Thin Blue Line

I'm not a news watcher. I haven't been for a number of years. It's too much. Perhaps that is naive of me in some ways. But mostly it feels like self preservation. Soul preservation. And it just keeps getting worse. I hear about the news. The place I go to each day, my family away from home, deals with every one of the ugly things that happen in this world. Yesterday morning I heard the news. And it broke my heart. The building I walk into everyday is where those that protect and serve come and go. They are real people with real lives. Real stories. Real families. They are flesh and blood behind that uniform. They work what they love, what they were meant to do. And it takes everyone pulling together to make it happen every person doing their job so they can get up and go out each day and answer the calls that keep us all safe. They work endless hours, miss important events, drop meals mid way through, if the need arises. They see and hear things that people just shouldn't. They are cussed at, lied to, spit on, hit, and wrestled with at times trying to do their job. Keeping you safe. I have been the one at home waiting for a phone call. And for the last couple years, I have been in the other side, seeing first hand what all happens in the day to day. The people I went to work with became my family. You have good and bad, fights and arguments, misunderstandings and hurt feelings. But you have those who quicker than you can turn around, have your back. No matter what. They are those that hold your hand, make you food, heal your wounds and spend hours consoling broken hearts. Your family too. It's not a job you leave at a building. Not something you turn off at 5 pm. It's who you are. It's in you. It's a beautiful calling. It's a terrifying one at that. I rode the elevator up to my space yesterday. I shared the ride with a mother and daughter. I smiled. My own child sits on the floor below where I began. With the people who are my own. With the ones who love him too and huddle around and pour their knowledge into him. Helping him to become what I know God made him to be. In this world that's a scary thing. That's my baby. My youngest child. But I know that it's the ones like him that are game changers. World changers. And it's those that let you sleep at night. I walk the halls each day that are filled with the ones who live out the beauty of scripture...“No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.” John 15:13 AMP

They live and breathe it. They would not hesitate. Thankful.