Just one of those days

Last night a friend emailed me this scripture verse (thanks Byron):

"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." (James 1:2-4, The Message)

Reading it last night and recalling it today was nothing short of divine. You see today hasn't been a very good day. I received some news regarding my schooling that isn't good and I don't quite know what to do about it.

You see the original plan was for this semester of school to run from January 1st to April 30th. The thought behind this was I was supposed to be healed by January and have enough energy to resume my university studies. When that didn't happen I spoke to people both at the school and at the student loan centre to request an extension on my courses. Between getting treatments every day and having not at whole lot of energy because of the infections I knew that I could not complete my courses by the end of April. As it turned out, my incision only ended up healing then anyways.

Both the school and the student loan centre agreed that this was a valid reason for an extension and granted it, with the promise that my next round of courses would start July 1st and my loan would remain in tact.

Well today I received a message from the school that I'm not allowed to start my next round of courses in July because my student loan has been cancelled for the year. For whatever reason, someone at the school decided that it would be a good idea to do this without my permission and now there is nothing I can do about it except apply again and wait until October to start. This wouldn't be the worst thing in the world except that by cancelling my loan I am no longer eligible for any assistance from here on out.

On top of that, by cancelling my student loan, the school forfeited the grant that I was supposed to receive next month. The grant was worth almost $3000.

So now I'm trying to figure out my options. As it stands they are as follows:

-Quit school, find a job and count my loses.
-Find a job in July and work until November, then re-apply for school and pay for it with my job earnings. Repeat this cycle until I'm finished school.
-Find a part-time job and work while studying at a reduced course load.
-Move to the Cayman islands and live on the beach.

Right now the last option sounds like the most appealing one! ;)

Seriously as of right now I'm just trying not to think about it too much. I still have a lot of work that I need to do to finish up the courses I'm in right now and I don't need the distraction. I'm also determined not too think about it too much because thinking isn't going to help me make a decision, but prayer will.

And at the same time I've been reminded, both through that Bible verse and through my life experiences as of recently, that this is happening for a reason. I may not know the reason, but I do know that God is in control of my life. I'm also very much aware that God is my provider, not the student loan people and if wants me to continue on with this, He will make a way!