the other day a wonderful friend asked me what was one way that i experienced god before the world race. so i thought for a second and immediately remembered a late summer day in colorado when i was called out on a SWAT call. and it's law enforcement memorial week in america...so i thought this story was fitting for a blog.
a little background first. as you might know, i was a police officer before the world race and spent a few years as an operator on the SWAT team. the team i was on was a part time team meaning our team was called out, via a phone system, anytime a high risk situation developed or there was a high risk warrant to be served.
so here's the story about the SWAT team and God:
it was about 10AM on a sunday when my phone rang and an automated voice requested that i respond to the police department as soon as possible. the voice told me that the situation involved a barricaded gunman which, in this case, meant that a man had brandished a handgun, held it to his girlfriends head and threatened to kill her. fortunately the girlfriend was able to escape and call 911 but the man was unwilling to surrender to the patrol officers on scene. in fact, he threatened to kill any police officer that tried to arrest him. so the decision was made to call the SWAT team in to handle the situation.
i drove to the police department (probably really fast) and changed into my SWAT uniform (really fast, too). once the team loaded the SWAT van, we jumped in and started driving to the scene. as we were driving to the house, one of my teammates asked if he could pray. to be honest, a lot of us started laughing (i was probably laughing the hardest), we were kind of like, "dude, we're the SWAT team, we don't need prayers...are you serious?"
he was.
in fact, my teammate said, "yeah man, i pray before every callout, how do you think we make it home safe? i wanna make it home to my wife tonight man...maybe you should pray too." and i thought about that for a second and though, "man, maybe i should pray...i wanna get home tonight, too."
once we got on scene, we sat outside of the house for hours, sweating profusely trying to negotiate a peaceful ending to the situation. after a few hours, we broke some windows out of the side of the house to throw a phone inside so our negotiators could talk to him directly but he never answered the phone. then we opened the front door so the negotiators could use a megaphone to talk through the open door but he never answered.
after awhile (like 5-6 hours), our commander made the decision to enter the house to arrest him. i was part of the entry team that went into the house and i'll be honest, i was scared! i'm not sure if many SWAT guys would tell you when they're scared (i wouldn't have)...but in retrospect, i was pretty dang scared!
(me coming through a door at practice)
after we entered the house we began doing a slow, silent and methodical search to locate the man. as each minute passed, the anticipation and anxiety began to build and i began to get more and more nervous. but after about ten minutes of searching, i remember thinking amid all the thoughts and tasks in my head, "we're safe...the guys prayed in the van."
i didn't start acting recklessly or start yelling, "hey man...we're all swampin' out here and we're tired and thirsty...will you just come out so we can get this gear off and go home already?" but a sense of peace overcame my mind...and i felt safe! seriously, inside that house, i thought about those prayers and i was able to regain my composure and refocus on the task at hand...trying to safely apprehend the suspect.
(this is why i was so hot)
the rest of this story doesn't matter for the purpose of this blog...what matters is how bold my two teammates were. surrounded by 12 SWAT guys (who are some pretty testosterone filled dudes and kinda tough) they had the boldness to speak out and pray!!!
i wonder how many people around us would find that sense of protection, safety, and hope like i did that day if we were more bold in sharing our faith?!?!?!
lets be bold, lets reach out, lets share our faith...because you never know whose life will be radically changed if we do!!!
and while you're at it, if you don't mind, please pray for police officers this week and for the families of those killed in the line of duty.
(the thin blue line)
god is love, nothing is impossible.
This month was "Man-istry". A time when all the guys from all of the teams on J-Squad come together as one unit. For 21 days we drink beer, spit, and talk about sports. Well, not exactly... we pray, worship, and push each other toward being better men. Men that will make spiritual leaders in their future careers, and families. Men that will become great husbands and loving fathers. Men that are human and can admit their mistakes, short comings, and weaknesses all while keeping their head held high.
Bust their butt doing construction. Over the past month we've busted out concrete, poured new concrete, dug trenches, laid out plumbing, built concrete block walls, sealed tile, landscaped, moved trees, all in the name of Jesus. We flex in the mirror, walk around with our shirts off, hit each other on the butt, talk sports, take showers with a hose even though there's a nice shower inside, "break wind", play cards, because we have "high testosterone and are grown men" as 
