Celebrating the Journey

I abandoned my erroneous assumptions regarding the composition of America’s homeless population many years ago. The book: Same Kind of Different as Me further challenged my view of people living on the streets. (Incidentally I highly recommend the book.) An encounter this past week further confirmed that there is nothing stereotypical about those who struggle to have a stable home environment. In Granbury, we do not have a significant homeless population. And furthermore as a community we are lacking any…

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 I wrote this  piece about 12 years ago.  As I prepared a presentation for the Kiwanis Club today here in Granbury regarding law enforcement chaplaincy, I thought I would re-publish it. Cops and CompassionBy Chaplain John Knox, 1998Last week my nine year old said something about a “cop” in a sarcastic tone of voice. I turned to him and told him very firmly that in the future he would respectfully refer to these men and women as “police officers.” He…

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We all  have the potential to be so self- absorbed that another person’s tragedy is nothing more than an opportunity to be a selfish onlooker…  The homeless man lay face down, unmoving, on the sidewalk outside an apartment building, blood from knife wounds pooling underneath his body.One person passed by in the early morning. Then another, and another…Video footage from a surveillance camera shows at least seven people going by, some turning their heads to look, others stopping to gawk….

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 When I was growing up, I recall my mother reflecting on where she was and what she was doing when she heard the news that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963. My older sisters were in school. I was told that I was in my playpen in the living room at home. I was 18 months old. My generation has another date etched in our minds. September 11th, 2001. I do recall where I was…

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 In Memory of Wichita County fallen officers…Now where would you expect to find a phrase like that? It seems to fit on a memorial carved out a marble in front of a law enforcement agency. In this case, it is inscribed on the back of a fully restored 1968 Ford Custom that looks exactly like a patrol car used by the Wichita Falls Police Dept in the late ‘60’s. The owners of the replica patrol car found the vehicle on…

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 I was riding out with one of the troopers with the Texas Highway Patrol when he asked me how I typically spend my work week. As I responded to him, I removed one of the words in the question. I took out the word typical. I don’t have typical weeks. Sermon preparation is a weekly reality for me, but outside of that routine many of my duties are very unpredictable. I can make a do list for a given day,…

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 Last week a longtime and dear friend was robbed and assaulted at her place of business in Wichita Falls. She spent the night in the hospital stemming from her injuries. It is hard to describe, but I felt like a member of my own family had been hurt. The feelings I had toward the perpetrator were not….well I probably should not share them. I knew intuitively that the fine men and women who serve in the Criminal Investigation Division of…

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 When I was a little boy, I watched the show “Emergency” every single week. I carefully took in every rescue call that characters Roy DeSoto and John Gage took in “Squad 51.” The idea of paramedics serving as first responders at a fire department was a relatively new concept in 1972, when the show originated. My neighbors Colleen and Maureen Burke along with their younger brother John often stopped their playing with me long enough to take in an episode…

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 My confidence in the basic decency of people was renewed at Granbury High School’s Commencement Friday night. I was of course the proud father of a son graduating. But my mind has been on another family for weeks now, as graduation and other senior year events have unfolded. My heart has been with the Dix family. Alyssa Dix would have graduated with the rest of the class of 2010 from Granbury High School Friday night. She was killed in a…

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