Of the Stones of Oxford

I wrote a few weeks ago that the academics were looming ahead of me, challenging and beautiful. Now, I am in the midst of those hard parts of the structure of Oxford. Exactly 48 hours ago, I lay in bed at 1:30 AM and realized that all the research I had done toward a paper on Freud would get me no where. I needed to change topics. And, I needed to write this paper by Wednesday. And, I had signed up to cook dinners two nights this week for our food groups. And I was on kitchen cleaning duty this whole week. And, I was leaving for Paris in four days and still needed to work everything out with the folks I was staying with. I had reached the impossible mountain, and still only at the beginning of term.

I closed my eyes and whispered the words of C.S. Lewis I have so often whispered in those moments at 1:30 in the morning when you realize there is no possible way, "All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which we turn to God and say, 'You must do this; I cannot.' " And, there was nothing else to do. All my time management skills flew out the window with my Freud paper. Suddenly, and due to no neglect on my part, I was faced with researching and writing a 8 page paper in forty-eight hours. But, at least I didn't have to go it alone.

And somehow, Somehow!, beyond all human possiblity, I just finished the last sentences of that paper. 2,036 words, all about two people I had never heard of 48 hours ago. Everything looks to unfold perfectly with the meals, the dishes, Paris...

God is so good!