Sweet Relief

O-Day arrived with lots of butterflies swimming in my stomach. Results were promised to be in our mailboxes by 3pm. I sat on a friend's MCA committee from 1:30 - 3:15pm. So when we had cheerfully approved her for degree candidacy, we went together to the mailboxes. I wanted so much just to have it over and done with. It is oddly unsettling to suddenly fear one little letter of the alphabet, U, and so desire another, S.

I pulled out the envelope and since only a few friends stood in the hallway, I opened it right away. To my utter delight and tears of relief, I saw written:
Ordination Exam Results - August 2007
Karen Fleming
Biblical Exegesis -S
Worship & Sacraments -S
Church Polity - S
Theological Competence - S

Thanks and Praise be to God! This horrid piece of the process, the skinny swinging bridge 1,000 feet over a gorge on the journey...it is behind me. And I stand on the other side humbled by God's grace, grateful for the readers chosen to puruse my exams, and broken-hearted for friends who have not yet made it across.

Sweet relief also came today in the form of rain showers. Off and on all day. Rain has never been so beautiful. And while we need months of this weather to make up the deficit in North GA, even one day of it boosts my faith that God is listening to our prayers and not yet ready for us to perish. Thanks and Praise be to God again.