CPA BABY!!

Awhile back I posted an entry showing that I had lost all my CPA credits and had to start over.  Therefore, I thought it was only fair that I showed everyone this...

MALDONADO,HECTOR,MANUEL,II - Exam Candidate CPA Examination Scores and Credits

The status of your scores and credits on the uniform CPA exmination. Select a section to view further details.

Total Credits: 4.

Section Status Credit Will Be Lost Last Score Last CBT Test Last Type Trans Jur AUD    Credit awarded  N/A 75 7/27/2007 CBT N/A BEC    Credit awarded  N/A 85 8/18/2007 CBT N/A FAR    Credit awarded  N/A 92 8/11/2007 CBT N/A REG    Credit awarded  N/A 80 7/14/2007 CBT N/A

I am DONE with the CPA exam...now I just have to send in all that crappy paperwork and I'll be good to go!  =D  I want to again thank everyone who has supported me during this endeavor.  It was a long two years but God has been generous in His blessings.  Praise Him for all that He does! 

Hector
CPA Exam Conqueror
Unofficial (i.e., need to send in paperwork) CPA

Hey Guys!  Long time no update!  If you don't already know, you won't believe what happened since the last time I updated in May...I got a house!    Isn't that crazy?!  I love it so far!  Other than that, not much exciting to report...I'm currently on a leave of absence from work studying for the CPA.  Exciting I know. 

Have you ever been listening to the radio, and heard one of those songs that for some reason just gets you?  I'd heard bits and pieces of this song before but never the whole thing.  Well I know guys are supposed to be tough and all that...maybe I was just really tired from taking my exam or maybe I'm just a big softie, but by the end of the song I wasn't just choking back tears I was bawling.  I don't know how many of you have heard the song "If you're reading this" by Tim McGraw.  I know he sang it live at the ACM awards and its been on the radio a few times (it's also on YouTube, I'll post the link later in this post) but I don't think it's actually on any album officially?  Basically it's a song about a letter sent by a soldier, likely with instructions to disseminate it only if he dies in combat.  The song is essentially the words of the letter and speaks of being in a better place, and soldiers of all nations being at peace.  Of the soldier who sacrificed seeing his baby daughter grow up to fight for this country, and who just wants his mom to "lay me down, in that open field out on the edge of town."  I know what you're thinking, another redneck patriot song that makes us feel guilty if we don't support the war.  I couldn't disagree more.  Maybe its the hauntingly mournful tone used by Tim McGraw (almost as if the soldier is actually speaking from beyond the grave), or maybe its just the idea that if someone is willing to die for us the least he deserves is our respect.  You don't have to agree with G.W. and the war in Iraq...you just have to know that there are young men and women out there with enough courage and honor to follow the orders they're given in defense of our great nation.  If you don't like the war, and hey I'm with you all the way, take it up with and take it out on G.W. and his top aides.  Don't take it out on the courageous American willing to die for his country.  Anyways, political debate and posturing aside, I think it's a beautiful tribute to the men and women who have fought and died for our country, in any way or minor conflict or even in peacetime.  If you're interested in giving it a listen, here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEjz-wAQLSA

Peace,

Dos

Hello Again Everyone!

I know my updates are pretty sporadic on this thing, but maybe I still have a loyal two or three readers.   Anyways, May is going to be an exciting month for me...in four days (or three depending on whether this posts before midnight) I hit the quarter of a century mark.  Finally, a lower car insurance bill!  And I don't even have to talk to the Gecko, or Geico, or is it the Gecko at Geico?  I get confused...a caveman might be able to do it but I sure can't.    Ahh the trademark Hector humor that everyone knows and loves.  I've noticed the last few entries have been serious, maybe even sober.  I want to keep this one light.  That's how I roll! 

So what else is coming up this month?  Graduation...not for me, I went through mine two years ago this May 20-21.  Two years ago...WOW.    Haha I love the "shocked" face.  Anyhow, some of my friends in my small group are graduating...very exciting.  Also, my good friend's sister is graduating.  Congratulations to all graduates!  And then it ends with the granddaddy of all barbecues...Hector's almost famous second annual Memorial Day fajita grill.  It's gonna be awesome.  So what's not to look forward to this month? 

And real quick at the end I want to get serious, but a good serious, for a moment here.  I have been looking back on my life, especially my spiritual journey, lately and I have some people I want to thank because things are going pretty well right now...as any serious believer knows, they're never perfect...but they are good.  I'm working on things, and I feel like I'm making progress, although I have a lot still to atone for.  Thank God for the sacrifice of Jesus!    You will RARELY see me use the pink heart thing in my writing...but I think Jesus at least deserves that.  So thank you Jesus, my Lord.  Next on my list are my parents, who put up with me and raised me to love God and set a great example for me.  Next is my small group and a couple of people in that group individually who I will not name but know who they are (my "brother" and my "sister" in the truest sense of the word, I could not ask for better people in my life...thanks you two, thanks so much).  My small group has brought about a wonderful positive change in my life...despite the fact that I come from a totally different cultural background than they do, and I think we're all still working on getting used to each others cultural nuances, they have accepted me as a fellow believer and helped me grow.  Thanks guys!   

