There is a well-known joke: “Want to hear God laugh? Tell Him your plans.” While this is obviously a human view of God and is meant to be taken lightheartedly, it has served as a reminder that I need to be willing to put my plans aside and listen to God.
After college, my plan was to go to graduate school, then teach at a university. But at the beginning of my third semester in graduate school, I was drafted into the Army. To say I was upset by this development is a severe understatement. Not only did this interfere with my plans, but I felt I was physically and temperamentally unsuited for the military, and I was opposed to the war that my country was fighting at that time.
I hated the Army, my situation, and the drill instructors. This resentment—and let’s face it, fear—was making my basic training a nightmare. I developed a back condition that made the physical training painful and an upper respiratory infection that caused me to be continually short of breath. I was also losing a lot of weight.
