Justified or Incarcerated

In February 2011, Clay was diagnosed with stage 4 Lymphoma Cancer.  Married for three years to his wife Monique and have beautiful daughter named Hazel, cancer was the last thing on his mind.  Receiving pain in the lower abdomen, he went for the examination, the diagnose came back showing Lymphoma.  Going through months of chemotherapy treatment, "the tests began to come back cleaner and better. As of late this summer, Clay is in full remission from his cancer... One of the hardest parts of going through treatment was that Clay was not able to be with or hold Hazel because he could catch an infection easily in his condition that could be fatal."  But what helped him go through the trial was his faith in the Lord.  Isaiah 43:2-3 was a verse that he was meditating on: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; 
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. 
When

First time when I was away from my wife in three months.  It was guys retreat.  All guys from our church got away to an Orca Island to spent time together reading, laughing, playing, watching, in brief, just to enjoy time together.  But in the mid's of the active life, the topic was on "Real Man." When we arrived at the Island, I've received a text message from my wife stating that when I left, life has stopped.  I couldn't read those words without tear since that's what I felt also.   Those two days, (it was suppost to be three days) were the days when I was thinking about her.  I was with singel men who enjoyed life, for them it was a time of excitement, full of adventure, but for me it was a time of separation; a period of time that I will never have. Since the topic was about "Real Men," boys that were sixteen and guys that were in their twenties were easily united.  We had leaders from our church and a pastor covering the question: what is

An interesting interview on Larry King Show.  The faith in God made a difference in the quality of life.  "The weaker I became, the stronger I was relaying on Him" (Eareckson).     Joni speaks more about her life and faith in this video:

I was amazed with the colors and the designe of these birds; the world is full of life.  Another resone to give God the glory!

Communicating with elders in our church is one of the interesting conversations to have.  They always smile, say positive things, and make it look like everything is alright despite the disease and limitation that they experience.  I never heard an older man complain of being old, and yes, I do speak with elders.  It's something about being old, that young man always lack, is wisdom.  I see more self control and wise conversations from elders then youth.  Also, what divides the elders with youth is the involvement with the church.  Their faith and desire for God is clearly seen then in young. Robert V. Kail and John C. Cavanaugh in "Human Development" text book wrote an interesting quote about elders: "Health care and social service providers would be well advised to keep in mind that self-reported importance of spirituality in the lives of many older adults when designing interventions to help them adapt to life stressors" (564).  And this is something that

Going through week eight in our psychology class, I notice there was this "midlife crisis," dissatisfaction in the life circumstances.  After living more then half of the life cycle, people realize that what they desired, was not achieved.  The life expectation that were set up early on in life, were not accomplish, therefore, person feels guilty and depressed.  Carolyn Butler writes on expectation in her The Washington Post article : "If only it were that simple. 'Many of us have very high expectations for ourselves, and it can be hard to let them go... [the] problems arise when there’s a clash between what you expect — a perfectly clean house or a home-cooked meal on the table every night, for example — and what actually happens; the end result is guilt, particularly for women... There are a lot of men out there now who want to have it all and do it all, and they’re suffering in the same way as women... men have even more work-family conflict than women do these