The two sides of the coin! Life should be an exercise on righteousness…

Checking some of the messages my classmates send me, I found a wonderful continuance to my thoughts about the young and older girls of my country, and in them the ones in every culture compatible with our “Christian” understanding of a foundational commitment to righteousness and a mutual respect as the basis of a sensible and transcending individual and family values and behavior.

After doing so until, late last night, I went to bed. My wife of 46 years was deep in her sleep but when I rested by her side, she lazily woke up, kissed me and took my hand and placed it under her face as a living pillow. Then... placidly went to sleep again while I was wondering how blessed I have been, having found a girl I made a woman and a wife, who became a faithful companion and supporter, in the good, the bad and the worst circumstances of our life together.

This made me realize the priceless treasure of finding a girl with well founded moral values. I am not talking about a shy and timid one. She was vivacious, socializer, fun to be with, daring and adventurous. We were a favorite dancing couple in soirees and official government parties, being called to dance all type of songs, from soul and foxtrot to ardent and sensual Caribbean rhythms and cadences.

But she was a solid and a steady girl. And I was the first man and the only one in her life that I hope will not end until we reach the age of the 104 young at heart, and if the Lord allows it, even beyond that golden point.

It is not necessary to be a Christian to be able to realize how fundamental this is… poets, writers, photographers, lauding the women beauty does not have any other way to exalt the moral values of self and mutual appreciation, understanding, and love and respect…

But… in what is the most important aspect of all human relations… the transcending spiritual realm we must obligingly realize that there are 2 sides to the relational coin.

One... the imposed by the world through liberal approaches to freedom and its consumism oriented and female degrading fashions, even if we refuse to recognize it.

The present days uncontrolled craving for acceptance from your peers even if this requires giving up all your inner treasures, your self-esteem, your right to choose and not to be chosen, the right to wait to be courted, the right to say no, the right to be seen and treated with the utmost tenderness and respect.

The other one… your womanhood and motherhood, and your rightful place in society, side by side with your male counterpart, shoulder to shoulder in your combined efforts to walk together along the lively paths of your earthly existence on the way to the shores of the eternal kingdom and place of solace in the company of our God, Creator, Lord and Savior

But… I would like to ask you, my dear girls… is it necessary to renounce to your natural beauty and countenance just for the sake of temporary sensual sharing or acceptance?

Do you really think that you will be considered as the “for life partner and companion” by your temporary acquaintances?

You got a natural destiny: to give love to the future generations out of the love you will give and receive from your husband to be...

Just remember that you are intended to become wives and mothers as the cradle of the future.

How sad would it be that you, instead, were considered as the flirtatious woman of Sirah 26: 9-12! “By her eyelids and her haughty stare an unchaste wife can be recognized. Keep a strict watch over an unruly wife, lest, finding an opportunity, she make use of it;

Follow close if her eyes are bold, and be not surprised if she betrays you: As a thirsty traveler with eager mouth drinks from any water that he finds, So she settles down before every tent peg and opens her quiver for every arrow”.

If you are still a single and beautiful and freedom hungry girl, just replace the word “wife” for the generic “woman” and see how aptly the message applies to any every present daring, intentional or not, but always undiscerning behavior, yours or of your friends.

Don´t you think it would be and feel better to receive the praise and understanding of your future in laws and everyone in town, at least the ones whose opinion should count…? as in Proverbs 5: 18-19 “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love”.

Or the joyful praise from your partner in life´ friends, for having chosen you as the wife in Sirah 26: 1-4…? “Happy is the husband of a good wife, twice-lengthened are his days; A worthy wife brings joy to her husband, peaceful and full is his life. A good wife is a generous gift bestowed upon him who fears the LORD; be he rich or poor, his heart is content, and a smile is ever on his face.

Nothing best than what is real and ideal as it should be! Life should be an exercise in righteousness…

When analyzing the social struggles spectrum in any society we can approach the issues from the greater to the smaller, from the complex to the simpler ones. But for the purpose of our analysis our basic premise is that everything starts with the individual within his/her family environment.

Any structural change, advancement, recession, denial, compromising, perceptions and attitudes toward individual and family values will inevitably affect the community and the whole social fabric of intermingling material and spiritual concepts and the correspondent perceptions and behavior.

There is another undeniable premise. Every culture has its own matrix for the individual and family structural nature. Logically there will be similarities but there will always be a definite and specific one that must be analyze with the deepest respect avoiding the imposition of our own natural predispositions and prejudices born out of our particular cultural environment.