Hope everyone has a happy and blessed May!

Hector

I may offend some people with this entry.  Before I get into that too much, let me first say it is NOT my intention to offend or judge anybody, and I hope I make that clear during the course of this entry.  But based on some stuff I read last night I feel like this needs to be said.  This isn't targeting any specific person, so don't feel that way.  If you do feel that way, talk to me about it and let's work it out.  Ok, now that I've got you scared, here's what I need to say:

Last night, I read something that disturbed me in the blog of someone I know from Orange.  This person had revealed certain things about themselves to their Christian friends, and as a result this person was judged, shunned, and ostracized.  This leads me to ask a simple question:  since when did being Christian give us the right, or maybe should I say the gall, to pass judgment on someone?  Most of my friends (probably all, I can't think of anyone who is) who are Christian are not like this, that's why their my friends, because I believe they make an effort to be true examples of Christ's love and mercy and I deeply respect them for that.  But if everyone's completely honest, they know there are plenty of stories about supposedly righteous Christians judging and shunning people, and using guilt and fear of Hell to try and force a person to believe.  Forgive me for proposing this, but my impression was that Jesus was a God of love, mercy, forgiveness and acceptance.  I believe my duty as a Christian is not to scare people with tales of eternal damnation and try and make them believe through fear of what will happen if they don't.  I believe it is my duty to try everyday, despite my failings, imperfections, and sometimes out and out stupidity, to be an example of Christ's love, to show people that it is truly an amazing God who can create everything we see.  That it is truly an amazing God that loves His children so much that he gave us the gift of free will, even if it meant that we may turn our back on Him.  That it is truly an amazing God and father that can love us and forgive us despite all the horrible things we think and do.  So I ask my fellow Christians to do a simple task:  love others, no matter what you think of their actions and beliefs.  Show them kindness and mercy, as Jesus would.  Accept them and let them know that Jesus accepts them too, and don't make conversion a condition of that acceptance.  In the end, God knows all of our thoughts and all of our intentions, and we each are accountable only to Him.  So let us love and forgive, and try to leave the judgment up to God.  He's really the only one equipped with all of the information to do it right anyway, isn't He?

I recently wrote a mini-testimony for some members of my small group and thought I would share it with the world at large...I think it's an important topic to dialogue about...any comments will be appreciated.  Warning:  it's kinda long...

The Lenten Season (aka Introduction)

In the Catholic Church, the season of Lent is meant to commemorate the days Christ spent in the desert being tempted by Satan.  Satan first tempted Christ by telling him to turn rocks into loaves of bread so that He might satisfy His hunger.  But Christ denied Himself and turned to the Father.  Satan then took Christ to a high place and told Him to hurl himself down and have the angels save Him at His word.  But Christ turned away from pride and a show of power, instead turning to the Father and promising not to test Him.  Finally, Satan tempted Christ with his greatest prize yet, all the kingdoms of the world.  But again Christ resisted Satan, giving up the chance for virtually unlimited riches and glory.  Sacrifice is what the Lenten season is all about…or is it?  Sacrifice is important yes, but equally important is what we gain spiritually from that sacrifice.  If we sacrifice so that others can see and praise us, the pride we feel is our reward, and we miss out on God.  If we sacrifice simply out of habit, we also gain nothing spiritually.  So what’s really the point of sacrifice and of the Lenten season in general?  I believe that it is a time to turn ourselves away from our distractions, but more importantly to use that lack of distraction to grow in our relationship with God.  That’s the whole point, not just during Lent but during every day of our Christian journey, to grow closer to God.  It is in that spirit that I write this, hoping that a focus on God will help me grow.  

Hope, Betrayal, Division and Unity:  A Brief Testimony

The following story that I am about to share with you is by no means a comprehensive testimony of my Christian journey, but a very important, painful, and ultimately illuminating part of it.  If you have already heard all or part of this before, I apologize in advance.  

As many of you know, I have long felt a yearning in my heart to see Christians of different denominations and cultures learn to put aside their differences and rejoice in the great thing they have in common, Jesus Christ.  So what if you believe in full immersion baptism instead of sprinkling?  So what if you call being fully admitted into the church “confirmation” or “baptism”?  The only beliefs that matter in my opinion are the following:

1. Do you believe that Christ is fully God yet fully human?
2. Do you believe that Christ was miraculously born of a virgin?
3. Do you believe that Christ willingly turned Himself over to the Romans, was crucified and died to pay for our sins?
4. Do you believe that on the third day after His death, Christ rose from the dead, conquering sin and death and bringing us to new life?

If you answered yes to the above, you are my brother or sister.  Plain and simple.

