Pressed down, shaken together, and running over

In an earlier post, I mentioned the book "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson.  One chapter of it challenges the reader to make a list of God-sized life goals.  Not just easily attainable, average 5-year-plan goals.  Huge, irrational, God-glorifying goals that just aren't humanly possible.  The author had a few examples, such as his goals of writing a book by age 35 (which he did), hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with his son (done), and making a movie (still working on it).  He included his entire list at the end of that chapter, 115-goals long.

I started working on my life goal list, but it's only 3 long right now:
1.)  Have my finances in order to sponsor a child through Compassion International by age 29
2.)  Be debt-free by age 32
3.)  Live in Africa (preferably Kenya) a minimum of 2 years by age 40

Goals 1 & 3 seemed pretty possible to me, and goal 2 seems downright outrageous (especially considering that my student loans alone aren't scheduled to be paid off until I'm 40), but I'm trusting that God gave me these goals, and he'll help me achieve them.

Regarding goal #1, I'd like to introduce you to Jane, a beautiful, 7-year-old girl living in rural Kenya:

I sat down to adjust my budget this weekend based on the blessing God has given me in the past few months as far as income goes (hear me talk about it in the link from this post, and I've also started teaching 2 more students since then--praise God!), and had to add my numbers up three times because I thought for sure I was making a mistake.  But I wasn't, because Jesus tells us that "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  (Luke 6:38)  My tithing had allowed God to bless me with more, so I can bless others with more.  I reached goal #1 only 2 months after setting it, and 3 years ahead of schedule.  Now I'm able to provide Jane with her basic needs, education, and even education for her guardian.  

Jane lives with her grandmother and 5 siblings, which is what drew me to her as I was looking through Compassion's list of children waiting for sponsors.  I've heard so much about and even met some children in developing countries whose parents, unable to care for them, left them with a grandparent and disappeared.  These grandparents are not always even well enough to care for themselves, and the children are left to run the household:  fixing meals, fetching water (sometimes from miles away), cleaning, and mending.  This doesn't leave much time for education, which I believe is the biggest thing that will help these children to break the cycle of poverty, and to help stop corruption by raising up good, honest leaders in Kenya.  I am so thankful to be able to play a part in providing Jane the opportunity to get an education without worrying about where her food is coming from, who will take the jerry cans to get the water, and where her school fees will come from.


I'm so excited that God is showing up in these big ways.  If he helped me reach this goal 3 years early, what is he going to do to help me reach goals #2 and 3?  I can't wait to find out!