The Assignment

It had been three long days that Grace had been working on her book assignment for school. Grace hadn't made time in her busy school and work schedule for having a fever for a week and being unable to think clearly during that time. Now she was playing massive catch-up.

She had decided to have an all-nighter and finally finish this book assignment...it was already several days late, as was everything else, but if she got it done, she was sure that the weight of having so much to do would be lifted and she would be able to work more efficiently to get everything else caught

up. 

She hadn't realized that this book assignment would be different than all the other book assignments that she had done in her life when she had begun in the class four weeks ago. This book assignment was one in which the professor wrote out fifty-some questions that you had to answer with clarity, using only the content from the book without plagiarizing.

        It was now four in the morning and Grace was still working on her paper. There were only ten questions left, but it felt as though she would never get to the end; she just wanted to give up and go to bed...what was the point? It was late anyway; she probably wouldn't get a great score on this paper because it was overdue…

        Why not go to sleep and finish it another time?  She was stuck on this one question, which of course had ten bullet points within it, and now she was dead tired. She also knew that she had to work tomorrow afternoon and definitely didn’t want to after this taxing night.

        Grace felt as though she could literally fall asleep with her eyes open and end up having the dog that was next to her on the bed, roll over, and erase the whole paper… and then she would certainly not finish this paper or any others that were sure to come. She was also sure that she would never catch up on all the other work that she had on her plate and would never get out of this brain fog and into a restful life again. She felt completely defeated and didn't know what to do to fix it. Within her own strength, Grace knew that she would never make it, she needed something more. She needed help somehow.

In defeat Grace sat there; pondering what to do. She was certainly at the very end of herself but didn't want to be. She wanted to be an overcomer, but it didn't seem possible, especially since she was just sitting here in exhaustion trying to figure out what to do. She had two choices, to give up, which she had technically already done fifteen minutes hence, or to keep going and lag considerably at work in a few hours.  

        As Grace was wearily sitting there Margret came in and sat on the edge of her bed with blurry eyes. Margret groggily mumbled, “What are you doing up this late, or early as the case may be?”

         “Well, I am trying to get this book assignment done, but I still have these ten questions left and want to leave it until tonight or something. I am totally exhausted and don’t think that I will get it done.” Grace finished exasperated and tired.

         Soothingly Margret gave Grace a hug and said, “Don’t worry. How many times before this has this sort of thing happened to you? And how many times before has God brought you through?”

             Timidly Grace responded, “Many.”

         “Well, can’t you trust that God will bring you through this trial, just as faithfully as before?” Margret queried.

         “Yes, I will keep going and trust God. Thank you, Margret, for helping.” Grace replied. Margret then stumbled back to bed.

It took some doing to convince herself, but she finally changed her mind; she wanted to go ahead and finish this book assignment.  She realized that she had been focused on herself and what she felt her abilities were; or what she wanted her abilities to be for her own convenience. There was a point. She wanted to get this done so that she could honor God and keep going. God would be faithful, as He always was before, and get her through this.

Grace had finally finished those last ten questions in record time; she was rejoicing in the accomplishment that she knew would continue on with the rest of her workload.

    Before work, Grace stopped by the college to turn in the book assignment to her professor. She felt a little awkward bringing it in when there wasn’t class and with the fact that it was late.

        Grace addressed her professor, “I’m so sorry Mr. Perry, that this paper is so late in coming. I have tried to get it done sooner, and I am not making excuses, but I do want to explain everything.”

         “Go on.” Mr. Perry urged.

         “Well, I had a fever, which caused much brain fog and made it hard for me to focus on all of my work. Last night I pulled an all-nighter to get this paper done so that I can hopefully get fully caught up. I was completely defeated last night for a while until my roommate reminded me of God’s faithfulness to get me through the battle of despair.” Grace finished her speech with a little fear that Mr. Perry would think that she was just making excuses or trying to get on his good side for a better grade. But in reality, she was just trying to share her experiences and make it less awful in her mind at how late she had been.

         Mr. Perry stood thoughtfully for a few minutes and then replied, “Well Grace, that is a fantastic story of overcoming your despair…but I am afraid that I will still have to take your grade down considerably for your tardiness. I do think that you could have come up with a better excuse than a fever, but that’s okay, I sincerely hope you do better in the assignments to come.” In closing, Mr. Perry excused himself back to grading papers and somewhat ignored Grace.

         Grace was disappointed and defeated at the fact that she had not come across as she had dearly hoped, but resolved to continue on doing her very best.