Need I say more?
Actually, I need to apologize for not writing more -- not because I have a massive following hanging on my every word, but because there is so much praise to be done!
Classes are wonderful; these people are wonderful. Haven't had a lot of time for painting or printing (pictures when I recover my camera charger from Georgia), but when that has happened, it has been wonderful too. This is hard. It is a big change and a lot of work, but it is "miraculous." It's from my Father.
But I want to particularly thank God for the way He has carefully provided for my every need -- the close-cutting way in which my resources - my expenses come down to the dollar is elating. He knows what I need (how many time the past three weeks has He provided just a few days before for a need I didn't know I had?), and He gives me what is good.
Better than that, He IS Good. Please don't think that in praising His provision I am preaching the prosperity Gospel. If grad school wasn't where He wanted me; if I were hungry, sick, and alone, I could still praise Him. What I am given is good, "for He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things." It is because of who God is, not a wealthy and comfortable lifestyle, that Paul is able to say "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ."
Psalm 107 (verses 1-16) says it so much better than I could:
1 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble
3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
4 Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
5 hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
8 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
9 For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and in irons,
11 for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
they fell down, with none to help.
13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
and burst their bonds apart.
15 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
16 For he shatters the doors of bronze
and cuts in two the bars of iron.
