A police officer simply being alert during patrol duties contributed to a woman’s life being saved in Roanoke, VA recently. 28 year old N.D. Comas heard a woman screaming, as he worked with the windows of his patrol car rolled down. She was threatening to jump off a bridge into the path of an oncoming train. She was screaming into a cell phone she held in one hand and had a knife in another hand. As he ran toward her,…
I finally got to watch The Blind Side for the first time last night. I liked the movie. But I think I liked it for very different reasons. I am sure most people were inspired by the success of a young, homeless kid who ultimately played pro football. And that is an inspiring story! But there was another theme in the movie that stood out to me. We live in a very segregated world. We don’t like to admit…
I wanted a Suburban and not a minivan. Soccer moms drive minivans. Real men don’t just drive a Chevy Suburban, but they drive a 4 wheel drive Suburban. Of course this was back in the ‘90’.s. More sophisticated SUV’s have since taken the place of my vehicle of choice. Now I could have easily afforded a pretty nice minivan back in the day, but perish the thought. I bought a 4 wheel drive Suburban that was in my budget range….
Mother’s Day is quickly approaching. It is really not one of my favorite holidays. It is one of those days when I miss my mother more than usual. I even wrote about it last year on Mother’s Day. But I am not dreading it this year. Actually one of the speakers at the seminar this week provided some new and constructive insight regarding this annual holiday. The speaker was talking about boys and their mothers. As boys become men, they…
I am notorious about two things. I tend to make premature judgments about people and I tend to form an opinion of entire groups without sufficient evidence. Those are not noble qualities. I hate to even admit it. I had something happen today that may cure my judgmental leanings for at least awhile. I heard a speaker today at the Traumas of Law Enforcement training event who was critical of chaplains. He spoke as if we were ill informed prophets…
Today I had the privilege of attending the first segment of the Trauma’s of Law Enforcement Training hosted by Concerns of Police Survivors at the Ft. Worth Police Department. Today’s facilitator was Shirley Gibson of Washington D.C. Shirley’s 27 year old son, Brian, was killed in the line of duty by a gunman on February 5th, 1997. He was a 6 year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department in the nation’s capital. Shirley served as the national president for Concerns…
How quickly we forget. Tomorrow marks the 15th anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I still remember where I was and what I was doing on that morning. Ironically there were crews that came from New York City to assist in the recovery effort in the days following that tragedy. Not long after the remainder of the building was imploded I made a visit to the site. A cyclone fence surrounded the lot…
I used my porcupine analogy from a previous blog (March 30th) in a sermon focused on dealing with difficult people last Sunday. I referred to difficult people as the porcupines among us. Tomorrow is Part II of that sermon. I even added another category of porcupines based on a comment in the church foyer following my sermon last week. She noted that chronic complainers should be added the listing of porcupines. I agree and plan to refer to them Whiny…
I experienced something for the last time today. I went on my last middle school trip with one of my boys. I have attended baseball games, football games, musicals, band concerts, choir concerts, speech contests, geography bees, and other events that I cannot recall. I have even eaten lunch with all three of my boys on numerous occasions during their middle school years. But that era is about to end. Mitchell will be a high school student next fall. I…
A construction accident took the life of Tony ten years ago today. Tony was one of the big brothers in the neighborhood where I grew up. We all looked up to him. I ran around with his younger brother. Tony was three years older. His tragic and sudden death left his young wife with several young children to raise. I am thinking about Tony’s family today. I am thinking about his kids, who are now adults. In fact, several thoughts…