I learned some important lessons today.

My family and I were contemplating going to Church in Milwaukee. Late last night, my wife and I changed our mind. So this morning, we went to our small local congregation in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

We were supposed to have a guest speaker. When we arrived, I noticed that he was not there. Worship service started, because sometimes things happened and may cause people to be late or absent.

As the service was going on, I realized that we need to prepare quickly to fill the void. I was one of two preachers in the room. The other one was already up on the pulpit leading other portions of the service.

I quickly pulled my phone and searched for previously delivered sermons, saved on the cloud. I found one from a few years back, read it over, selected some hymns that could relate to the topics. When it was time for the sermon, I went up there and delivered one I saved on Google Docs.

Let me be honest and clear. This post is not about bragging. Instead, it is about dealing with unexpected situations.

I left my house not even thinking that I was going to be on the pulpit. In fact, I was even going to wear a jacket. I went back inside of the house and grabbed one at the last minute. I guess the Holy Spirit was telling me something.

There are many lessons from this experience. For now, I would like to highlight the following:

• Lesson 1 – Being in a leadership position often requires having a back up plan.
• Lesson 2 – Being in a leadership position often means being ready to fill a void.
• Lesson 3 – Saving some important documents on the #cloud can is a great habit for anyone to have. It’s important to embrace technology.

How do you handle unexpected situations? What are your strategies?