The beauty of order and goals

I have recently started to make a concerted effort to organize my life. For quite some time, my home had a somewhat of a haphazard order to it. It wasn't dirty. It was just cluttered. Likewise, my study habits were sufficient, yet they were often hurried and stressful. And finally, my eating habits were horrendous.

As I am beginning to give order to my external environment, I am finding that it is easier to focus on my spiritual life. Unsurprisingly, my spiritual life is in much the same shape that my physical environment has been. I am spiritually dusty. My spiritual gifts have been put on the shelf, and I haven't exercised them in a church setting since about 2009.

I remember telling a good friend of mine that I just needed to take some time to be selfish. This was the time that I spent in the proverbial desert. I needed to figure out what my purpose in life was, and I knew that I personally could not do so while distracted by the busyness that often accompanies youth leadership.

After I stepped down from my youth leadership role at Christian Life Cathedral, life didn't get easier. I was being spiritually refined. I found that stresses at work began to consume me. After about two years, I was completely burned to a crisp, and I knew that I had to change professions. In hindsight, I recognize that God was telling me to pursue a profession that allowed me to utilize my spiritual gifts of discernment, healing, wisdom, and knowledge.

Could you please pray that I will be able to keep up the momentum throughout the stressful times in my life? Stressful times such as finals week and heavy caseloads have de-railed me in the past. I recognize that living the healthy lifestyle that I have described is the only way that I will be able to achieve my short and long term goals.


My current life goals in no particular order are to:

Finish my Master of Social Work program (and possibly my Doctor of Social Work)
Find a fulfilling career that will allow me to utilize all of my spiritual gifts
Find a body of believers that I can meet with regularly
Get my weight back down to 185 lbs. (My high-school weight)


-David Rivera

Welcome Back

I have been praying that my brother come back to the Lord for many, many years. Welcome back. Through Christ, we are going to change lives. We have envisioned a new type of ministry, it will be developed over time. I don't know what the end-product will be, but it will be Christ-centered, grounded in the truth found in the Bible, and it will reach those who didn't think that anyone would care to love them. It'll be big. 

-D

I've sat down to write too many times...

Each time I sit down to write a new post, I tend to get bogged down by the details and "what if's" of ministry and speaking on various topics. So, this blog will be exactly what it is supposed to be. A blog. I will discuss my personal thoughts on ministry, and various issues that I have with it. I have many controversial thoughts that I will bring up periodically, and I will say right now... Some of my thoughts on God, scripture, the bible, and life in general will not be theologically sound. They will be real however. I think that one of the things that hinders spirituality in many ways is doctrine. I will challenge this with my thoughts. Therefore, some of my words will be educational, but many of them will be thought provoking. I admit now that I do not have the answers, but the questions are out there.
My thoughts currently lie in the realm of politics. People love to think that they live in a world of black and white, but the fact of the matter is... we live in a very grey world. For a Christian, it is impossible to follow the law of God to the "T". Therefore, we must pick and choose which sins are permissible and which are not. The popular vote determines which sins are OK, and which are not. I'm ok with this, but I have found many folks that are afraid to admit this. They beat themselves up over their sins without realizing that they are imperfect humans. They distract themselves from their own sin by focusing on someone else's. I'm saying, admit there is a plank in your eye, and if it hurts enough, start chipping away at it with your knife. If you've learned to live with the plank, so be it. I'm over here whittling. If I get finished, I'll ask if you would like help with yours. If you don't want help, I'm not going to waste my time chasing after you with a knife.