Why "The Man Who Smiles"

This probably should have been my 1st blog to kick things off but let's face it-I am blogging like the train of thoughts in my mind.  Which means for you readers buckle up it's gonna be a bumpy ride.  In other words, my train of thoughts seem to go in every direction, which means my blogs will read like a Quintin Tarentino movie.  My blogs will go and from end to beginning to middle then back again, but hopefully-I will pull it all together in the end.

As I state in the about me, I am married to Jorge Rodriguez, who is serving the last 3 months of his prison term and will soon be coming home to me.  All my blogs will be about him and his wonderful way of witnessing to people.  I actually, stole the Man Who Smiles from another writer who wrote a short article about Jorge.  The man, imprisoned himself, heard about Jorge and his long sentence and his good attitude and was intrigued and wrote a short article about Jorge, titled "The Man Who Smiles."  I read it, enjoyed it, but couldn't help but think I could tell Jorge's story so much better.  So here I am telling his story.

The thing that makes me laugh when I look @ the article is that Jorge wouldn't smile that day for the picture in the article.  I have all these great pictures of Jorge smiling his big, friendly smile, and the 1 day he should have flashed his pearly whites the biggest, he didn't.  Men, they are more complicated then we women give them credit for.

The article itself, caused quit a stir in the prison.  Some people cried when they read it.  Others fought over what Jorge said.  Kind of like here on the outside, where some are open and touched by the message of God's love and others get angered by the message.  They don't want to believe, because believing in God's love and authority in our lives, means we have to submit ourselves to God, admit our sin, and realize there is a God.  A God, who is in control, who loves us, and guides our path, but a God who we have to humble ourselves before.  For many today, accepting there is a God means facing themselves and they can't do that.  So they'd rather argue and shout, and live in disbelief.

I am so thankful the article was written.  I am even more thankful, for Jorge's courage to testify to God's love and existance in his life.  So there you have it, the reason my blog is called "The Man Who Smiles."

Life With Jorge

When I picture what life will be like when Jorge comes home, somehow our life turns into old I Love Lucy Episodes.  Only difference is I don't have an Ethel.  I manage to get into trouble all by myself.  LOL  I know Jorge is going to be called into ministry, which scares me because I am not a preacher's wife personality by any means.  I don't know how I know, it's just this feeling in my heart I have of him preaching and sharing his story, the gospel and leading people to Christ.  I just know he is called to preach and teach.  I'll be in the background, slipping out a cuss word or making some other faux pas to embarrass him.  I don't want to be a hinderance to his calling, but I am not sure how I am going to fit in.

Picture a show with a nice, quiet  gentlemanly Preacher going about his work.  His wife on the other hand tries her best to be proper, demure, etc., but never quiet pulls it off.  Kind of like Audrey Hephburn in My Fair Lady, when she goes to the races.  She looked like a lady, walked and talked like a lady till the race started and her real self came out and she screamed at the horse to "get your bloomin arse movin."   Even if I do just smile and say nothing-my skirt would split when I sit down, or I'd be rushing out of the bathroom to get to service & horror of horrors my dress will be stuck in my underwear.  That's the kind of the things that happen to me.  I know Jorge will love me anyways, in spite of my slip ups.  He loves me just the way I am.  His love is 1 of the truest reflections I have of God's love 4 me.  When I see how unconditionally he loves me, I know his love for me is from God cause no human can love so truely, without God.

Thinking about it, maybe the sitcome of our life will give people some chuckles but hopefully it will also demonstrate God's unconditional love for us.  When people get married, often the bible quote read is I Corinthians 13:4-8.  "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 ⁸ Love never fails."    People quote it as an example of how we are to love each other.  However, it is also a picture of how God loves us.  No matter how many times we mess up, he is patient and waits on us to get it right.  He is kind, and there 4 us when we feel everyone else has deserted us.  God's love never fails.  

