You are not an accident!

I Am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born. Isaiah 44:2 Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. You are alive because God wanted to create you. The bible says, "The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me," Nothing in your life is arbitrary. It's all for a purpose. Rick Warren in his book " The Purpose Driven Life" tells us that regardless the circumstance of your birth or who your parents are, God had a plan in creating you. God never does anything accidentally and He never makes mistakes. But there is a God who made you for a reason, and your life has profound meaning. We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives.

In Chapter 3 Warren ask us What drives your life? You can be drive by guilt and allow your past to control your future. We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it. God's purpose is not limited by your past. He turned a murderer named Moses into a leader and a coward named Gideon into a courageous hero, and He can do amazing things with the rest of your life, too. God specializes in giving people a fresh start. People are driven by resentment and anger. They hold on to hurts and never get over them. Instead of releasing their pain through forgiveness, they rehearse it over and over in their minds. Your past is past! Nothing will change it. For your own sake, learn from it, and then let it go. People are driven also by fear. Fear-driven people often miss great opportunities because they're afraid to venture out. Instead they play it safe, avoiding risks and trying to maintain the status quo. Fear is a self-imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. You must move against it with the weapons of faith and love. Another people are driven by materialism. Their desire to acquire becomes the whole goal of their lives. This drive to always want more is based on the misconceptions that having more will make me more happy, more important, and more secure, but all three ideas are untrue. Self-worth and net-worth are not the same. Your value is not determined by your valuables, and God says the valuable things in life are not things. Real security can only be found in that which can never be taken from you-your relationship with God.  Many people are driven by the need of approval. They allow the expectations of parents or spouses or friends to control their lives. Others are driven by peer pressure, always worried by what others might think. Being controlled by the opinions of others is a guaranteed way to miss God's purposes for your life.

Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason. Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope. The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose. Hope comes from having a purpose. Without a clear purpose, you will keep changing directions, jobs, relationships, churches or other externals-hoping each change will settle the confusion or fill the emptiness in your heart. If you want your life to have impact, focus it! Never confuse activity with productivity. You can be busy without a purpose, but what's the point?  Purpose always produce passion. Many people spend their lives trying to create a lasting legacy on earth. They want to be remembered when they're gone. Yet, what ultimately matters most will not be what others say about your life, but what God says. Living to create an earthly legacy is a short-sighted goal. A wiser use of time is to build an eternal legacy. You weren't put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity.

I'm enjoying reading this book. I'm done blogging for my introduction to computer applications class had been a very good experience for me. I start learning to enjoy everything that I do. The key is to have fun. God bless you guys!

What on earth Am I here for?

I was looking something to write something for my weekly blog for my Introduction to computer applications class when I look next to my bed and found a book that I'm been waiting to read for a long time. I thought that now was the perfect time to start reading it and at the same time write a blog for my class at the same time. The title of the book is "The Purpose Driven Life" written by Rick Warren. In the cover of the book I read a question that ask What on earth Am I here for? When I start reading the dedication says that before you were born, God planned this moment in your life. It's no accident that you holding this book. God longs for you to discover the life He created to live here on earth, and forever in eternity. It's in Christ that we find out who we really are and what we are living for.

Rick Warren tells us that life is an spiritual journey and with the help of his book you are going to understand the big picture and how all pieces of your life fit together. The bible says, "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do". Real spiritual growth is never an isolated, individualistic pursuit. Maturity is produced through relationships and community. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It's far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You was born by His purpose and for His purpose.

The bible says, "It is God who directs the lives of His creatures, everyone's life is in His power". You exist only because God wills that you exist. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end. You were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for His purpose, not you using Him for your own purpose. Warren tells us that this is not a self-help book. It's not about finding the right career, achieving your dreams, or planning your life. It is about becoming what God created to be. You were made by God and for God- and until you understand that, life will never make sense. God has not left us in the dark to wonder and guess. He has clearly revealed His five purposes for our lives through the bible.

God is not just the starting point of your life; He is the source of it. To discover your purpose in life you must turn to God's Word, not the world's wisdom or lack off. The bible says, "It's in Christ that we find out who we are what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, He had His eyes on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone. This verse gives three insights into your purpose.
a) You discover your identity and purpose through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
b) God was thinking of you long before you ever thought about Him. His purpose for your life predates your conception. He planned it before you existed, without your input. You may choose your career, your spouse, your hobbies, and many other parts of your life purpose.
c) The purpose of your life fits into a much larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity.

