PEACE, LOVE & JOY

Those three words really never formed their truth until my late college years when I discovered God’s omnipresence and Christ’s never ending love.  Today, I am so thankful to the Lord for his assistance in my faith’s development and relationship with Him.  No, I am no saint.  I am a sinner like each and everyone of us.  However, the realization of God’s ever giving love and truth shines so bright as I work 10-13 hour days without breaks.  He prepared me for this!  Lord knows I couldn’t do it without Him!  

REFLECTING SINCE THE LAST POST

Today I am writing as a married man!  On December 20, 2012, Jessica and I were wed by Father Norbert and Deacon Higgins at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Spring, Texas!  It was a beautiful, small ceremony in which we were all graced by the Lord’s presence.   And how blessed we were to have Tim Nelson’s presence at our wedding! 

Jessica’s step-father, Tim, the man who had been in her life since she was three-years-old, was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer last April 2011.  The awful news sparked a flame under us both to gear up and get married a year later.  While Tim went through chemotherapy and became a expiremental drug candidate, his health worsened towards the year’s end.  Without a doubt, I knew we had to move our wedding up.  As such, the Church worked with us and we were able to have Tim walk his daughter down the aisle along with Jessica’s blood-father, Massey.  What an amazing…AMAZING…sight seeing Tim and Massey – smiles stretched from ear to ear – walk my beautiful bride down to me.  Thank the Lord that Tim was able to do so!  He passed seven days later.  We all mourned his death, but know he is in a better place – with our Lord in Heaven. His wonderful life will never be forgotten.  From the memories we shared to the everlasting effects he has had on us, thank the Lord for Tim Nelson!  Without him, Jessica and I would have never dated…much less talked (absent a fifth graders’ help to a new-kid fourth grader ;0)!  Thank you Father God!

My life has much changed since I last posted.  Since then I received word that I passed the Texas Bar Exam and Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam – becoming a licensed attorney on December 8, 2011!  Thank God!  Couldn’t have done it without Him!

Que mas!?  Oh yes, I became an Associate Attorney at the largest Hispanic-owned law firm in the City of Houston.  I began clerking there in January of 2010 in the Immigration Section.  Since then, I’ve been moved to handle both Immigration and Labor & Employment matters.  Thanks Jacob!  Its been a great experience so far and I look forward to gaining so, so much more experience with the great attorneys and staff there!  Jacob, the managing partner, wants me to become specialized, via the Texas Legal Board of Specialization, in both Immigration Law and Labor & Employment Law.   Thank you father God for this wonderful opportunity!

 AND NOW FOR THE FUTURE

Jessica and I look forward to a healthy and full life together!  We look forward to little rugrat children, but for now our little pups will do just fine   I hope to post more often; however, I am working more hours than I sleep, eat and play combined!  Not a problem in my book, but I do look forward to posting more often!

Thank God for all of his blessings.  No matter how much I have on my mind, he always there to alleviate my struggles.   Here’s a little recap of my 26th year of life thus far:

1. Offered Associate position with prominent immigration law firm here in Houston.

2. Graduated from law school and became a doctor!

3. Stunned to held-in tears when seeing one of my RCIA/Children kiddos serving the church as a hospitality minister!

4. Asked Jessica to marry me (She said, “Yes!”)

5. Took Texas Bar Exam!

6. Witnessing the importance of life, how fragile it is…how passionate we are…how great we are with the Lord!

7. Workin Hard

8. Pushing myself, finding myself, understanding Atman is Brahman! K.O.S. (Determination)!

9. Saw Black Star

10. Reminding myself every moment that forgiveness and repentance are key…God will always bless…and love will find its way in my perennial journey to Him – the Truth.

Wow — not bad!

The Foster House Rules

And yeah, can’t deny it — great song here by the Weakerthans.

Ah a monumental post…my first since surgery and vision’s good!  Still a little bit of blur from sensitivity to light, but I’m following doctor’s orders and keeping my eyes wet.  Plenty of tear drops and using the meds.  I can start using fans in 84 days and counting, and I’m getting my hi-end ac tube fixed as I write…Yes.  The tube’s been out of commission since ’07, and I’m excited to get some cool air in my car besides the God-provided 45 or so days in Houston.  Also, new Roots CD!  Its solid, more concentrated on beats than lyrics.  I have it up on my IDisk Public Folder.   The video for their album titled single is below.  My little brother told me he thinks the Roots are better than Kweli.  Its a tough one, but the Roots live is definitely the best live hiphop I’ve seen over Kweli, Mos Def and Reflection Eternal.  Lastly, fantasy football is around the corner!!!!!!

