It was the fall of 1997 and I was coming home from a summer missions trip to Africa, excited to leave for college. I had applied to only one college, Oral Roberts University in Tulsa Oklahoma. “Why only one?” you ask. Because filling out college applications is really hard. I didn’t know what I was doing and getting all the forms, fees, financial information, and required documents together for even one college felt like an impossible task to figure out, alone, at 17 years old. But I was also pretty confident this was the school for me. It was where I belonged. And I had a very good reason to believe this, a miracle in fact.
I was a great student all through school. I loved learning, especially Science and English, and with the exception of a class here and there, my report cards showed the effort I put into school. After all, a college education was going to be my ticket out of poverty. I was going places, and Tulsa Oklahoma was just going to be my first stop.
During my junior year of high school, my youth group at church had gone to an Acquire the Fire Conference in Massachusetts (led by Ron Luce, an ORU alumni) and ORU had a booth there handing out information cards. I filled mine out on the spot and turned it in. Not long after that I got my admissions packet in the mail and began the tedious process of gathering the required documents. Financial information was especially stressful because I had no idea how I was going to pay for college and the concept of financial aid was all new to me. I felt like I was reading another language, and Google and smart phones weren’t around to help me figure it out. I just kept praying that God would help me find a way. If he didn’t, I wasn’t going.
I had read in the ORU packet that in order to get a Freshman Academic Scholarship I would have to score a 1050 on my SAT. I absolutely needed this scholarship for all this to work. I had received a $500 scholarship from a local bank but that was it. I was going to have to sign up for loans for the rest of it so I knew a lot was riding on my SAT score, and now is probably a good a time as any to mention that I have never been a good timed test taker. I was as nervous as a turkey in November on the day of the test. After it was done, I had no idea how I had performed, no way to gauge weather it had been enough. Well, it wasn’t. I don’t remember the exact score, something like a 1040, but my heart sank when I realized I had missed it by such a close margin. I was so disappointed, especially when it occurred to me that all my friends would be leaving to go off and start their own journeys at college, and I was to remain behind. I had felt so confident that ORU was where God had led me. How had I gotten so much wrong? I felt like a fool for even daring to dream.
I can’t remember exactly how long after the test scores came back that I received the letter in the mail. I just remember opening the envelope and reading that for some reason, some glorious reason, the SAT people were awarding an extra 50 points on my overall SAT score. Maybe they had discovered an error on the test, maybe they were grading on a scale, I don’t know the exact reason, but I do know my test score changed and now I had the score I needed for the scholarship. I truly felt like God had reached right down and rescued me, putting me right back on the path I belonged, and I was so very grateful. When I couldn’t find a way, God found a way, because he does that. He helps those who help themselves, but he also helps those who can’t help themselves.
I loved my time away at ORU and I have never forgotten the Lord’s provision for my life at that time. I loved my classes, my new friends, being away from home and growing more into myself, and all the new experiences that can come from going away to a great college. But most of all I just reveled in the feeling that I was right where I was supposed to be.
Proverbs 16:9
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
Confessions of a Naked J-Bird 