Each quarter my wife, Clifford, and I receive a statement from the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation that services the guaranteed student loans for our older son's college education.  Memories flooded back when I received the first one, for it was in May of 1998 that I wrote the 120th and final check to Great Lakes, paying off a Guaranteed Student Loan debt I incurred in order to prepare for the priesthood.  I wrote those monthly checks for nine years, and each of them was a tangible reminder of God's provision and care.

I left for seminary with my first semester paid, $500 in my savings account, and a commitment from my family and parish to assist with my education, on occasion, when they could.  A Masters of Divinity degree was going to cost approximately $17,000 a year for three years.  The Admission Officer assured me that I should not be concerned about the cost.  "With God you will see wondrous things happen," he quipped.  In the final semester of my degree, I signed the loan papers with Great Lakes.  I had borrowed only $10,000; God miraculously provided the $41,000+ balance through the generosity of my sisters and brothers in Christ, many of whom I will never know.

That is not to say that there were not many nights when I anguished over how I would pay my debts.  It soon became clear, however, that God wanted me to understand that they weren't mine.  If my life was no longer mine, but Christ's, then the bills weren't mine either.  They were his.  I was not the only student to receive a check in the mail, a check for the exact amount of an overdue tuition bill, with a note that read, "I was led in my prayer time to send you this check."  Though I was only able to offer a mustard seed of faith, God worked mighty financial miracles.

Everything my family and I have belongs to God.  Though there have been many things we would have liked to possess over the years, we have never lacked for those things we have truly needed.  In 2008, when our family was swept up in the Great Recession and had to live below the national poverty level for almost two years, God remained faithful.  We continued to give money for ministry and just enough money was always present to provide for our needs.    

Bishop David Stanway once said, "When we're looking at our need, we have to go back to the fact that the silver and gold belongs to God.  There's no shortage of money with God.  There never will be.  If we keep looking at our need all the time, giving of our financial resources to God will soon seem impossible.  That's too vast a sum to give.  But if we look back on our past experience, if we look at God's resources, it's a different story."

Sometimes I forget to remember God's faithfulness as I struggle with some present issue over God's timing.  (Why does our Lord have to be so slow?)  Then the postal carrier shoves a new Great Lakes statement through the mail slot, a paper reminder of God's generosity, perfect timing, and the joy that comes from giving generously and abundantly.

J. Derek Harbin, rector