K Avenue Blog

A couple weeks ago, Thomas told me he was getting promoted to Sergeant. Not only is this good because of the higher rank, but the pay increase is huge. This is normally a long process of studying (he will be asked anything on about 400 pages of military info), getting his class a's perfect, and then going before the board. He was incredibly nervous but was excited because they asked the process to be moved up. Most people have several months to study and get everything perfect. He had 2 weeks. Yesterday was not a good day for him. We got in a huge fight the night before so he didn't sleep. He gets up to go to formation and his First Sergeant says they're not promoting him. Is there a reason they're not? No, which is the most frustrating thing of all. All this week he was preparing and stressing himself out. He had gotten his uniform in immaculate condition and spent a ton of money getting the study information. After we get our fight cleared up, he tells me that they're not gonna promote him. Frustration and anger is pouring out of him. Poor guy. He's like, "I prayed so hard this morning because I knew all this stress was getting to me and I didn't want it to. I asked God to relieve some of it. And now, I'm not even getting promoted." I stopped and thought and told him maybe this was God's way of answering him. It's not that he won't get promoted in the future, just not right now. He said he knows for a fact he will later. Maybe because he didn't a lot of time to prepare that this was God's way of protecting him and saving him time and energy. Though his situation didn't directly affect me, my convo with him did. I've been struggling lately seeing God's presence in my life and not hearing from him. God's answer to Thomas' prayer was an answer to mine.