Why I'm not in South Korea...

I was listening to an Erwin McManus podcast today and was reminded again of why I'm in London, Ontario rather than in South Korea. The podcast was the first in the 'Broken' series from the Mosaic church, and the idea that stuck with me was that "great failures are not overcome by great successes but rather by great faithfulness." My entire journey towards doing my Master's in Library and Information Science at the University of Western Ontario has been completely God's doing; it wasn't in my plans and yet I found myself drawn here. Back in March I started to panic about spending another year in school (and all of the financial stuff that goes along with it) and decided to head to South Korea for a year in order to save up for grad school and get the chance to see a bit of the world. My dream to head to Western was still there, I just figured I'd put it off for a year. Of course God had other plans and not only was I accepted to Western, they wouldn't defer my acceptance... o_0. All along I'd been saying that the only way I wasn't going to South Korea was if Western wouldn't defer my acceptance, and go figure, God called my bluff. I had peace about moving to Ontario, and while South Korea is still in the works, it's actually works better to wait until I'm completely finished of school to go.
With everything seemingly sorted out, I packed up everything I owned and headed for London at the end of June. I had applied for several jobs and figured it would only be a matter of days before I had a full time job for the summer. Fast forward a month and I was still unemployed and starting to get very antsy. Then I was offered a spot with a telemarketing firm and I jumped at the chance to prove myself capable of actually supporting myself. A week after starting the job, I quit. I'm not cut throat enough or driven by the inherent materialism that led my supervisors to make the claim that "our product will fill a gap in our customers' lives." The day I left work early, sick with a migraine, I called home to talk with my mom, sobbing because I felt like I had failed. I remember my mom reassuring me that they wouldn't let me end up homeless, and so I quit the job in hopes of getting something better. Fast forward another month and I was still jobless and again questioning why I didn't go to South Korea. Had I followed through on that plan I'd have a job and be very comfortable financially by that time. That takes me up until yesterday when I was offered a part time position working in a local restaurant.. it doesn't start for another week, but I've also received my student loan documents, and barring any crazy unforeseen circumstances, I should be okay. Which brings me, in a rather roundabout way, back to my original point. I could have run away to South Korea at so many points over the last two months, and that's exactly what it would have been... it would have been that 'great success' I was looking for, but it would not have taught me anything other than to run when things weren't going the way I wanted them too. Thankfully God has been much more patient with me than I have been with him. He's used so many people to show me in tangible ways that he's looking after me. One of the points Erwin made was that when you're the person paying for dinner, your table will always be full. It's when you're in need of a meal that you find out who the people are who are willing to stand with you. Whether it's my parents who've kept a roof over my head and groceries in the cupboard, or aunts and uncles who provide bus tickets, home cooked meals, and more importantly hugs; or new friends who are quick to help out by taking me shopping for groceries or buying a coffee at Starbucks. I have been blessed and if God has me here for a reason, like he's been showing me all along, then who am I to start running now?