Public Safety Ministries Inc.

After the well guy came to install my new pressure tank this morning, I figured I’d drive up to my folks cabin and cut the lawn since no one has been there for a couple of weeks. It is on Lake Sullivan, just west of Onamia Minnesota. It’s about a 2 hour drive so I planned on heading up, mowing the lawn, and driving back to be home in time for the families evening activities (even though Cam said there was no hurry to get home since there wasn’t anything big on the family schedule).

After I finished mowing, I decided to sit on the deck and read for awhile. Then, I made the 2 mile trek to “Gross Store” for a frozen Heggies pizza for lunch. Then I sat on the deck and read for awhile again. Then I wondered if by chance my wireless worked up here. Signals usually are not good here for some reason, and I usually avoided connecting up here when I was with the EPPD, but now things are different and …… well here I am!

So I’ve checked my e-mails, connected with a few people, worked on a project and now I’m writing this post. Here is my office for today, my favorite spot to sit at the cabin:

and here is my panoramic view:

My career transition has been great, but it has been hard. I’ve made several posts lately that describe my days and the variety of wonderful locations I’ve had the opportunity to office in. The stories come off very relaxing as intended, but I have to work really hard to appreciate them and take the time to enjoy them. I don’t think I am unique in the fact that I am drawn to activity and getting things done and creating things that need to be done. Today I had to force myself to stay up here and not run home to work and studies and activities. It’s only a difference of a couple of hours, but sitting here and being in the moment has been good. I am slowing down, but it is work not to revert to the demanding pace I’d grown used to.

So, a spiritual exercise for us all (again), take some time, slow down and enjoy where you are.

Every year the City of Excelsior hosts a Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony. Over the years we’ve had a kid or two in the parade as Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Brownies, Girl Scouts etc. This is the first year I’ve had office space on Water Street (as traditional a main street as you’ve ever seen). I started my day from there.

My office is in the small building in the middle of the picture.

Here is a view to the left from my building doorway. That’s Excelsior Bay of Lake Minnetonka in the distance.

This is a view to the right…..

And the parade begins….

And continues, my daughter Sophie is in the Girl Scout troop in the last shot…

And the finale at the cemetery with some good words and some nice music.

Thanks to all families who have lost loved ones to war. Loved ones who gave their lives protecting.

As I sit this morning and sort through the things I need to do (I still don’t have a routine of comfort) I am preoccupied with broken stuff. Stuff around a 27 year old house, original house stuff that has lived a good long life, stuff we’ve been patching together through the wonders of “Service Plus”, stuff that is nearing the point of “time for new”. The AC iced up the other day, the dishwasher doesn’t hold water, the release valve on the water heater is leaking and now a valve on my well water pressure tank is leaking. It is great to has service plans, some home maintenance skills, and the resources (ie: credit) to replace if necessary to deal with the inevitable broken stuff around a home, but I don’t have my new routine down yet, and HEY! I like Routine!!!! (except when I don’t!).

Well, it will all get done, and you know what? It doesn’t all have to get done yesterday, or even today, or even tomorrow. We all need to practice slowing down.

Right now I’m reading “the not so big life” by Sarah Susanka.

A paragraph on page 71 is one I relate to:

In addressing the issue, I’ve also uncovered one of my underlying beliefs. I’ve been conditioned to believe since childhood, that an effective person takes care of problems as soon as they arise. That doesn’t sound like a bad thing. But it does have unintended consequences, the most obvious of which is that if you’re always attending to problems that arise, you get around to what really matters to you only after you’ve taken care of everything else.

I too, am not sure this is a bad thing, especially for those of us in the public safety professions where taking care of problems is what matters to us.  But it is good to look at how we spend our time, and sometimes things can wait.  We won’t need the AC the rest of the week, washing dishes by hand isn’t so bad, the bucket under the water heater release valve isn’t filling…..but I got a call into the well guy, we need that leak fixed sooner than later.

So today, take a few minutes to slow down.  Stop and see if how you are spending your time is how you want or need to be spending your time.

Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association Executive Board Meeting
051707

Dear God,

We thank you today for this opportunity to gather in the spirit of law enforcement leadership. We ask for guidance as we carry out our leadership roles in this association.

Specifically today we ask for blessings upon the new leadership of this association. Let them know they are welcome and appreciated. Be with us as we develop a new collective identity to carry out the common mission to lead the association. But don’t let us forget the importance and value of our individual personalities, experiences and perspectives. Bless us with strength, peace, wisdom and humility in the coming year.

Bless the food we receive today as nourishment for our bodies, the information presented as nourishment for our minds and the fellowship we share as nourishment for our souls.

Amen

If one picture equals……How about four?

Thanks for a great couple of days George, Scott and Marv!!!!!

Today I write to you from a bench atop a hill in the Excelsior Commons overlooking Lake Minnetonka. My new office space can be best defined as “nomadic”. My true office is where-ever I settle in and do my work.

This is my bench today, and this is the view in several directions.
(remember to click on the image for a larger view)

I have done a lot of reflecting in the past several days, looking at the ministry and what my future looks like. I have “realized” that the life after the EPPD that I had imagined, dreamed about, has become a “reality”. I have “Realized my Dream”. This process is not as simple as you might think, because as I worked at the EPPD I was realizing and living that dream also. It has taken me some time to realize and appreciate the new dream because I have been mourning the loss of my old one. There has not been a day that I have regretted leaving, but there are many days that I have missed the work, the people, the comfort and security.

