Non exercise, life post!

This is from an email I sent to some friends.  To give you guys some background, Nursing is something I had been considering for a relatively short time, just a cpl weeks.  But the more and more I thought about it the more it felt right.  So I made an appointment to talk with an adviser in the Nursing dept at VSU and here is what happened next:


"So I wanted to share something with you guys.  I met with my VSU adviser yesterday and she told me due to the amount of classes I would need to take that I should attend Georgia Military, which is the 2 year school right around the corner from the church, due to the quarter system I would be able to get the classes I needed to get into the program out of the way.  This was a somewhat unexpected development.  At the time I was kind of disheartened.  I felt like this one just like the obstacles I ran into for ordination.  I thought "I know its supposed to be a challenge but if this is what I'm supposed to do shouldn't things be a little easier? Shouldn't doors be opening instead of closing?"  

This new detour is of course totally do able.  But it just left me feeling disappointed and less than excited.   I just kept thinking about it more and more and I just asked God to give me some direction.  

Now in the past God has sometimes shown me a bible verse, one I don't know.  Literally something like "John 2:11"  would pop in my head and I would go look it up.  This at one time was a pretty regular occurrence.  So early this morning I was having these thoughts and asking God for direction and "Mark 3:14" popped into my head.  I looked for my NRSV bible like a good Episcopalian but couldn't find it so I grabbed my copy of the Message and looked it up.  Now because the Message doesn't individually number their verses it looked like it was just a listing of the 12 disciples.  Well I thought to myself "that was completely unhelpful.  Then almost immediately "Mark 4:13" popped into my head.  So I looked that up.  I kid you not it read:He continued "Do you see how this story works? All my stories work this way"  I sat there a little dumbfounded thinking "Is God just screwing with me?"  I'm sitting here desperately trying to discern a huge potential change in my life and I get one verse that is completely useless and then in response to my frustration God tells me "This is how it works"

Well probably less than a minute later another verse pops into my head "Matthew 8:16"  It reads: That evening a lot of demon-inflicted people were brought to him.  He relieved the inwardly tormented.  He cured the bodily ill.  He fulfilled Isaiah's well known sermon:  He took our illnesses, He carried our diseases...........

I literally said out loud: Wow, unbelievable.

If that isn't a positive sign that I should continue down this path I don't know what is.  "He cured the bodily ill......He took our illnesses, He carried our diseases"  Now I'm not saying I'm going to become a spiritual healer or anything but when discerning a call to the health care profession and to be led to that verse, that is a pretty strong sign to me.

So as of this morning I am a registered student at Georgia Military College.  I am registered for the summer and fall 1 quarters, taking 16 hours each.  I am quitting my job to focus on school.  Which will have some yet to be determined financial consequences.  We will be applying for Govt. assistance and getting student loans.  Summer loans aren't all that much but we'll just have to see how it goes.  As much as I don't want to put us into a financial bind I more so don't want to screw around and make bad grades.  I essentially need to make all A's to really give myself the best chance to get into the nursing program at VSU.  So obviously prayers would be appreciated.  

Any feedback you want to give about this email please do, i welcome it.

Peace, love you guys

Matt"

Please forgive the formatting, I copy and pasted this from my email.

Matt, again