Finding Magic in the Mundane: Ponderings

Yesterday was a pretty depressing day. I was informed by St. Andrews that one of the relatively helpful scholarship schemes I had applied for was no longer being given out. That leaves a total of three scholarships given out by the University of St. Andrews to three New Testament/Divinity students. Three. I am one of many. How many, I don't know, but many. My chances of getting one of these three are slim. Granted, my chances of getting into St. Andrews was slim and then being assigned to N. T. Wright was next to impossible, but still... I'm not confident that I will be chosen as one of these three scholarship recipients.

I try not to think much about the decision awaiting me. At this point, I don't have a clue what I should do. What if Edinburgh offers me money and St. Andrews doesn't? Do I do my PhD at Edinburgh for that reason and give up the honor of my career of working with Wright? How much money is too much to borrow in student loans? What is the wise thing to do and how great of a risk should I take?

What I need is an increased faith. Faith that helps me to trust that God has brought me this far - he won't simply let me drift away now. He has surprised me so many times in this process already... and the surprises might not be over.

Hopefully I'll know in 2-4 weeks where my life is headed.

On another note, here are a few random pictures from the last few weeks up here. I went snowboarding for the first time ever, well... at least I went down the hill ten times or so. Mind you, it's not a resort hill, so it took all of 20 seconds to go down, which is why I tried to draw it out a bit by spending so much time on the ground every twenty feet or so. On two runs I made it down without falling and the rest were pretty major flops. I'm excited to try it again!