Cinderella Is a Puerto Rican Red-Head

After spending two years as a pastor and spending four years on a traveling ministry team before that, I found myself mopping floors. This was definitely not what I planned in my life, but it was what I had.

I spent years traveling all around the United States and had the chance to speak at conventions, seminars, and youth groups. I got to do something that I was really good at; speaking in front of people and pointing them to a deeper version of themselves as well as pointing them closer to God. After doing this for a few years, I had the chance to pastor at a small church and though there were challenges, overall I enjoyed my time there. 

I had the opportunity to work at a slightly larger church and begin to take the necessary steps in order to move forward. The longer that I was in talks with the pastor of this church, the stranger the situation became. I interviewed with the pastor - normal. I had dinner with him and his wife and my fiancé was invited - still relatively normal. I then “interviewed” with the whole board of the church - less than normal. I sat in someone’s dining room having a bunch of people drills me on questions that did not sit well with me. Through all of this, I was encouraged to keep my faith and eventually encouraged to move to a nearby town because it was such a sure thing. I prepped my current church for my leaving and even helped to find someone to replace my position.

Then I received a phone call where the other shoe finally dropped.

I was told that the church was not going to move forward on the decision and that left me without a job and in an apartment I could not really afford on my own. Oh, did I mention this happened a month before I got married?

So I found myself mopping floors in a basketball courts of a school wondering how my life ended up like this.

When I said I would be a pastor, it wasn’t supposed to look like this.

How did I end up here?

Communicating to people was what I was good at. Why am I here?

To be honest, I didn’t always handle this season well. I was angry at God, I was depressed with my situation, and I’m sure I took it out on people even when I didn’t intend to. This season didn’t last that long. It was a painful season and felt like a long time, but I don’t want to give false pretense. It was just a few months until I saw a big change. A painful period, but a short one. 

Soon after this, I began connecting with another pastor and helping him write content for a class he was doing for his church. This eventually developed into a friendship and the a job. From there, I spent the next seven years of my life pastoring in a church of around 1000 people leading in different capacities such as small groups, connecting people into different ministries, preaching, missions, counseling, and so much more. I have commonly joked that this was my cinderella story. I started out cleaning and ended up as a pastor. It’s my “rags to riches”.

But that’s not the point of this at all. Rather the point of it is that when you are faithful with what God puts in your hand, He will be faithful with what He puts in your heart. 

As I write this, what I’m doing occupationally has shifted. After seven years as a pastor of this larger church, including two years of completing a master’s degree, I’m about to begin my next journey as counselor. My cinderella story isn’t about how I “made it,” but rather acknowledging that window cleaning and mopping was just a stop on the journey. It wasn’t the end of a great career of preaching, nor was it really the beginning of something else. It was a stop. Even where I’m at right now, what I’m doing isn’t the end goal. Do I get to do something I love by counseling others? Absolutely. But who I am as a person is not wrapped up in just one thing. 

My journey to where I am now is just 10,000 small steps on the path before me. Though the work of my hands has changed and probably will change again, though when I was a cleaner, I wasn’t doing what I went to school for, I did what was in my hand. I accomplished what was in front of me. I took the next step. This red-headed, Puerto Rican Cinderella might have to clean bathroom again. The point isn’t arriving. It’s being faithful and taking the next step, even when it doesn’t always add up.