe in Him, come to Him for redemption. He willingly died for all of our sins, rose again to his heavenly Father for each one of us. This Easter remember what He sacrificed for us.

He makes our lives so full that we may never thirst again.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate ; only love can do that." Martin Luther King Jr. In honor of MLK.

In Genesis 1:1-3 It is written : In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was barren, with no form of life; it was under a roaring ocean covered with darkness. But the Spirit of God was moving over the water. God said , “I command light to shine!” And light started shining. The quote posted above by Martin Luther King Jr. is one of my favorite quotes. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that….” Imagine yourself in a very dark room trying to add more light by opening the blinds to a pitch black night, no light will be added to the already dark room. One only needs to light a tiny candle in that dark room and it begins to dispel all darkness. Today is a very dark time in many lives depending on what each of your circumstances are. Martin Luther King Jr. was a history maker he instilled light where there was much darkness, love where hate had prevailed. My heart breaks to think if he were here to see the state of this world . He sacrificed so much for the cause of civil rights and freedom. He once quoted , ” We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” MLK

People seemed to have lost their way, trying to burn down the history that has made us who we are today. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man of God. He knew that his light comes from the one who came to bring light into a dark world. In John 1:1:3,4,5 it says “And with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word. Everything that was created received its life from Him, and His life gave light to everyone. The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out.” We need the light of Christ in our world today, ask Him to come to you and transform your life by becoming Lord and light of your life.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Have you ever asked yourself “Who or what has wildered me?” All of us were sheep that wandered off. We had each gone our own way but the Lord gave Him the punishment we deserved. Isaiah 53:6

Even when I did not know the depth of my bewilderment, the dark places that I had wandered off to, Jesus knew where I was , what I had done , and yet- He still took on all the pain of my past, the mistakes that I had made, things I had messed up royally; and He forgave me and accepted me as His own. Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. 2Corinthians 5:17, vs18 God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between Himself and us, and He has given us the work of making peace between Himself and others. This is the reason that I write this post.

It is never too late to surrender all things that hold you back from becoming His own, give them to Christ . Invite Jesus to be Lord of your life and to fill you with His Spirit. He will forgive you of everything , and as the word says, He makes all things new.