The funny part is that this morning I didn't had a clue of what to write in my weekly blog for my Introduction to computer applications class and now I can't stop writing. I'm done with the first chapter of Rick Warren "The Purpose Driven Life". See next time, God bless you!

This is my life story Part II

As I said last week after I worked for 5 years and a half for a Construction Company I decided to put my resignation because I felt that the management had lost confidence and trust in me. I thought that after a couple of months off just to take a break after been almost five years without a vacation I not going to have any problem to find another job. Big surprise!! I started going to interviews with all the qualifications for every job position, but nobody called me. After almost a year of trying to find a job I found out that the company that I worked for almost 6 years is not recommending me to work in the accounting field because that said that I lied of my personal status. Against my wish I traveled to Miami Florida to see if I can find any job. I flying to the United States without knowing no English what so ever, without any money and without recommendation in the only job that I had done in Puerto Rico. To my surprise I got a job a few weeks after I arrived with a temporary agency.

After doing all kind of odds job like working freezer below zero, loading flowers in trucks, construction jobs, in electric plants, etc. I never found a permanent job. I enjoyed a lot the beaches in Miami and had a lot of fun, but something in me was not satisfied with my job situation. One day I decided that need a change of scenery and decided to moved to Orlando. The first that I did was to see the theme parks and look the city around. Everything that I saw I liked very much. I was so impressed  of the cleanest of the city and how cheap everything was at that time. I looked for apartments and bought the city newspapers. In less than a week in the city I already found a job and an apartment. I worked for Independent Banker's Bank for 2 years and a half as a Customer Service Support Representative in the Credit Card Department. After I  realized that I was looking for something else I decided to look for something I'm passion about that is traveling. I decided to look to work in the airline industry. Thanks to God I found a job with Airtran Airways, Inc. in the Human Resources Department. I started as a file clerk with mountains of documents everywhere. After a year and a half, I was promoted to the Mailroom as Coordinator. I had the opportunity to drive a Company Van to go to the airport through checkpoint security to pick company mail from the planes. I really loved my job, I had the opportunity to interact with all personnel in the company.

Unfortunately Airtran was bought by Southwest  Airways moving their headquarters to Dallas Texas. I was offered the position over there , but I decided to stay in Orlando. I worked for 13 years with Airtran Airways, Inc.. The company offered me a severance package that payed me a week for every year of service. Also I had the opportunity to retire with keeping all my flights benefits beside of let me apply for unemployment. After a couple of weeks thinking what I was going to do I decided to go back to school after more that 20 years of been graduating from college. I enrolled in City College to start a new career in the Medical Billing & Coding field. Had been year and a half studying and had been an unbelievable experience. I also found a new job with Avis Budget Group as a Customer Service Representative. I had learned a lot from my mistakes and I took it as a learning experience. One thing I can say that I found peace with my relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ. I see a beautiful future and a very productive life.

This is my life story!

Born in Manhattan New York surviving a fall of my mother that trip with something killing my twin brother. My parents was forced to moved to Puerto Rico because my mother develop an emotional asthma when I was 2 years old. During my grade school I moved to so many schools because my parents was moving from house to house creating a very unstable family. At my 11 years old I had another encounter with death when I jump to a pond without a knowledge of swimming when my friends took me out almost without a breath. The thing that I did was jumping every time that I touch the bottom of the water for about a minute that seems to me like an eternity. After that experience guess who was swimming at the beach, the swimming pools and any body of water.
At the age of 13 years old I found one of my passions that was playing basketball. I became very good shooter from outside and our team won a National Championship in a league called "Little Guys". We appear in TV, newspapers and was received as heroes in our  hometown Canovanas. I was able to continuing playing basketball and volleyball in my High School Varsity and keeping very good grades. At 19 years was accepted at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus in Business Administration. I was so excited to attend the best University in Puerto Rico by that time. After 4 years and a half I graduate with a Bachelor Degree. At 23 years old I was ready to start my working career, but was only a problem I don't have any experience whatsoever. My whole life I've been studying  that when my start to looking for a job I can't find a job because of lack of experience. I was desperate that even took the Air Force test and pass all with flying colors. When I was ready to joint the Air Force somebody talk me of a Federal Program called "Job Partnership Act" that pays the employers half of the salary for a years for candidates that don't have experience. I went to the interview with others candidates, when they called me to congratulate me for my new position with them I scream on the top of my lungs Thank you God!!.
Standard Refrigeration was the company that hired me as an accounts payable clerk. The company was in the construction field being a contractor for air conditioning, electrical, plumbing and metal work. I worked for about 5 years and a half and because of personal problems with my wife by that time. The last year of my time with them I was offered a huge promotion to be the Comptroller of the company at my 26 years old. My personal problems became more and more deep because my wife was complaining that I was dedicating too much time to my job and disattend her. After year of arguing and fighting we decide to get a divorce. All that was happening when I was getting this huge promotion and was not able to handle both. My biggest mistake was to completely hide the reality of my divorce in my job thinking that was a personal issue and part of my business career. Huge mistake!! When management found out that I was already divorced without saying anything all hell broke loose.  All the confidence that everybody had in me was gone. Everybody was saying if he lied with that what else can lie. All the responsibilities and duties that I had were taking away little by little until they ask me to take a demotion of position. I put my resignation after that and give the management a month to find a successor for  my position. Next week I will continue with my story!!!

