When I was a child,
I used to trace beautiful pictures
Of flowers and animals and maybe
a car here and there …
I used to trace things
Because i didn't know how to draw;
My hand usually made a mess of lead and paper.
But as time passed i grew out
Of tracing and drawing and
I focused my mind on things like:
Music, and how it made me feel;
On things like:
I want to go to the beach to have some fun
But usually just to feed my eyes with all the girls;
(Hey can i get your number?)
on things like:
This life is too hard, too boring
Lets consume something.
You see

I used to live inside a box.
A restriction box.
My feet were chained my hands cuffed,
I was a slave to a rotten flesh know as “self”
To a body that obeyed wealth.
Wealth in what?
Wealth in pride
Wealth in a pair of lying lips and selfishness.
What a wretched human being I was.
And then one day someone said,
"look yonder at that cross"
And I turned and looked and what I saw
Was not a cross but a giant heart.
My pride
My lips
My wealth in selfishness
Were all drowned under the mere shadow of that heart.

The weight.
The power.
Ahhh, what love!
Alas, I am free!
Alas, I am clean!
And the chains on my hands and feet
Hissed and fled like scolded snakes.
And on beautiful days like this I reminisce and think
Of the shout of freedom I gave
As I took my first step
Into a life worth living with both feet out.

And now as a man im trying to trace again
Not tracing an animal or flower but tracing the very footsteps of Jesus himself
In detail.
You see, I want to walk like he did.
Make my body the canvas
And take a rainbow of colors and paint
The very portrait of him on me.
I want to get rid of every last bit of me
Because I know that Jesus is the answer
My flesh is the cancer;
Take this heart of stone away
'cause it was never beating anyways.
You see when I thought I had life, I was dead
But Christ has given me a heart of flesh instead
And I want to use it like he did

I want to travel to distant places like he did
I want my life’s testimony to bless the city and its people
I want to know that the aches in my feet are from a missionary’s life working
I want to feed the hungry
I want to share the water of life with those that are thirsty
I want to give hope to the hopeless
I want to bring light to the darkness
I want to search and find those that are lost
I am willing to do anything for the creator
Even if my own life is the cost
Because before I am Mexican-American
Before I am a U.S. Citizen
Before I am a College student
I am a Christian
I am a disciple living with both feet out.