The final premise consequently should be that all similarities, differences, struggles and challenges, solidarity and support must be mutually respectful, bowing only to the higher than any social set of circumstances, which is the higher spiritual laws and designs of our Creator.

To start being specific, and being a Nicaraguan by birth even if one exposed to different customs and mores of different and varied societies, I will try to analyze our particular environment starting with what we could set as a desired and valued standard for comparison with all the perceived social, material and spiritual distortions affecting its struggling generations.

I refer myself to what has been and is being considered the traditional Nicaraguan family structure and behavior. The model we tried to instill in the hearts, minds and spirit of the children and former co-workers these past six years.

It has nothing to do with material advancement or lacking and unsatisfied needs. The solid values and structure do not depend on them. I have said time and time again that there can be a more solid family foundation in a humble home, where on the solid and well swept earthen floor real love, care and concern for each other flourish, than in any marble floored mansion where consumism, convenience, greed and ambition permeates the inner being of its inhabitants.

The family that I fondly remember is that one where lines or authority and respect, mutual acceptance and clearly defined lines of acceptable behavior were the rule of life. A family nucleus where you could count with each other for encouragement, protection and support!

Where hard work and faithfulness to your word as the ultimate expression of your personal beliefs were stronger than any coercive law!

Where women were respectfully loved and men were taught and ingrained themselves in the concepts and consequent and willful compliance with the precepts of responsibility, hard work, provision and support, and I say it again, natural, omnipresent and mutual respect.

It is against these parameters that we should compare and analyze the present social failures and conflicts. It is paramount to emphasize the constituting and essential values for our restoration and advancement as individual, families and societies.

For the girls, you all, the younger and the older abused ones: You will have a second chance! God will give you that! BUT… Respect yourselves! Learn to choose the best! Do not resign yourselves with what you feel is no good, just available! Do not accept to be chosen! Raise yourselves above the rationalized acceptance of less than desired, just acceptable circumstances! Abuse only temporarily affects your inner being! You can always overcome and become the woman of Proverbs chapter 31, Verses 26 to 30

You do not have to be a committed Christian to appreciate a good woman.

Next time I will address you boys! For the time being, you girls enjoy what follows.

Life should be an exercise on Righteousness, Daring and Discernment!

Very recently one of my friends sent me a series of messages where one of the most stunning statements was… Silencing the truth is worst than lying!

Silencing it to ourselves or others! Lying to or purposely deceiving ourselves or others! Out of convenience! To gain any kind of personal gain not on the path of righteousness! Even if it looks so to our compromising eyes! Or if what is usually done! Or if means riding the waves! Or if it is what is expected! Or because we rationalize the issue of compromising for the sake of some good to accomplish!

Usually, out of deference and desire to avoid misunderstandings and confrontations with ourselves when facing difficult or adverse circumstances, we state it and accept it as a valid or inevitable alternative to evade the issues, go along with other opinions or actions, or find a way to negotiate a middle way solution, without understanding or less of all accepting that experiences and their derived consequences and lessons are the natural fabric of life, and should be never evaded or forgotten so the same past mistakes are not repeated.

Even if “compromising” (conveniently made it mean to find a common or neutral way to face challenges and circumstances) is a valid alternative in the business and almost every way of life, we should always have in mind that life is an exercise on righteousness, daring vision, and discernment about the actions and decisions to make.

As the routine of the present days of resting is setting up in my spirit, my mind and my emotions, things and circumstances that have faded in my memory are coming back with a vividness that makes you wonder why and how you had been able to forget them.

At the present time we are staying in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, at my oldest son Robert´s home. It is a very nice upper middle class neighborhood. But I had not realized that it did lie just about 10 city blocks from the center square and market where 21 years ago, in the short term YWAM missionary training outreach we did evangelize, presented dramas, distributed Bibles, stayed in a nearby Theological Evangelical Institute, and were witnesses to many spiritual experiences.

Yesterday, I invited my wife and we did walk to the square and the market.

We were utterly amazed when seeing that things looked almost the same as 21 years ago. The same restaurants, the same vendor stalls, the same peace and fortitude in the faces of older and younger people alike that so strongly knocked down at the doors of our souls back in 1987.

I was specially moved by the placid countenance of a young girl, with a baby in her arms, who sold us a fruit delicacy by the dozen. And I say so because I am still wondering about the whys and hows of the hard, vacant, negatively resigned, aggressive stances and stares of so many people I recently witnessed during the last and past two months in my native country

Back in 1987, there were neither condominiums nor parks erected where we are presently living. It was just coffee land and exuberant vegetation all around! Just a merely 10 city blocks from the heart of the city where we flexed our missionary muscles for the first time in our lives!

