What should I do with my housing condition? [Counsel Panel]

Started on 11/4/2015

So I asked friends and family and talked to myself for some advice for my future and here is a good listing of opinions that I got.  I’m so confused!  It’s like I’m hearing different voices.  Each of these “advice” seem to be sound. 

Should I buy a house here in El Paso? / What should I do with my housing condition?

Advisor 1: It doesn’t really matter what you do, either way is fine.  God will take care of you.  What matters is that you worship God.

Advisor 2: You should move back Los Angeles and stay with your dad.  I know you care about privacy but your dad is getting old.  The rent is free.  He welcomes you.  I know you might be afraid of him but I think you are better prepared now.  Plus, you can also find a job there as well.  As for the church, remember that home church that you been to once?  They were very nice.  I’m sure you can rejoin them.  Failing that, you can just find a church to your liking.  I’m sure there are supernatural churches in LA.

Advisor 3: You should just stay in El Paso.  You know the area, you know Fort Bliss.  You can be more independent.  You can talk to yourself and to God more and more openly.  Plus, you have your supernatural church here. 

Advisor 4: You should focus on three things only: God, money, and a soulmate.  Those are the three things that make you happy.  El Paso has God, a little money, and probably a soulmate.  Los Angeles can have God, more money, but it might be harder to find a soulmate if you live with your parents. 

Advisor 5: Just continue to stay where you are.  Rent for now.  You are still uncertain about your future, whether you want to continue school, go into trucking, go into the postal service, or stay at your call center job.  And, your Ignite church will be moving, location unknown.  Wouldn’t it be nice to move right next to your church?  And, since you want to stay where you are, which is right next to UTEP, perhaps you should go to school full-time.

Advisor 6: Same as above but go to school part-time and work part-time.  It’s important that you at least have some income.  It’s not good to depend too much on your family and loans that you have to pay back.

Advisor 7: Buy the house.  You can rent out the house to other people and have an income there.  You can have more diversified income.  Plus, you have family support.

Advisor 8: You are already 28 years old.  You’re running out of time to prepare yourself.  Just get established.  Stay at your call center job, buy a house here in El Paso, work full-time or part-time and be with God, and go to your supernatural church.  God will take care of the rest.

Advisor 9: You know what?  Life is just too difficult.  There are too many stress, difficulties, regrets, and unknowns.  I think you should just die and be with God.  The living will envy the dead.

Advisor 10: Quit your call center job.  You should be working at a happy job, not a gloomy job where you deal with negative people.  Find a happy job, anywhere, and stay there.  Do a job that you like, for example trucking.  You say you can talk to God and listen to your Christian music while you drive.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  And the paycheck isn’t too bad either.

Advisor 11: Stay in El Paso.  Your spiritual mentor already told you that you are living in the end times.  You need to be attending a supernatural church.  Just stay in El Paso, do what you need to survive here, and worship God.

Advisor 12: Buy a house, don’t rent.  Renting gives your money to the landlord.  Buying invests the money in yourself.  Plus, you can rent it out to other people for extra money.  Buy as soon as possible.  If you calculated the total amount that you spent in rent, you would have been able to do a nice down payment on a house already.

Advisor 13: Move to a cheaper place.  If you buy, you have to pay the property tax, which, as you calculated, is about $100-$150 a month.  With that cost, it is better to just find a cheaper place to rent for, say $200-300 a month with all utilities included.  You are paying about $400 a month currently.  Just bring it down to $300 and you save $1,200 a year.  

Advisor 14: If you buy the house, you can not only rent but can help other people.  If someone is in need, they can stay for free and you can help them.  Additionally, you can have a room *just* for God, like a temple in the old times.  Not having a room distracts my relationship with God to a degree.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a room, where it is completely dark, with maybe a candle, a cross, and spiritual decorations around to set the atmosphere where you can spend an eternally there?  That room can be your altar.  I know your pastor said that is the old times but it is still possible and I will still make sacrifices to God (personal sacrifices). 

Advisor 15: You don’t need a degree to do social work.  You made a mistake.  You should focus on helping yourself instead of trying to save the world.  Get a second degree in a technology field and then apply for jobs in the Silicon Valley area.  Last I heard, there is a huge demand for jobs.  And you can be happy; you will have a happy job. 

There is a saying I made myself that goes “If I don’t know what to do, I will worship You.”

An event that changed my life

2015.8.25: An event that changed my life

7:53pm – 8:15ish

Today, as I was walking around the block and during push-ups and sit-ups, I actually didn’t want to do exercise today but, deep inside my mind, I know that if I fail to exercise today, I would break a habit-in-making, so I forced myself to, but on my own terms.  I walked, more like a prayer walk while, after a lap, I do ten push-ups and sit-ups.  I keep doing it for thirty minutes.  But, as I was walking, I thought about how one event, one day, changed my life.  The story of how I came to Ignite.

I was sitting in a computer lab at the UTEP library.  And, if I shared this before on a previous blog, then forgive me but I want to bring this up again to the forefront.  I forgot what I was doing, probably printing something or doing one of my assignments.  But, I looked at a computer screen next to me and I noticed a girl, D, listening to Christian music.  Later, she watched a sermon by, now I know, Apostle Maldonado.  I told D, “Excuse me.  I noticed you were listening to Christian music.  I like to listen to Christian music, too.”  And from that, she immediately invited me to come to Ignite Movement Church.  She took out a piece of line paper and wrote her information and the church information and gave it to me.  I kept her note, but I didn’t go.  But, it seems God wants me to go.  Two months later, after my last social work final during the Fall finals week in December, my classmates invited all of us to hang out and celebrate at Cabo Joe's.  However, Y, told me today, which was Wednesday, there is a Bible study at Ignite and she is planning to go there.  My mind clicked.  She also goes to Ignite!  (She doesn’t go there anymore but may God bless her for encouraging me to go.)  I decided to go to the Wednesday service with her instead of hanging out with the rest of my classmates at the bar.  The funny thing is that bar is also a place where Y likes.  I went there that night and it changed my life.

Some interesting facts is that I was the one who initiated the process.  If I didn’t tell D, who happened to sit next to me that I also like Christian music, my life would have been so much more different.  The same goes with if I decided to hang out with my friends at the bar.  That was a close decision.  A big part of me wanted to celebrate with the rest of my friends but I was inspired that Y actually wants to go to “Bible study” instead of celebrating.  I went with the minority and it changed my life.  And, if I never knew Ignite, who knows what would happen to my life now.  I probably would be driving trucks.  :p  Or moved out of El Paso.  Life can be a choose-your-own-adventure game.  Thank you God.