Friday, November 23, 2012

Things I Learned Under Communism!

I was young when I left Romania. Not even ten, not really understanding what was happening, I was plucked from a life I knew and tossed into a world I could not begin to understand until much later in life.

Seeing what this nation is becoming, seeing the steps it is taking toward embracing what so many risked life and limb to escape, lately I’ve been thinking about my early years, trying hard to remember things I thought long forgotten, and piece together some sort of explanation as to why a nation would willingly capitulate its hard fought and hard won freedoms to embrace a system proven time and again to be a failure on a grand scale.

Make no mistake, we are swiftly nearing what can only be defined as socialism, and though some might revel in the idea of it, the reality of the thing is sinister, grisly, hopeless, and joyless.

Some things sound far better on paper than they are when implemented.

As I said, I write these lines as one who has lived through what America is becoming, and one whose parents and grandparents were permanently scarred by a system which willingly provides for its citizenry’s survival, but demands total submission, obedience and subservience in return.

Truth is, as long as you are willing to forfeit your individuality, dignity, faith, morals, and convictions, life in a socialist system is close to bearable.

One of the most profound things I learned even as a child is that most men fall in line long before being threatened with anything as untoward as violence. Neighbors, friends, and even folks we thought of as brothers or sisters, all merrily reported any ‘suspicious activity’ even if those performing said activities were their own spouses, children or parents.

If you are willing to conform, and don’t mind living in a police state, then the next couple years shouldn’t be all that traumatic for you.

The scales are tipped definitively when more than half the population of any given nation comes to realize that whether earned, taken, or freely received bread tastes the same and fills the belly just as readily.

‘Dignity doesn’t smooth over callouses or heal blisters, so why work when you don’t have to?’

Once we stopped teaching conviction, once we stopped teaching that one’s principles mattered, once we began to encourage one and all to take the easy way out rather than make a principled stand, our course was inevitable and our destination a foregone conclusion.

Freedom is like that longsuffering and faithful friend we take for granted, dismiss, and ignore until one day we come to realize they are no more. It is only when freedom is stripped from a nation that men begin to long for it once more, but by then it is too late, and the monster we thought we could control by force of will alone at long last bares its fangs and reveals its true self.

Nothing in this world is free but the love of God. Everything else has strings attached whether we see them at present or not.

There is one other thing I learned while under communism: that a man’s true self is revealed and his true character uncovered most readily during times of distress and turmoil. The few who stood, stood to their honor. The many who fell, fell to their shame.

Stand or fall, your true self will come to light in the coming days.

1 Corinthians 10:11-13, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages of have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,
thank you for this. For the last week or 2, I have been praying about whether I should interupt in the middle of your prayer series and ask you if you had any advice for living under communism-maybe for a Friday's blog. Of course I realize the complete necessity of relying on the leading of the Holy Spirit, but how does one train one's children, now just beginning homeschooling, (but how long will that be legal?) what to say, what not to say in school? Advice on how to be "careful" in what one says and does without being paranoid. Living joyfully in Christ under black clouds? Frankly I'm not sure even what to ask, because here in America we have been so spoiled by our freedoms. Also, the more practical things. There are other things on my heart concernng this, but I will not write them on email. I will pray. Thank you very much for your ministry and your writings. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Strangely enough, these words today are a comfort for they confirm in my heart the direction in which we are headed as a nation and at the same time the Holy Spirit offers His Peace. While we don't welcome the coming persecution, we know our Source but not as much as we will come to truly KNOW Him through the dark days ahead.

Barbara said...

People are trained in Americia to want the easy way out. They worship convienience above all else. Anything that requires work, effort, suffering, or determination is deemed a torture. There is a mentality of entitlement where people expect certain privileges and honors without merit.

If you are someone who works for what you have, you are scoffed at and made to feel ashamed. The only work people do is work that they can show off like when they exercise their bodies without doing any real labor. If you work by carrying grocery bags in your hands walking up the road, people look down on you like you are some sort of low life.

I think people are hypnotised. God said they would fall under great delusion in the last days for having ignored truth and goodness.

They are willing to go along with just about anything as long as the road is wide and easy. A narrow difficult obscure road is too much bother for them.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Michael for your input on this topic near and dear to my heart. You're wisdom and experience is valuable to me. Sadly, many Americans in the church are asleep. They don't understand the reality we are facing. "God, preserve You're people!"