Image by by Anoop Krishnan courtesy of @FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Before you assume by the title of this post I’m irresponsible, unmotivated, and a lazy leader for not having goals set for 2016 give me an opportunity to tell you why.

As Christmas approached I realized I was tired both physically and emotionally. 2015 was an emotional year as we launched our firstborn into adulthood. Two days after he graduated we dropped him off in Cincinnati, Ohio. Our vacation was consumed with graduation party planning, getting our son prepared for college and leaving him in a foreign place. Two months later he was injured at training camp and I took another week of vacation scheduling doctor appointments, driving to the Bay Area for surgery and getting him back on a plane back to Cincinnati all in span of a week. I’m not complaining because God’s favor was evident through all of it, but it was emotionally draining.

2015 also presented an opportunity for me to do some deep soul searching. The transition we were experiencing in our family, a conversation I had with a personal coach, and a few meetings with a counselor caused me to dig up some dreams I had buried 10 plus years ago. It also revealed a false humility I clothed myself with and have been hiding behind for quite some time. It’s been a journey of rediscovery that I was not expecting.

Then beginning in October, November and December God began speaking to me in my quiet times about the dreams I have buried and he started breathing hope and life back into them.

I mention all of this briefly because when the end of the year rolled around I wanted to do one thing and one thing only: UNPLUG! I did and it was the best thing I could have did as I rolled into 2016. I did plan to write down some personal and vocational goals but I wasn’t feeling it. I was sensing God leading me to pay attention to the things that He has been telling me, so instead of writing down goals for the New Year I gathered the things that He said to me.

Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.” – Matthew 4:4, The Message

In 2016 I’m positioning myself to live from this steady stream of God’s words to me. In some ways I’m pressing the reset button on my life and syncing my life with what that God is currently speaking to me.  It’s the theme of His word to me that I’m planning my life around this year. The things I’m praying, the books I’m reading, the people I’m connecting with has everything to do with what God is saying.

So I begin this year with no guilt and no goals but a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.