humbled

I know I've probably told most people by now, but earlier this week (specifically, on Thursday, September 25th, at approximately 12:38pm) God just showered me with His blessing. I am so humbled.

It happened on Thursday afternoon. Breana and I had just gotten out of Linguistics class, and we were walking to the Student Union to kill 20 minutes before I had to run off to work and she had class, and since I hadn't checked my mail in a day or two, I decided to stop by real quick to see if anything had come in. I opened my box quickly, only half glancing inside, completely expecting not to find anything, but there were three envelopes inside. For a second, I got real excited until I flipped them over and noticed they looked like bills. Awesome. In a gesture of disappointed disgust, I shoved them into my backpack and walked the rest of the way to the lounge area with Bre.

When we got there we found a seat to put our stuff on, and as she walked over to the coffee place to get a drink, I grabbed my mail and followed her over, flipping through the envelopes. One was a checking account statement from my bank, the other one was some letter from the bank that handles my school loans, and the third was from Cornerstone....which was kinda weird...because I wasn't expecting anything from them. Curious, I opened it up while I waited and pulled out a statement listing all of my scholarships and my balance for the rest of the semester. No big deal, I had received several of these. My eyes skimmed over it, and I almost tossed it in the trash until a thought struck me: why would they send me another one of these statements unless something had changed? I immediately got anxious and frantically skimmed the page, trying to figure out what was missing or what was different.

And then I saw it.

Hidden in the middle of the list were these three words:

Men's Soccer Scholarship -- $1,500

I almost choked. When Bre looked over to see what was wrong, all I could do was hand her the letter and stand there, eyes wide and mouth open. Doubtless I was drooling some too. I didn't care.

For those of you who missed the hype, I've been praying hard for about a month now about my financial situation here at Cornerstone. Basically, with my sister in school too now, my parents have been unable to help me out financially as much as they have in the past, and with a car and a cell phone now, my expenditures have gone up a little as well, and the bottom line is that I didn't know how I'd make ends meet this semester without making some drastic changes or taking out more loans (as a VERY last resort..). I had talked to my coach about it in May, and he had promised to help me out (I've played soccer for Cornerstone for 2 years now, done everything coach has ever asked me to, and haven't received anything. And that's been ok...until now.), but a week after school started he told me he couldn't. I was devastated and confused. It would mean I would have to quit soccer to look for a job, and I had already been through pre-season; I had put in too much for that now.

So I prayed. Hard.

A week later I went to our Athletic Director asking if there was anything he could do to help me. He gave me a speech about how it was bad timing since school had already started and that he didn't think he'd be able to do much, but that he'd try. I left heavy hearted. A week later I checked back in with him and he said he hadn't gotten around to anything yet and that he'd let me know if anything changed. Two more weeks passed without any word, and I was just talking about quitting, like I should have done a month ago, so I'd be able to pay my next bill.

I thought about finally quitting on Tuesday. On Wednesday the varsity team had a game and every single eligible defender got to dress except for me. I was down to my last emotional thread. And then on Thursday, September 25th, at 12:38pm, He lifted me out of the pit. Just like that. And I have been so humbled.... He is mighty to save, and with His right arm He protects His children. My broken cup overflows....

PRAISE THE LORD!