To brothers and sisters with the copy and paste, "IGYB" and "IGY6" posts. I appreciate what the intent is behind those posts, but I have not copied and pasted mostly because I haven't been in front of a keyboard where I could articulate my thoughts.
Nobody has any doubt how I feel about those who serve. I certainly have a special spot in my heart for those who have chosen law enforcement, but as I have aged, matured, hurt, and lost a few times, I've developed a much broader definition of service, and I've developed a much stronger sense of the concept of friendship, brotherhood, and leadership.
Recently, I had the opportunity to explain to a few folks that my active participation as a sworn deputy with our local sheriff's office was really not that different from Heidi and I taking part in our recent Compassion trip to Ecuador. In both cases, we are using the talents and gifts that God gave us to help other people. In both cases, I am able to share these gifts because of the blessings and success that my family's business has had, and the freedom that is afforded by that success.
Back to point, there has been a lot of reason for my blue family to circle the wagons and encourage one another, and encourage one another's family members. There is little as tragic as anyone being killed in the line of service; probably trumped only by cold-blooded, intentional murder that we've recently seen.
So, yeah. I've got your back. I've got your back if we wear a uniform and carry a gun so that other families can breathe a little easier. I've got your back if (as my staff did last week), you're the first fire truck to roll up to a grass fire and you need another set of hands to drag a hose. I'm here if you are beating that demon of addiction, and it's just one of THOSE days and you need to talk. I'm here if your relationship tanked and life just sucks and you want to gripe. I've got your back if you've known me long enough to wonder, "What happened to that guy," and you want to know a bit more about how my relationship with Christ has affected my EVERYTHING.
I appreciate knowing that my brothers and sisters in and out of uniform would do anything for me. I'd jump in front of a bullet, or push you out of the way of an oncoming car if I could too. Not because I want to get hurt or die, but because I know you'd do that for me.
God did that for me, for you, for us. He took it all on, so that we could take that whole, "eternal damnation," thing off our minds and serve Him; not so we could get in fights about sporting events, tear families apart over politics, or bicker about trivial things on Facebook--so we could spread JOY, and LOVE, and HOPE from Him to those who long so desperately to hold those things close.
Most of you reading this made the LONG journey with me. My friends list on Facebook was cut in about 1/3 when my life was a disaster, I was trying to put it all back together--God, marriage, sobriety...the whole mess.
Some of you have joined me since then--church friends, pastors, like minded missions folks, new friends in law enforcement, Ecuadorian friends. Almost every person who I am connected to directly on Facebook has a legitimate contact to me, and has touched my life in some way. Some have found, that if that way isn't a positive one, I don't have much use for people. I'll own that. Be positive. Ephesians 4:29 people. It's on the whiteboard at work! Yeah, I fail too. It's hard. Life is hard. But without lofty goals, we can all just sit around and gripe about how it's too hard to aspire to more.
Most of my facebook posts are private, only shared among those of you that I call friends. Some, like this one, I might change to public, because maybe someone, somewhere else would benefit from my ramblings. You can feel free to share if you want.
So. I'm going to put a uniform on, and put on my duty belt, and go spend the last 10 or 12 hours of my vacation working a shift with my brothers from the Sheriff's office that has accepted me as one of them. I'll serve, I'll do my part. Tomorrow, I'll go to work and do what I have to do there, so that I can do this again, and visit Ecuador again soon.
Yeah. I've got your back, brothers, because we are that. We are brothers and sisters. One People. One Church. One God.
#sheepdog #onechurch
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