But for the grace of God....

Oh wow.

Yesterday and today I made a couple of major blunders... and God was far, far too merciful to me, in keeping them from affecting me.

First of all, yesterday I forgot to move my car from its spot in the resident lots (where I could have it during the weekend, but not during the week, since I don't have the right permit) to a student lot on lower-campus.. I realized this at 1:30 in the morning... and seriously contemplated moving it... but then I decided that if I were to move it, I wouldn't have had enough sleep last night, and then I would feel dead during my finals today- so I decided that I would just deal with getting a ticket on my car- it would only be five dollars, after all... (never mind that I only have $4.50 to my name...)
My alarm went off at 6:55 in the morning, and I switched it off, and lay back to wake up... I didn't. I fell asleep. But in my switching off of the alarm clock, I somehow managed to switch the SECOND alarm on- which buzzed promptly at 7:45... 15 minutes until my first final of the day.
I did not grab my backpack, or anything... and I didn't shower, wash my face, brush my teeth, etc... I used some mouthwash, brushed my hair, got dressed.. and ran outside... to my car, which just because of my stupidity the day before... was in the parking lot outside of my dorm... WITHOUT a ticket!
I was nearly two hours past the ending of the "permit-free" parking... (Friday 3pm, through Monday 6AM) and my car did not have a ticket. I climbed in, and drove the path that brought me past the top of the hill... and it was open??
Open? It is NEVER open at 7:50AM... but it was. So I got to take the short-cut route, of driving down the hill, rather than having to get on Clairemont and driving around the campus and down.
Furthermore, at this time of the morning, it was nigh impossible that I would find a parking place in the Phillips parking lot, because it's the most convenient parking lot on lower-campus... but with everything else God was doing for me... I decided to check it out. So I did... and then I was amazed again- as I found a parking place right away.
Then, I realized I didn't have a pen with me- and for finals, I definitely needed a pen! But there, on the floor of my car, was a pen- actually a nice one, that works, and I liked!

When I got to the building my final was in, one of my classmates was standing outside- the class hadn't started yet... and so I went climbing up the stairs, to my ENGL 225 class... and to make everything even better- my teacher brought breakfast to class- bagels and donuts and juice and cream cheese. :-D

My final went wonderfully, too. There was one question that I didn't know.... but most of them were easy- and my essay topic was something that I was familiar with discussing- free speech on college campuses- and my teacher even let us use our books! I had left my book (and my whole backpack, for that matter) in my dorm- but my teacher had an extra copy of the book sitting out :) So I had one to use.



So to recapture: God gave me way more grace than I deserved for all of my stupidity this morning... and I am so thankful!