{"id":434,"date":"2013-01-03T22:16:45","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T22:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=434"},"modified":"2013-01-03T22:16:45","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T22:16:45","slug":"my-plan-for-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=434","title":{"rendered":"My Plan for 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNow listen, you who say, \u2018Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.\u2019 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life ? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, \u2018If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.\u2019\u201d<\/em> \u2013 James, the brother of Jesus<\/font><\/p>\n

My plan for ending 2012 and launching 2013 is pretty comical in light of how I actually spent them.<\/p>\n

December 30 and 31 I spent with a 17 year old girl and her 21 year old brother. These two lost their dad to cancer on Christmas Day, and they \u201cneeded a preacher\u201d to do his funeral on New Years Eve day. <\/p>\n

January 1 and 2 I spent in my bed. I was coughing, and sneezing, and blowing, and aching, pouring all kinds of fluids and pills into my body to try to stop it all. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not my plan was bad. My plan was to spend the last two days very intentionally with my family (some of which I still got to do), and the first two days planning my year (none of which I got to do). It was good and God-centered plan, I thought. With good and God-centered intentions.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t God\u2019s plan. And there is a difference.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m not knocking God-centered planning. This was just my crystal-clear reminder that I shouldn\u2019t ever get so committed to my God-centered plans that they take the place of my commitment to God\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n

I woke up this morning, the 3rd day of the New Year, already completely behind is my plans are the benchmarks. But if I\u2019m dying daily, listening for God daily, hearing Him and simply obeying, I\u2019m right on time.<\/p>\n

I ended up on the phone with a friend over my lunch hour, sharing my deepest thoughts and heart, and from within this trusted friendship, this space-making listening, and Christ-centered brotherhood \u2013 I heard God\u2019s plan for me for this year quite clearly. <\/p>\n

He said, \u201cSpend more time with Me. More time listening. Then do what I say.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What a beautiful way to end 2012, loving on and serving two newly orphaned \u201ckids\u201d who don\u2019t have a \u201cminister\u201d. And what a beautiful way to begin 2013, flat on back helpless to do anything but submit to the healing that my body was so desperately dependent on God for. <\/p>\n

May my whole year go so well. And yours, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNow listen, you who say, \u2018Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.\u2019 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life ? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,4,8,7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-death-and-tragedy","category-discipleship","category-my-life","category-the-best-life","category-the-holy-spirit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pO6nf-70","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}