I was 22 years old, newly married. In a quick sequence of events, my wife found out she was pregnant and I lost my job. I was desperate. I needed a job ... no ... a career. I needed a future for my new family. I know! The military! They could train me and pay me and I'd come out in 4 years with a career.
The military has you take the ASVAB test, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. (Interesting that you can fail something that is supposed to test what your aptitudes are. "I'm sorry ... you have none."?) At the end, they asked ... opinion questions. "Do you like ...?" Preferences. Do I like cooking, fixing radios, repairing cars ... all sorts. Anything around electronics was a sure "No!" because I knew nothing about electronics. Well, I got approved, so I looked for a career, not just a job. Accounting ... that's good. "Oh, sure, we can get you in ... in 6 months." No, that's not going to work. My wife is pregnant ... now. So, "How do I get in immediately?" They told me if I showed up packed and someone who was going in that day couldn't make it, I could take their job if I qualified. So ... I did. And the next day, someone didn't make it. He broke his arm. So I went in ... "open electronics." "Thanks, God." But, okay, it's a career. So I took it.
I spent the next 10 years in the Air Force working electronics all the way up to teaching it for 3 years. I worked in one of the last career fields that still did everything, from tube technology to solid-state, from the aircraft to the shop to the board level. And ... I loved it. It was precisely my cup of tea. Because it was perfectly suited to my own thinking patterns. Because God knew what I didn't and provided what I never would have expected when I needed it most. There ... right there ... another footprint of God in my life.
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