Stepping Into Greatness!

I was reading a book written by Dr. Mark Chironna tittle "Stepping into greatness" that talk about finding the flow of your intended destiny and I wrote some inserts of the book in my blog. In the pursuit of your life's purpose, there will strategically occur a defining moment in the form of a refining crisis setting you free from a confining limitation, thus empowering you to step into greatness! A crisis is a gift that doesn't look like a gift. The greatest thing is, at any moment, to be willing to give up who we are in order to become all that we can become. The question is. Do we have the courage to find out what our life really can be? If you are already walking on thing ice, why not dance?

What are you willing to risk for the dance of destiny? To "trust the process" that takes place between the crisis and the greatness is to relax in the arms of God. Some things have to be believed to be seen. We are either going to be driven by our unmet needs or led by the Spirit. God can not only provide assistance for what is chasing us from our past, but He can also provide direction and guidance for what awaits us in our future. Either way, God has us covered. Stepping into greatness requires that we first reconcile our personal history so that it no longer hinders access to our destiny. A crisis is a defining moment in our life.

Regret can be a thief that steals our present moment by locking us into past disappointments. It sabotages our hope for moving into the future. Carrying unnecessary burdens can prevent us from experiencing all the  things that God has in store for us. The "hallway" is the place where God takes us through the process of revealing and healing our history. It is the place where our history becomes the stepping stone to our destiny, not the derailer and disqualifer of our destiny. To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, to make you like everybody else is to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight... but never stop fighting! Destiny is not discovered- it's uncovered. Most of us are so busy doing what we have to do, that we do not think about what we really want to do. When one door closes, another door opens; but we often look so longingly and so regretfully upon the door that closed that we fail see the one that has opened for us.

Things are really bad in Puerto Rico!

Economy is in a really bad shape in Puerto Rico. Moody's credit rating put puertorrican's  investments as junk investments creating a crisis in the economy of Puerto Rico. The government budget has now to be reduce drastically forcing agencies to layoff public employees.

Even before this happen the people already were struggling to make ends meet because a lot of article of first need increase in price. Articles like milk, coffee, eggs, fruits and vegetable were very expensive. Now the utilities like water, electricity, phone their prices are skyrocketing. 

A lot of Senior Citizens that worked for many years in the US and went to spend their retirement in Puerto Rico, they are now returning to the states because they can't afford the cost of life in Puerto Rico. This is very sad because their hope was to enjoy the last years of their life in Puerto Rico.

Unless the Governor and the legislature find a solution to this problem is going to be a massive exodus to United States of people for better opportunities. The unemployment rate in PR is about 15%, higher than any state. 

I'm ready for a vacation!

After working and studying for 4 months straight I'm ready for a vacation. I'm thinking to go to Puerto Rico to visit my family and friends. Also I can't wait to eat the delicious dishes that they eat over there. Another option that I'm thinking is to go to Miami beach for spring break. Is so much to do in Miami, Ocean Dr, downtown, Calle ocho festival, I can go over and over.

New York sounds good to me also, especially after the cold weather is gone. Some Central Park, Time Square, Chinatown, 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Center. The pizza place is a good option to eat. Another idea that I have is to go in a road trip to the mountains like North Carolina, Tennessee or Rocky mountains. Any place is going to feel like a getaway and a stress release.

I understand that if you want to do something in life you have to sacrifice for a while, but later you are going to reap the fruits of your hard work. I keep focus in my goals and matter how tough is to work and study I'll finish what I start with God's help.