Transitions, especially ones this big, take time, patience and a plan. It has truly been just a couple of days since I realized what a gift I have in this new career and ministry. I got to have breakfast with retired EPPD Chief Jack Hacking this morning, went to Dunn Bros in Excelsior to catch up on e-mails, then I had a big choice to make. As I came out of the coffee shop, do I go left back to my comfortable 8×10 office with a window to the hallway and work on tax form applications …. or do I go right to the park by the lake and write this post. This is the first time since I retired that I went right. It’s the first time since retirement that I considered going right. It’s the first time since retirement that I “realized” I could go right.

Well it is time to head back to the office and do some administrative chores. But today has been and will always go down in the books as a good day, because I realized I can continue to live a dream, even if it is a different one.

So here is a final challenge to everyone reading this. Is the life you are living your dream? It just might be, but you don’t appreciate it because you haven’t realized it. So some time this week or next when you walk out the door, take a right instead of a left. That might be where you find your reality. (even if only for an hour or so).

Sometimes we wonder if what we do in the law enforcement profession really matters. The simple answer to that is….Yes. Yesterday I attended a faith based fund raising event. I was invited by a friend of mine who I spent a week in New Orleans with last summer. It was a nice event and typical in its content. Music, worship, inspirational messages and several personal faith stories and testimonies. It was these faith stories that caught my attention.

Two of the stories were from men who had hit bottom and ended up in jail. When they got out they turned their lives around. One said that he had been addicted to “chaos”. His time in jail stopped the chaos and now he has peace and joy. I’ve often felt that our primary responsibility in law enforcement is to “protect”, protect people from the chaos that the world throws at them and bring some order to their lives. Interesting that a “peace” officer helped this man find peace and turn his life around and took him out of a destructive chaos.

The second guy said “It was God’s plan to put me in jail”. I spend a lot of time wrestling with the concept of God’s plan and what God is up to. Often I hear people say “police officers are doing God’s work, and if you don’t believe in God, then we are just doing the right thing”.

So we do make a difference. You never know when one of those many small arrests you make might be the intervention someone needs to turn their life around and become an asset to society.

Keep up the good work! I am proud to be associated with you!

Yesterday I got to travel to Camp Ripley in a C130 Air Force cargo plane. As I have mentioned before, I represent the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association on the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Task Force. The task force was set up to support our Minnesota National Guard Troops by establishing a reintegration system that will better prepare our communities to receive these troops home after deployment. The project is working well and I’ll soon share some of the resources our “Public Safety” sub-group has been working on.

Yesterday we “civilians” along with several of our MN National Guard Partners traveled to Camp Ripley for a meeting. It was a great experience and we got a little look into the inner workings of the National Guard and its operations.

Our Plane

A Birds Eye View of Northern Minnesota

“Kinda” First Class Seating

A very special thank you to the Minnesota National Guard and specifically the soldiers that hosted and cared for us yesterday.  It was a great experience and a lot of important work was accomplished.

Hennepin County Chiefs of Police Association
Meeting Invocation May 2, 2007

Dear God,

We thank you once again for this opportunity to gather in the spirit of Public Safety leadership. We ask that you bless the food we receive today as nourishment for our bodies, the information we receive as nourishment for our minds and the fellowship we share as nourishment for our souls.

Specifically today we ask for protection. As we approach the summer months and the increased enforcement activity that comes with the seasons change, we ask for protection of our officers as they carry out their duties and responsibilities.

Again we thank you for this time together. Please guide us as we lead those who are sworn to protect and serve our communities.

Amen

Over the past three months I’ve had the opportunity to share my transition story, my ministry story, essentially my “faith story” on several occasions and to a variety of audiences and people. In doing so I have tried to navigate the best way to describe my identity, as well as the identity of the ministry, “Public Safety Ministries Inc.” Although I am the only staff person with PSMI, and my personality and faith and beliefs are the primary contributing factors to defining the ministry, the PSMI identity is something much bigger than that. It is much like when I was a police chief. My individual characteristics and personality played a significant role in defining the Eden Prairie Police Chief. But the Office of Police Chief stood for something much bigger than any individual that held the position.

The identity that I have decided to pursue for my role in the ministry is best categorized as “Chaplain”. And like when I held the Office of Police Chief, as I hold the Office of Chaplain, in several organizational capacities, I realize that I am a critical component of an “Office” that is much bigger than the person that occupies it, me.

One of my goals for the next three months is to bring better clarity and definition to the ministry and its mission: “Serving Those Who Protect: by Promoting Spiritual Fitness in the Public Safety Professions”. As I define the ministry and my role as chaplain I must often define myself. Here I take a quote from Jack Fortin’s “The Centered Life” page 16

“In this book I speak out of who I am, from my center as a Christian. At the same time I respect those of other faiths or no faith….. I believe I can help others most by being true to my own center”

So in this ministry I speak out of who I am, a Christian, a Lutheran, a retired cop and chief, and a often stubborn and independent individual. But not only do I respect those in the public safety professions of different faiths, beliefs and thoughts, I want to embrace them, learn from them and most of all serve them by encouraging and supporting them in their personal spiritual fitness development.