]]> http://thebeloveddisciple.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/todays-vision-new-roots/feed/ 0 thebeloveddisciple LASEK http://thebeloveddisciple.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/hoy-manana-beautiful-sight-pictures-eye-surgery/ http://thebeloveddisciple.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/hoy-manana-beautiful-sight-pictures-eye-surgery/#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 02:57:46 +0000 thebeloveddisciple http://thebeloveddisciple.wordpress.com/?p=331 ]]>

My Band/Alias from 2003-2005

Today was a beautiful day!  Thank God!  Especially after last night when I felt so rewarded for the strenghth of my faith as spirits and a large dark cloud left from above me after constantly telling them they “are not my Christ” and to “Leave me in the name of Jesus.”  I felt so close to God and Christ after I overcame these 3 hauntings, which afterwards felt like a test.

TODAY, I took it like I may never see from my eyes again.  I had my windshield repaired, did the back lawn, watched the USA-Algeria game, took a ton of pain medication, uploaded all my life photos (excluding the ex’s), and I looked at the sky, my girlfriend and everyone in all their beauty.  Sight is beautiful.  Thank the Lord!

Tomorrow morning I will be having LASEK surgery from the Houston Medical Center’s Cizik Eye Center’s Dr. Yee.  Thank the Lord!  He’s done 11,000-12,000 of these surgeries and told me that if anyone messes up it will be me, not him.  How I received the opportunity?  Not the full price; rather, it was early this year that I woke up and saw without limitation.  I prayed and thanked the Lord for the sight, and prayed hard for the chance to see his world without glasses. (I later spoke to my co-worker this past week, and he told me that resting your head/eyes on your arm may bend your cornea and therefore cause you momentary change of vision).  So I asked Him for true sight that lasts, and I prayed on it for the week with appreciation and love for His gifts.  Well he rewarded me after that week when my girlfriend won the +$5,000 procedure at the former Houston Mayor Bill White’s banquet.  Jessica’s father’s wife already had LASIK, and no one else needed it in the family.  Therefore, Jessica offered it to me and I was estatic when I found it this procedure is perfect for me: good for dry eyes, 30-second laser correction per eye, 3-5 day recovery, no complications with the flaps, rather lasers the surface, my own blood-syrum eye drops, and UNLIMITED SIGHT.  Thank the Lord, He’s always giving his love!!!

So I go under the laser tomorrow…see you in five days!

So what I’m working on these days came after a blunt, simple and prevalent re-revelation in my life:

I have the capacity to hate.  And I am doing so in my mind by judging others.

Of course I’ve always known and understood the negativity of hate and its several aspects, but currently, I’m concentrating on what goes on in my mind: judgment.  Thanks to some deep work after the “Fools Rush In” post, I’ve opened up and have found that I am consciously judging people.  Knowing that this judgment comes in different degrees and combined with my urgency to end my hypocrisy, I really must cleanse my heart of this silent hate.

Whether its criticizing a driver on the road, noticing paid workers do terrible jobs, or concentrating on the lack of faithful in a church, I AM JUDGING.  This must stop…and I am trying but it has only led me to become more impatient with it all…

Shit, I must have taken 15 minutes out of my Father’s Day dinner on this with my youngest brother, mother and father.  But I am glad it came out,  my mother told me something that I needed to know:  I need to look at everyone as they, too, have Christ within them.  This is the truth, and it hit close to home after a shaky week of noticing too many people won’t give God’s saving Son the time.  In a quick summary of this week, I’ve had conversations with people in my life that made me see that my love for Christ is not the same as others; in fact, some people would rather not know Christ at all, but rather judge him as if he was fully human or judge him as if he was an institution ran by money/child hungry men.  Additionally, this morning’s homily was about knowing Christ.  Was he the UPS guy that you look for when you’re expecting a package? You’re neighbor you participate in with a casual-interest conversation? Or a family member, you deeply love and embrace?  That homily hit home, and it offset me the wrong way: I was hurt to think of how many people do not know Christ.  It made me judge.  It made me hate.  It made me question man.

This all came to a stop when my mother told me that I need to see Christ in everyone, those who are baptized in His name.  I will do so.  I will love the Lord through others, like he taught us.  Love your neighbor like you love yourself.  I love myself and God is within me, then I love myself like I love God and Christ, at the utmost.  Then I should love my neighbor equally.  Let’s see what the next Monday Morning QB brings…

May our time on earth not be measured by the years we live but by the difference we make in the lives of others. What you do for yourself dies with you. What you do for others lives on.

–Jim Matson, who said this at the end of every speech he gave.  Matson (1925-2010) died May 22.