Today, walking in the days early morning hours just 8 days before becoming a young 71 years old guy on my way to my 104 young at heart destination, I have been meditating, while enjoying the beautiful flowers, the already growing leaves and branches on the trees stumps leaves, and the shaded paths, I wondered how easy is to find rest and solace when we give up our worldly expectations to the Lord and enjoy the beautiful and simple and abundant examples of His wonderful creations.

I enjoyed walking along the paths of the little park, seeing mangoes and avocados fall from trees, listening to honking vehicles passing by, and taking pictures of the beautiful flowers and leaves, while some humble and probably unemployed poor and older people sat on the benches at such an early time of the day.

But what impressed me the most, was the peace I saw in their eyes and their stoical attitude towards life and hardships, as little flowers of resignation but not of despair, alongside the blooming ones that grow without caring for the social struggles of the day.

While enjoying all this it was that the statement above came strongly to my mind making me to resolve myself to write in a more comprehensive way about all the social and Christian experiences of my past.

Enjoy as I did the flowers and the leaves, and wait for the incoming postings in my blog.

“The Heart” and “The Mind of God” concepts applied to specific circumstances…

As I had promised in my last posting I translated from English to Spanish the general comments and reflections that on these two concepts I had written back in March 2007 to be included in the armsoflove.org web page under the captions “The heart and the mind”, “Amidst the needs - there is hope”, Above all else: Love”, “A message to the future” and “The Time is Now”.

At that time I affirmed the general sense of the comments because at that precise moment in time I related both concepts to the ministry parameters due to its particular vision about how and up to what point we were supposed to deal with the issues of Christian homes care and protection.

I will not transcribe, again, the corresponding paragraphs that were already included in those commentaries adding only the present complementing thoughts that apply to a wider and greater scenario as I pretend this time to address the whole spectrum of worldly and spiritual causes and effects that affect the whole nation and in a similar fashion all nations as well.

The specific purpose is to analyze the potential ways and approaches that will enable us to visualize general as well as specific long, medium and short term approaches, methods and actions that will consider both extremes of the equation, the abused and the abusers, the ones who failed in protecting their children as well as the children themselves.

Only then and in a concerted and collective approach and unselfishly cooperating with each other actions we will find the way to shorten the generational gap that many times leads us to plan and act for the future (which I impatiently many times in the past stated as a necessary and unavoidable circumstance) forgetting or putting aside the present and the past that created such a present and harmful environment.

As many of you have probably and easily guessed, besides my explicit referencing I have done from time to time, I come from a middle class, Catholic education, military and political background, turn into a reborn Christian, missionary dedication to YWAM and other evangelical ministries especially in the areas of planning, financing, mentoring and organizing for more than 20 years, because of my early adulthood specialized training in the best U.S. Army Graduate Schools, in Hospital Administration, Logistics, Project Management, International Relations, ending with the jewel of the crown: Financial Management training for non U.S. specialists, back in 1969 and 1970 in Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis.

All this enabled me to visualize not just what it fell into our hands but the wider scenarios and horizons, in all levels of life and society. Many times in the past I have had to analyze and forecast long term logical events derived from present circumstances. The analytical factors were always “Timing”, “Finances” and “Resources”, specially the “on hand”, the “potential”, the ”limited”, the “scarce”, the “unbending”, the “non flexible”, the “prone to limited points of views” human resources.

We were taught and trained on how to visualize and use all these factors in order to line them all up in a transcending, far ranged and long termed effort. Naturally all this led you to live in a secluded spot where you had the responsibility to analyze, present, lead at times, but always looking for the leaders at all levels who could and would be responsible for acting and transforming dreams into realities. The Habakkuk prophet role that I had already mentioned from time to time!

I do not want to repeat everything I wrote in our Emilio & Gladys Padilla Spanish blog version on August 15th. 2008. You can click on the translating offer in the google caption where the blog appears, if you want to get a first even if not completely proficient translation of my comments.