When I went off to college, I hoped to meet a group of Christians that I could interact with from all different backgrounds and denominations whose only focus was on Christ, NOT on petty disagreements.  In my freshman year, I met a guy in my Philosophy class and we became fast friends.  One day he invited me to meet with a group of Christians that he had recently been meeting with.  He said they liked to meet in people’s homes as well as at church and they were from all different background and denominations.  I was thrilled…it was as if God was taking the desire of my heart and putting it out in front of me, although I certainly didn’t think of it in such dramatic terms at the time!  So I went to some meetings and found myself really enjoying it.  We ate, we sang songs, and we did a mini bible study.  Certainly different from what I was used to as a Catholic, but I was happy to be interacting with other Christian brethren.  As time progressed, I found myself getting more involved with the group, attending more meetings, going to people’s homes, and even occasionally going to Sunday service at their church.  Hold on a second, did I say their church?  When I joined I thought that it was just a non-denominational group of college students meeting to share a common love of Christ.  Then I find out it’s actually its own church?  And that was just the beginning of the betrayal.  As I became more familiar with the teachings of this group, I found not that they were inclusive, but the worst sort of exclusive.  They called Jews, Catholics, and Protestants vile names.  They felt that to be a true believer you had to be part of their church…if you were a true believer but not part of their church, well you just hadn’t seen the light yet I suppose.  The final straw came one night at a large meeting on campus where one of their “elders” (that’s another red flag there folks!) mocked St. Francis of Assisi.  He derided St. Francis and said that he was insane, using a hammer and nails to give himself the wounds of Christ.  It was the most overt attack on my Catholic faith yet…there had been other subtle cuts.  If you’re not familiar with the story of St. Francis, he was the son of a wealthy merchant who gave away all his worldly possessions to help the poor and follow God.  He had nothing but love for his fellow man, and was nothing like this elder had portrayed him.  As for the wounds, we believe those were not self inflicted, but that St. Francis was the first man to experience the miracle of the Stigmata, a phenomenon which occurs when one has such a close and personal relationship with Christ that he or she even takes on the wounds of the Lord and feels his suffering in a very personal manner.  Not buying it?  That’s ok, just scroll back up and remember the four questions I asked at the very beginning of this letter.  You don’t have to believe in the stigmata to understand that St. Francis gave up everything to follow God.  But did this elder choose to mention that?  Of course not, because that would have stepped on the point he was trying to make.  Look at how loony those Catholics are, best to stay away from them.  It took a little while before I actually had the courage to leave the group, but leave I did. 

That experience defined a year and a half of my life, and it ended in nothing but hurt and betrayal.  I still believed in God, though I couldn’t help but be angry at Him for letting me get involved with those people.  But I was even more mad with Satan, who thrives on division.  When Christians are divided, Satan can pick them off one at a time.  Either way, I figured it was somehow my fault and that I just didn’t have the ability to be a judge of what was good.  I became extremely cynical of any group calling themselves “non-denominational” and refused to interact with them.  I went to Mass, but I still felt betrayed by the whole situation.  This slow movement away from God defined the rest of my college career…small patches of sunshine where I felt like I was coming back to God followed by long periods of darkness where I felt that there was no hope. 

Fast forward to a few months ago.  I had finally managed to get over the bad experience in college and felt that I was making a bit of a rebound.  My relationship with God wasn’t (or isn’t) where I want it to be, but I was (am) working on repairing it.  Enter my good friend from school whom you all know, Charlene.  One day she asked me if I was interested in coming to check out a small group she had recently started going to for her church.  I was immediately wary but reasoned that, a)  she couldn’t have known the details about what happened to me in college and the offer was probably well-meant and genuine and b) I trusted her implicitly and think of her as a sister in every way except our DNA doesn’t match. =)  I decided to give it a try.  The first time I showed up, I didn’t see a single other Mexican American Catholic…well ok, forget the Catholic part, not a single other Mexican American.  =D  I was definitely nervous…not only was I meeting with a group of people from a different denomination, but from a completely different culture.  But my bad experience had not quenched that desire to strive for unity among Christians, so I kept going forward.  What I have found in the past few months is a group of people working hard to become better Christians, with faults and problems just like me.  A group of people who don’t see me as a Mexican American Catholic, but as their Christian friend Hector.  A group of people who were everything the Christians on Campus could not claim to be, accepting, willing to admit their faults and imperfections, and not caring that I went to Mass on Sundays.  I firmly believe God puts people and situations into our lives for a reason.  He used each and every one of you to renew my hope that as long as we hold steadfast to our core faith and beliefs, Christians of all races, no matter what building they choose to go to on Sundays, can get along if they are willing to make the effort and reach out to others.  As I now say when people ask me what I am, I am a Christian first and a Catholic second.  I recently used the analogy for a friend that I saw each group or denomination as a piece to a giant puzzle.  Each piece is unique yes.  If every piece were the same, we couldn’t form any sort of coherent picture.  Yet despite our uniqueness and redeeming qualities, standing alone we are nothing.  But when put together with all the other pieces, we can form together to make the face of God.  And Satan will not be able to stand against us.  But we have to put aside our pride and understand that we are working towards something much greater than any one of us.  We are working towards the Lord Himself!! =D

Quick Conclusion

I want to thank each and every one of you for reading this.  I know it was really long, and sometimes I have a tendency to ramble.  But I said what I believe God was calling me to say in the best way that I know how.  Thank all of you for listening and may God Bless you all!  I’m so happy to have each and every one of you in my life!

Your Brother in Christ,

Hector