Rand Rambles

For many years, while living in Puerto Rico, I worked as a youth leader. I basically started leading a cell group and from that I went to be one of the leaders of my Church’s Youth Group. After several years as a leader, I was became the main leader of the group when the Youth Pastor suddenly left the Church. It was an interesting situation through which I learned a lot, but it was hard. I really enjoyed being in a place where I could bless others and help them in their daily lives, encouraging them and leading them. It was a great time but there was a lot of chaos. During these years, I experienced several stressful situations that a lot of people don’t experience often, or at least so quick one after the other. As I mentioned, the Youth Pastor left the Church, not long after that, the Church went through a nasty division, followed by the death of our Pastor, whom I loved a lot, and after the period of grieving we experienced some confusion, every preacher that visited the Church during this time confirmed that the Pastor’s wife was to be the one to continue leading the church but for some reasons many of the leaders did not want to comply and ended leaving the Church. Chaos. Craziness. Turmoil. The Church has experienced growth and blessing after all this but I can’t help but wonder, what if some of these things were dealt with in a different way? Some of these stressful situations were impossible to avoid but others weren’t and if there’s others that have gone through hard situations like these, wouldn’t it be wise to learn from them?

In “Steering Through Chaos”, Pastor Scott Wilson explains in a deep but simple way how to handle situations that are bound to happen when we are in leadership. It is sad that so many pastors and leaders give up the place where God has placed them because of burnout and lack of direction. It happened to me, after several years of chaos, one of the reasons I left Puerto Rico was because I was tired, plain and simple. I needed to be refreshed, refocus and be fed. I truly believe that it is possible to be a minister and live refreshed, successful lives, quitting shouldn’t be our option.

Among other things, Pastor Scott explains the importance of focusing on our vision and how we, as leaders, shouldn’t avoid transitions but be the ones creating them at the same time that we recognize opportunities and avoid obstacles. These and other awesome points are practically described and further examined through profiles from actual scenarios in thriving churches.

If you are a leader or involved in any kind of ministry, I highly recommend you get this book. Even if you were a leader and experienced the chaos and barely made it alive, get this book and be refreshed with a new outlook and the possibility of going at it again, not only surviving but celebrating every step of the way.

Click here to get the book on Amazon!

I haven’t blogged in a while because life’s being a bit crazy. But wanted to do a quick blog just as a reminder that when life is sucking, we can make a decision to be happy. Instead of focusing on the bad things happening to us or on what we are lacking we can just try to focus on what we DO have and the blessings we get to experience, as simple as they may be. The fact that you are reading this right now means that you have way more than many others.

So, be happy, smile and use your life to make others happy, it will come back to you when you least expect it.

In other news, I had an awesome night tonight.

When I look into my future and try to visualize what I want to be  I see big things. I can’t help it, I just know I was created to be successful.

It gets hard because my current situation is in a constant fight against that which I wish to accomplish. But, I won’t settle.

I know it will be difficult, I know there will be mountains to climb, rivers to cross and storms to weather, but at the end I know I will stand strong.

That is one of the reasons I left Puerto Rico, I love my family, my island, my friends there but my vision fit even less there than it fits here at this moment. I felt like a big fish in a small pond. I know that if someone really wants to succeed, location is secondary, we can achieve success anywhere if we are willing to work for it. But I knew as I know now that my move was necessary. Here, with what I’ve lived so far I feel closer to what I am meant to be doing.

I don’t know exactly what I will be doing in, say, 5 years. But if I haven’t achieved success by then, believe me I will still be fighting for it.  I may not know exactly what it will look like, but I’m fairly sure what it will not look like, and that I will avoid.

So, here I tell you, you have been created for something more than the ordinary, you do not have to live day by day just with the crumbs from yesterday. If we fight hard, and stand our ground in the midst of troubles, we will success, we will enjoy it and and the end of the day, we will smile and say: It was worth it.

Have you ever thought: What if? What would’ve happened if you had made better choices? Or just different choices.

I find myself thinking how many of the wrong things that I have done have made a negative impact in who I am today, and my current situation. I believe that small decisions that I have taken have closed doors for blessing in my life. Now that I look back, I wish I would’ve done differently. It’s hard to see what I have missed. And yeah, I know that there is still opportunities to make things better but at the moment, well, it sucks.

I am a very positive person and as long as I have another day, I am okay, I know things will turn out alright. But even thinking that and having experienced the amount of blessings I’ve been able to experience I realize how much more I could’ve enjoyed if I had said no to some things.

Many good things have escaped my hands for my messy choices.

I want to learn from that to not let even better things escape.

I don’t know if this is how life works but it is what I feel, every time I choose something bad in my personal life I feel how something in me stops, I feel like something in my life gets delayed until I get my act together. It sucks.

Anyway, thank God for his mercy and for new days with new opportunities.