I titled the commentaries as “Protection versus Abuse – A Dilemma for Christians” or the “need to understand… what I am here describing as the essence of the material and spiritual social problems we are tackling with, so…. we can factually do what we should really be doing, not only individually or as an specific group, but in a validly, positive, complementing and concerted effort with the whole body of social institutions alongside with the body of Christ (churches, ministries, individuals directly or indirectly involved through acting or donating)

Probably as in there I said I have been subliminally analyzing the whole social spectrum of my nation, already going beyond the natural parameters of the ministry I was involved with. Unredeemed and unrepentant dreamer, as my wife would say. Dreaming with my spirit, my mind and my emotions, flying higher up in the skies of the awareness and realizations, well beyond the still unclimbed mountain tops that lie ahead in our future, farther away than the remote shores on still non navigated seas of upheavals and misunderstanding. But always with the feet firmly planted on the fertile soil of whole realities and not just limited perceptions, longings, preferences or expectations!

Many times in my past, both in the worldly realm as well as in the missionary one, I have had to not only analyze, organize, exhaustively plan and teach, sometimes by action and example, other times by mentoring and guidance. Many times I found energetic, independent minded, resolute, impatient, limitedly comprehending of the wider horizons twists” people, prone to be practical without fully understanding that all plans and individual or group human efforts in the end have to be submitted to the Lord´s planning and timing as the only way to receive His abundant blessings and provisions.

The individual tendency for self fulfillment and control, as well as for human recognition and submission to our real or potential leadership many times precludes and prevents the expanding success of our actions. For paying excessive attention to the signs and consequences, and the hasty seeking of immediate success we can end up missing the wonders of God´s plans for all of our lives, ours and of those on whom we focus our efforts.

Because God is a wonderful, generous and faithful God, but it is also a jealous one when we do not have Him but us, seated in the throne in the center of our heart and spirit. He can allow us temporal or human success, but this success will never be the same as the one obtained working together, in a real team spirit, recognizing what we can humanly do as part of a whole body, and not as the body itself naturally and humanly centered in our own human being as the logical leader.

With all this in mind I will continue referring to my understanding of how complex the social challenge really is, dissecting and analyzing its intricate structure and inner relationships between all types of causes and its corresponding effects, in such a way that it could be easier to spot the area where we can all, without exception, rejection, discrimination, isolation, be better instrumentals for God´s handiwork for the better being of our children and societies.

I believe that I have already laid down the basis and foundation for my thoughts and comments. What is next is to tackle and expound the specific and practical ways to translate thought into specific actions. In doing so let´s pray and expect that we will be able to lead other children on their steps into their future

Reflections on the Heart and Mind of God applied to specific circumstances

Back in 2007 meditating on how to respond to questions asked to me in relation to what I would prefer to follow… the Heart or the Mind of God? I wrote several general comments on the subject.

I am reaffirming the concept of “general” because at that precise moment in time my spiritual parameters were the boundaries of the specific motivations that prevailed in the ministry I was involved with.

I have always been a systematic approach person in any endeavor in my life. My mind, my spirit work in unison seeking the natural expansion of the intended or set boundaries for the actions performed. I strongly believe in God being a God of order.

He sets the courses of actions for any ministerial objectives, and when He considers that the challenge to face goes beyond the orderly approaches set for every one of them, He places a longing, an itching for going beyond and a different set of circumstances.

He usually works in mysterious ways when He wants to expand the tent that covers a particular servant. If He visualizes other ways of expanding the horizons in a way that the understanding of the whole spectrum of needs of the particular society he places His servant becomes more integral and wholesome, He will instill in him unexpected longings, growing awareness, and unsettledness to get their servants depart on their way over different paths of thinking, actions and resolve.

I had been wondering for more than 2 years why the adolescents girls ply in my country and place of missionary action were a dominant concern in my spirit. We had adolescent boys and we tried to charter their growing so they would become the men and women that our society needs.

But time and time again, people used to tell that I sounded more passionate while telling to the girls to raise their self respect and self determination levels than when, with what I thought was the voice of experience for having raised 4 boys to real manhood, I insisted on emphasizing to the boys to be responsible, hard working and respectful men, so in the future they could be the spiritual heads and the material providers and protectors that the Lord wants as the rightful and indispensable foundation not only of a Christian family but any family as well.

Probably, and in a very unconscious and subliminal way I was analyzing the social spectrum of the nation. I do not know if by training as I was prepared to do so in my early young manhood years, or by spiritual leading so I could be ready to tackle, at the present time by presenting these thoughts about right-er or greater encompassing integral solutions, and who knows in what practical way in the future.

In my next posting, and after translating my past years comments on the Heart and the Mind of God into Spanish and posting them in my Sispanh Version Blog, I will refer to what I presently believe is a greater encompassing approach first of the adolescent girls and later on of the adolescent boys that are in such a dire need of leading, orientation, correction, disciplining and guidance.