Maybe that's where I fit in to the big picture of Jorge's ministry, demonstrating God's unconditional love, even for me.  That's a good place to be in.  :) 

That Time of the Month

Recently, a friend confided to me how her boyfriend had to confess he charted her monthly moods swings based on "that time of the month we women have."  I chuckled, becuase Jorge does the same thing.  Jorge was totally honest about tracking mine.  If I argued with Jorge on the phone he'd say, "It's that time of the month-that's why you are arguing with me."  This would make me even madder, because as right as he was about my schedule, I felt like I was arguing with him becuase he was wrong about whatever we were arguing about.  Jorge would announce my period was coming which drove me crazy, I suffer so bad with cramps, I just like to pretend it's not coming-but nooooo he had to let me know it's coming.  I think it was his way of warning me and himelf, that we had to be careful and nice to each other.  LOL  Right now Jorge can avoid me by not calling for a few days when I'm at my crankiest.  I can't help but wonder though what is going to happen when he can't escape me.  When he comes home, we'll have to learn how to get along while I am at my crankiest.  Now, on the phone he makes me laugh to get through my crabiest of moods.  I guess that's how he'll probably deal with me.  He get's out in April so time will tell.

How I met my Prince Charming

I call Jorge Mi Principe Azule (please forgive any misspelling here as I am still struggling learning Spanish).  According to Jorge it means My Prince Charming in Spanish.  But, I sure didn't think of him that way when we were 1st introduced.  When my older sister told me she gave my name and address to her friend's brother in prison to pass on to his friend, I went bullistic.  I thought my sister was crazy.  I understood why she wrote her good friend's brother.  She had sent the brother a bible and when he wrote to thank her she wrote him back to encourage him.    What was she thinking giving my name to some strange guy in prison?  It wasn't the same thing as a friend's brother.  My sister's reasoning was I was always so good keeping in touch with all my friends, I wouldn't mind writing to some poor guy in prison.  I was so mad at her for imposing on me in this way.  Yet, when the letter came, curiosity got the better of me and I read it.  1st thing I noticed was his letter was well written and the little smiles he drew with big grins were cute.  He wrote jaja for haha a lot, which I think he may have been nervous, but I just thought he thought he was funny.   He wrote he was from Cali Colombia, and having seen every episode of Miami Vice I knew what that meant-cocaine-drug lord-gorgeous house in Miami-ruthless drug lord.  I kind of wanted to write back, but then I didn't.  I dramatized writing back or rather not writing back to ridiculous proportions.  I imagined a Pablo Escabar type guy sending thugs to run me off the road for not writing back.  It took a little while, but I decided what the heck?  I wrote back.  That's how it all began, 1 letter from a shy lonely Colombian to an overly dramatic Gringa from America.  Neither of us had any idea what it would mean to us, neither knowing what God had planned.

A Bloom in Prison

Everyone's heard the saying bloom where you're planted.  It usually accompanies a story where someone is stuck in a job with a rotten boss or facing some difficulty.  How about blooming in a Federal Prison?  A place where your room is, as Jorge says, "a bathroom."   Yet, Jorge blooms.  In a prison full of angry, tired men he is able to share his faith with anyone who is open.  He smiles, laughs, and he is insanely thankful to God for all God does 4 him, including sending me to him ;)  People say to Jorge all the time, "How can you love God when you are here?  Why do you love God when he has not set you free?"  Jorge answers simple, "I know God has a plan 4 me, and he loves me.  From the first time I met Jorge, I noticed something different about him.  He is more free than some men who are not behind bars.  He has this peace about him beyond description in words.  The peace that only comes from relying on God and living on faith daily.  Unlike my boisterous loud manner, he is quiet, and yet he commands attention in a noisy room of visitors.  His smile is contageous.  When he smiles at someone they can't resist smiling back.  Every prison he has been assigned to, he spreads the Gospel with his quiet manner and big smile and humor.  So many times on the phone he has shared how he has told a new person about what God has done 4 him in prison and usually he makes the guy cry.  It kind of seems weird, to hear that tough, hardenend criminals, cry, over a simple story of God's love, but they do.  Why?  Because Jorge is blooming in a place of concrete and weeds.  He brings a message of hope in a place of grey walls and bars.  We can overlook 1 single flower in a boquet, but that same flower, blooming in a field stands out. Jorge is that single bloom, reaching towards the sun, showing the world God is everywhere.