Hope Springs Eternal

By Armando

The message here is if you’re worried about being taken advantage of, go to God, do what you do for him, let it be about him. As a Christian, the biggest win that can come out of all this is someone eventually saying that they want to give their life to Christ because of you, because of your kindness, your generosity, your heart, the example you set.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984573186

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 by Armando Gonzales.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2018914950

ISBN:                Hardcover                        978-1-9845-7320-9

                          Softcover                          978-1-9845-7319-3

                          eBook                               978-1-9845-7318-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

NIV – New International Version

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

If you would like to contact the author, please send email to:

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Rev. date: 01/23/2019

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T his book is

dedicated to my six sisters.  All of you are my heroes.  Thank you for raising me, cooking for me, helping me to grow up.  I never would have made it through, wrestling, Army Basic Training, Air Assault school, Expert Field Medical Badge school, all the years of biomedical research… had it not been for you.  You guys made me tough, tough enough to not quit, tough enough to want to live and help others.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T o Pablo, Diego, and Karen, thank you for being there for me when I needed you the most.

To Reyna, this book would not have been published had it not been for your support, guidance, and professionalism.

To all of my family and friends, you have all been my teachers and tutors.  I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1     Humble Thyself in the Sight of the Lord

Chapter 2     Attitude of Gratitude

Chapter 3     I Get By with a Lot of Help from My Friends

Chapter 4     Please Forgive Me, for I Have Sinned

Chapter 5     Professional Mental Health Care Angels and

Saints

Chapter 6     Ya Calmate Guey

Chapter 7     Pitty Patty

Chapter 8     What Are Our Habits?

Chapter 9     Why I Choose to Be a Hermano de la Biblia

Chapter 10   As Fate Would Have It

Chapter 11   He’s Ghetto

Chapter 12   Wellness, Veggies, Gym, Energy, Peace, and

Love

Chapter 13   Let’s Wrap This Burrito Up

Afterword

FOREWORD

S ometimes when you ignore the signs that are trying to point you in the right direction, your continued mistakes pile up and put you in a place where it feels like there’s no way out of the pit you have created. That’s how I felt three weeks before my senior year in high school. Too many days of skipping school put me at risk of not graduating. I was failing all four of my classes, and I needed three of them to graduate. The thought of being the first of my siblings not to graduate left me in a place of utter despair. The consequence of my neglect humbled me. I was desperate to do anything to avoid this major failure.

But thank God my brother, Armando, was willing to help. Although he was more than three hundred miles away, he came alongside me to give me the support I needed. He gave me a plan. He told me what to say to each of my teachers and taught me how to study for each of my finals. He sent me a letter every day in the mail that was fully loaded with encouragement. Each letter felt like an injection of inspiration to my hopeless mind. They reminded me that I did have what it takes to pass my classes. They helped me stay focused and prevented me from slipping back into thoughts of quitting. Thankfully, his rescue mission was successful! I passed three out of four of my classes and graduated. A few years later, I went on to college and eventually got my bachelor’s degree at the University of California at Santa Cruz and my master’s degree at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where I also received my teaching credential and bilingual certificate. While studying at UC Santa Cruz, I also applied and was accepted to study abroad at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. Recently, I have embarked on a new venture of training dual language teachers for California Lutheran University. I’ve been teaching for twenty-two years and absolutely love it!

I look at my life now and often wonder, What would have happened to me had my brother not stepped in and sacrificed so much of his time to help me out of my pit? Where would I be now?

This book is an extension of my brother’s heart. He has always been someone who would stop at anything to help people. Now, his work will be a continuation of his life’s purpose: to encourage others to do the same. Staying humble and being available to help those in need is what can make life very fulfilling, even in the midst of an oftentimes troubled world.

I shared my story because it illustrates the exponential power of extending kindness and support to someone in need. He helped me when I seriously needed it. His compassionate efforts literally helped change the trajectory of my life. Now as a result, I, in turn, spend every day trying to change the trajectory of young students’ lives who are born with a challenging socioeconomic status. Someday, these kids will grow up to do the same!

Although I strive every day to do all I can for my students, I know that my ability to help them is limited. With all the expertise I’ve acquired over the years, I am fully confident in my ability to help them academically. However, this does not address the whole child. They also have emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs—areas that are way beyond my capacity to help them on my own. Therefore, I often pray for God to intervene for them in ways I cannot. I know many kids wrestle with problems at home, rendering them victim to satanic influence. Therefore, I know God can be the one to step in and help them through any struggle they face.

I’ve had many moments in my life where I have experienced the presence of God helping me through very difficult circumstances. I have seen and learned that God uses people to help you and sometimes He personally intervenes supernaturally for you. I have mysteriously had many moments where my life could have ended but did not. These reoccurrences have caused me to wonder if there has been some sort of hit on my life. Nonetheless, I believe that Satan has failed with every attempt. In one instance, I had to have surgery due to a serious condition that was not self-induced. I was on my knees praying a few days prior and saw a vision of this huge angel standing guard next to my operating gurney. God told me that my surgeon would know what to do when he opened me up. Two days later on the day of surgery, although my doctor was world-class, my surgeon got cold feet and told me he wasn’t going through with it because it was too risky. He didn’t want me to die. Too many arteries going through that area gave me a high risk for bleeding to death. However, I told him what God told me two days prior—that when he opened me up, he would know what to do. I looked at his fearful face and told him, You can do this. At that moment, I saw confidence come back to his face. He smiled and said, Okay, let’s do this. The rest is history. He succeeded at probably one of the most risky cases he’s had.

