When you shut the door of your heart
And turn your back on others.
When you refuse to let people in because if you do,
They’ll surely stab you in the back.
When you fail to show genuine love
And keep your greetings to a brief and distant hello
This is how you know that you might be in a place
Where you see people as monsters
When people are only to be tolerated and managed
As opposed to being invited in to experience your joys
When they are like bullets to shield yourself from,
As opposed to brothers and sisters to be delighted in;
When new friends are just like those who hurt you in the past,
As opposed to budding beauties; humans with unfathomable value
This is how you know that you might be in a place
Where you see people as monsters
Be mindful, love, when you begin to see people as monsters;
Because there just might be a cancer budding in your heart
A cancer that masks itself as ‘self-protection’ and ‘self-preservation’
But notice the cunning and blinding force in those words: self
Be mindful love, because that cancer dries up the beauty you have within
The wells of goodness that are meant to be poured out recklessly on others.
Be mindful, love, because the devil’s never satisfied with benign cancers;
He likes to plant them in one area and spread them throughout
When you begin to see people as monsters
You should know that the devil has played a game with you
He darkened your heart and painted a mirage with your hurts
Then, he dimmed your vision as you believed his cheap fables
And indeed, a real monster might have indeed hurt you before
And the burn may yet sting like it happened just yesterday.
You opened heart to trust and be vulnerable
But at the end of the day the confidant proved to be a fiend
But don’t let the devil poison your precious heart
Don’t let him enclose your world in his cage
And have the the pleasure of laughing at you
As you settle for crumbs when you can have the full meal
When you see people as monsters
Slow down and take some time to look within
Before you paint them as witches and ghouls
Perhaps the image you see is a reflection of what’s in your heart
When you see people as monsters
Turn off the TV, and turn off the cellphone.
Tune out the voices that keep you obsessed with your pain
And then, turn to your Creator God
Let Him strum your heart with His touch, And with His songs
Let Him remind you that love is greater than any offense
Because only then can you look at the so-called “monsters”
And see a beautiful work of art in the making