Trust, again

Mosiah 10:11

There are one of two ways we could go with today’s ponder scripture.

1. Trusting in the arm of flesh (footnote a)
2. Traditions of our fathers

When I first read the scripture I thought of category number one (2 Nephi 4:34). We will explore the traditions of our fathers vein at a later time. And when I say “at a later time” I mean not today.

When I joined the National Guard in April 2001 I signed the standard 6x2 contract. This means six years of Weekend Warrior service and two years of inactive service. Inactive service means my name and Army job go into a giant pool and if they needed me I would go. This didn’t sound too bad to me in peacetime.

In April 2007 my Weekend Warrior service ended. My mind became a flurry of activity. I was a vehicle mechanic for the Army. This is a top ten job, meaning they need them. Hum. We’re still at war. This caused a problem. I didn’t want to go back to Afghanistan and I didn’t want to go to Iraq. In my haste to get out of the Army I forgot about the two years of inactive service so I stopped caring about the whole Physical Training aspect of the Army. In order for one to re-enlist you need to pass your PT test. Once I evaluated all my options (how I went about that will be explained in the next paragraph), my aim was to re-enlist, stay in my unit (which just got back from war), and get out in April 2009 after completing eight years of Weekend Warrior service.

While evaluating my options and coming to the conclusion that I wanted to re-enlist, I talked to several trusted people in my unit. They gave me their advice. They talked to me very sincerely as a person and as a soldier. They loved me for who I was and I felt they were truly concerned for my well being. I weighed my options from the half dozen people that I talked to and decided that staying in the unit was my best course of action.

I didn’t pass my PT test.

I couldn’t re-enlist.

My name went into the inactive pool; in fact, it’s there until April 2009.

Even though I have a top ten Army job I’m still here, in Salt Lake, being as much of a civilian as I can. What would’ve happened if I didn’t depend on the strength of men? Would my outcome still be what it is today or would I be blogging from a dusty tent with my weapon on my shoulder and my body armor on the hook waiting for me to put it on? To be honest, I don’t know. But things probably would’ve gone a lot smoother if I had listened.

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