Why was the outcome so successful? Because I saw that angel. I knew I would be fine, and this gave me the confidence to encourage my surgeon to go for it. You see, in this story, it was God who gave me the confidence to pass on to my surgeon.

This book will inspire you to receive support from God and others in order to eventually pass on that support to someone who is in need. This is the essence of a meaningful and fulfilling life—receiving support in your time of need and passing it on to someone else in their time of need.

Hilda Gonzales

How did this book come to be? I have already coauthored some peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts as the person who performed all the biomedical research benchwork. I did some technical methods of writing and editing, but for the most part, I spent a lot time performing over ten thousand experiments over a span of twenty years so that the manuscripts I have coauthored could be published.

I keep journals and write a lot of letters to people I am close to. I like some of my writing. Some people like some of my writing. I have no idea if you will like some of my writing. I do not consider myself to be a legit, great writer.

While in Afghanistan, my sister told me that it was time for me to write a book. I knew I would someday; I just didn’t know when. I began writing a book about seven years ago, and it ended up being 384 pages long with close to, I think, one hundred thousand words, using a font that was 14 in size.

I was about to sign off and allow for this book to be published. There were some things I did not like about this first book. My publishing consultant thought the book was fine and that I should publish the book as is.

I ended up telling him that I would look at the chapters I had problems with and try to make revisions. With that, many years passed by. It seems I am constantly going through hard times and am always depressed. I just told myself that my book will be published when God already knows it will.

In the spring of 2018, I was contacted by a new publishing consultant. She was much different from my first consultant. I tried to explain to her what had happened and why I never finished my book. She took me serious and gave me new ideas on how to finish my book. She knew that many of my thoughts and ideas in my first draft were now outdated to me and that I had been writing a whole new book in my head.

She was all for me writing a whole new version of the first manuscript. She was very sensitive to me having PTSD, dysthymia, and facing many personal problems. Like an angel, she stayed in touch with me regularly. She would check in to see how I was doing and encourage me to eat and to try to get normal sleep. She comforted me with her compassion and sympathy for how much I was suffering. She cried on the phone with me.

Her new ideas for my new book, and willingness to accept me as the crybaby I am, motivated me to start writing again! In three to four months, I had an introduction and thirteen chapters written—153 pages with about thirty thousand words of fresh stuff. And this time, I liked my book! I knew I would sign off on this new version and allow it to be published.

This new book was focused on people helping people. This book was not going to chronicle a lot of my experiences in Afghanistan. This book was going to attempt to explain some new novel ideas of mine on why our habits play such a big role in how we behave, what we decide, whether we will make good decisions or bad decisions and why our habits have a huge impact on what life will be like for each of us in the future.

I have read my book many times. Sometimes I like it; sometimes I think I am just going to get laughed at and that more than likely this book will be a dud. Nobody knows me, and I don’t have high college-level writing skills. This book can only be fun, heartwarming, and make a difference in someone’s life if it is read slowly over time.

I won’t be surprised if the book fails. But if the book does reach people and touch their lives, if some influential readers do take me serious, a whole new career for me will be born. I am ready, and God knows I want to try to help as many people as I can. And this means people that I agree with and people that I don’t agree with.

I am not like other humanitarians that think that the bottom line is that everyone needs to stop fighting for what they are fighting for and just spend time working with one another. I prefer we all patiently talk to one another more. There is peace to be found if we all just slow down and give one another a chance. We need to stop hurting one another. We need to show more class and be bighearted. The retaliation and hate have to stop.

Thank you for purchasing my book, and I hope you will give me a chance to show you some things I am very sure will help you. Thanks again. Peace out.

Armando Gonzales

INTRODUCTION

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.

—Matthew 25:35–36 NIV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

—Romans 12:2 ESV

M ake some chamomile tea, and go for a relaxing walk. Take a warm shower. Take your meds. Put on some reading music—Music Choice soundscapes genre and channel 843 for some of you. The time has come for some new ideas to enter your psyche—ideas I think you will like to be put to good use. Grab a highlighter pen and a pencil; you’re gonna need it.

What started out as a book on PTSD has evolved into a helpful collection of stories, laughs, some tears, and a deep look at how to fix some things, solve some problems, feel love, and enjoy life. There is no doubt this book will give you new ways to think about coping and developing solutions—either with direct methods or, hopefully, even with helping you with something by chance in ways I could not have imagined.

For some, this book may be confusing at times. It’s written in an unorthodox fashion. I did this on purpose so that I could provide more details, try to be artistic, and make the mind wonder. Try to see my book more as a global package, not as work I am doing to get an A in a college-level writing class. For those of you with a lot of education and a vivid imagination, I apologize for all the commas, extra words, and tangents. Again, I am trying to make it easier for readers like myself who need repeats and extra details to better grasp what I am reading. I am trying to reach all walks of life and bring us all together so we can help one another and live in peace together.

I cannot expect people like me, with less experience and education, to contemplate on some of the sophisticated points of consideration made the way a more experienced and educated reader might. I am often going to work hard to hammer points home. I hope you will applaud the efforts being made and become involved and feel connected with the good work this book promotes.

Some may say my topics are all over the place and that they’re not focused. They are scattered topics, yes, but the book is focused; it’s a focused message. People are hurting, and they need help. We are lacking new skills in how to help others and ourselves. We need more education and awareness to help more people. We need to