But first of all, in order to set in a very clear way the accurate basis for my comments based on my past and present experiences, and with the humblest and real humility, that I was thankfully taught not to confuse with fake denials or subservient and kind of falsely submissive servile attitudes I, to reinforce the validity of my statements, will refer myself to some basic insights about my personal life that now have become the leading characteristics of my personality as an steady, enduring, uncompromising servant of the Lord.

At the beginning of my Christian walk, while on the Missionary Training School in Arkansas, back in the eighties, due some radical, extremist or narrow understanding by some of my group leaders, I had a great struggle as I was repeatedly told to despise my natural training and upbringing, and unconditionally submit to any appointed leader that were decided to place over me. I even thought about leaving because I could not agree in my mind that the Lord had made a mistake in giving me training, intelligence and resolve.

For a time I even asked the Lord to change me into a dumber and stupid guy if that was what was necessary to fit into what I was beginning to understand was a much worthier life than the one I had lived until then, despite the personal and emotional satisfactions I had accumulated through good, bad and even worst circumstances than any run of the mill person could imagine.

Thanks God, a seasoned and experienced teacher and counselor came to teach and counsel us. Doug Easterday, one of the leading YWAM International teachers! Thanks God, when I presented my ply to Him, he adamantly stated that the Lord never makes mistakes, and that he gives gifting to the ones he has ulterior plans of placing them in His service, and that I what to do was to submit them to Him, patiently endure the incoming and perennial Refiners Fire He would sent my way, so I could be His servant, His prophet, His witness, His uncompromising servant, and the bridge uniting the material and the spiritual worlds that would be walked on by many other servants to cross from one shore to the other.

He also told me that I should humbly accept the reasons why he had made me walk and accumulate so many peculiar experiences, so I could help, even if misunderstood at times, those who could not, even with their best resolve understand the bigger pictures of His master plan for the confrontation of the spiritual forces, the good and the evil ones, in this complex and fast changing present world.

Since then, in many places, many churches, by pastors and many other individuals, many prophecies have been given to my wife and I in relation to our changed missionary lives. Since then, and in the following order... Habakkuk 1: 1-4 (a dialogue between the prophet and The Lord); then Habakkuk 2: 1-4 (The final answer from the Lord and His mission assignment to the prophet); and then Isahiah 32: 1-8 (what the Lord envisions for His people and his sent ones) and 15-20 (the outcome of His desire for His people)... These prophets have been a vital part of my life, even if subliminally, in the times when in the prominent and worldly scenarios my professional life gave me a lot of emotional satisfactions that led me to self-sufficiently think and proclaim that the world belonged to the strong and the daring.

I did not know at that time that those precise adjectives or qualifications were also required in the Christian realm, but an strength and a daring based not on our human understanding and belief but in our recognition of our personal weakness and will submitted to the Lord who would turn them into the strength and the daring required to go as his bearers of His Good News over the hills and the swamps and even the well intentioned efforts of those who are really serving themselves while stating they are serving the Lord.

When I was young my fellow men and superiors used to call me “the brain” because of what they and I thought at that time was a peculiar characteristic of my personality and upbringing. They also use to call me the “non adapted one” because I never bent to material or social incentives, bribing or financial misuse, flattering recognitions or oportunistic behaviors.

Even my President, in whose closer circles I moved asked me several times what my price was, as he said he could not understand me, going to the point that once told me he would appoint me as one of his personal aides which I refused, telling him that I could not adapt to the idea of being a personal servant.

I never imagined at that time that I would find such joy and satisfaction in becoming a servant, but this time of The Lord. “Lord“ is the greatest concept I have of Him!

A God and a Savior, but more than that… A Lord and A Friend! And above everything else, the sublime combination of these 4 divine characteristic! GOD! SAVIOR! LORD! And FRIEND! What else a human being could desire?

Only by submission and uncompromising endurance you can become his instrument and show the way to others. Not to become their human leader, nor their boss, nor their master, nor their employee, nor their representative in their human, even if well intentioned devised endeavors, nor their promoter of their human kingdoms on behalf of God.

In this rightful spirit, after the translation of the comments I have promised I will resume my understanding of the more integral ways to really heal and restore the physically but more than that, spiritually wounded and distorted lives of the younger than I generations of my country, and any country as well, as the spiritual damage and evilness is also rampant everywhere.