Before I got saved, I didn’t really think about what I would do in the future, I always figured I would just figure it out when I got there. I had an idea of being a nurse or working in a hospital, or seriously thought about joining the army. Which I had no idea where that came from. And some other weird things I wanted to do.
Then the summer after my freshman year I got saved and started asking God what he wanted from my life instead of what I wanted. And soon God put the passion of missions in my heart and all the other careers either completely died off, or the desire for that career became very small. I fell in love with God’s people and God has given me this huge desire to love his people and tell them about Jesus.
So over time God continued to grow my heart towards missions and what he wants for my life. Then that Christmas my mom got me a gift of a personalized phone case, which I still use till this day. It is pink with a white map of the world, with a verse printed on it, Mark 16:15. “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” Then on Saturday night I went to my first real Albanian church service and the very first bible verse my ears have ever heard in the Albanian language was Mark 16:15. And it really hit me that God has a plan for my life and that he knew from that moment (and before that moment) when I got that phone case that in a few years I would be traveling the world to proclaim His glory and power.
It amazes me that God truly will never give up on me and he loves me so much. When I had all these different desires for careers and plans for life, God drew me near to Him and saved me, and then when I had become a new person in Jesus and asked him what he wanted for my life, he directed me. He gave me these passions so I could have a dream, a dream to travel, to explore, to serve, to give, and to love. And now I am living in Lushnja, Albania, truly living all of the things that I have dreamed of doing.
So anyone out there that has a dream, no matter how big or how small, if God is the center of it, if you truly believe those passions are from God, chase after it with your WHOLE heart. Because God is real, and God is big. No passion or dream is too big for God, be the servant he wants you to be and he will provide for you and make your heart like His.
And if your chasing a dream and its not from God, I pray you would ask God what he wants from your life, because living a day outside of where God wants you to be isn’t satisfying. But aligning your heart with God to share your heart and have the same passions that he has, brings more joy that one could ever imagine.
