|
|
By Dan Carlson, on May 10th, 2007
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).
By Dan Carlson, on May 7th, 2007
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!
By Dan Carlson, on May 4th, 2007
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.
By Dan Carlson, on May 3rd, 2007
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
By Dan Carlson, on May 1st, 2007
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.
|
Donate to Public Safety Ministries via GiveMN You can donate a one-time amount or you can donate weekly, monthly, or annually via a recurring account.
Subscribe to Blog 
Blog RSS Feed
|
Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association
Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association
Minnesota National Guard "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon"
Minnesota Emergency Services Chaplain Association
Hennepin County Chiefs of Police Association
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
