To Serve and Obey

I spent my career in law enforcement and took an oath to Serve and Obey. When I took my oath of office, I noticed they never asked me my opinion.  The fact is, I had plenty of opinions but I later found out they didn’t ask because my opinions didn’t matter.  The truth is, to serve came willingly, the obey part - not so much! 

I did my job well and it came easy to me.  I always had a heart for the down-trodden or the underdog, so it was a natural fit.  Where it was not as easy was obeying what I thought were non-sensical rules.  We were governed by massive amounts of rules and mandates that quite frankly, seemed archaic.  The revisions, if any, were slow or non-existent.  Thankfully, early in my career I was mentored by a few seasoned and grounded officers who were tempered with wisdom that I simply didn’t have.  They taught me vital lessons that I still carry today, among which was the painful lesson on how to slow down and not be so impulsive. 

Let me explain.  We were assigned areas of responsibility, zones that we were expected to cover.  All too often a call would come in that was not in my zone, but I, in my shallow wisdom didn’t see why I shouldn’t respond.  I would thankfully be restrained by my mentors with their course references of instruction that always started off with them addressing me as “Kid”.  Nothing burned me up more than that, but they refused to call me anything other than that.  I listened, not because I regarded anything they said, but because I had no choice.  Inevitably, almost as if planned, within moments of my deflating ego I would get a call at the farthest part of my zone and nowhere close to the call I was rushing to take.  I can still hear their laughter as they, in chorus, would tell me “Kid, listen to the dispatcher”.  I would spend the rest of the agonizing moments listening to them explain the importance of obeying not just the laws we were upholding, but the instructions of the dispatcher. 

The truth was I had no idea what was on the dispatcher’s desk: the domestic disputes, bar fights, car accidents, the person whose car broke down in the middle of the intersection, the parent calling about their unruly child, or the person who just wanted to see an officer because they had a parking complaint. Each call was valid and needed a response, but only the dispatcher could see all that was going on and had the knowledge and authority to send us where we needed to go. They would drive the point home by emphasizing the dispatcher knew what was needed and the priority for handling it. Over time, I matured to see they were certainly right. The dispatchers would have a number of calls to assign. My job was to stay where I was supposed to and always be prepared to respond. If I took it upon myself to step out of my zone, based on my limited vantage point, and go into another area, then I’m not available when and where I should be. Most times there were multiple incidents in different areas, and another element was even though we wore the same uniform, we had different areas of expertise. As an example, some were experts with accident reconstruction, others were criminal investigators, and others were better handling cases that involved children. While all of that was nice to know, the reality was, none of it concerned me because it was the dispatcher’s job to dispatch. My job was to answer my radio and respond to wherever they sent me.

Now, clearly I’m speaking from my vantage point, but the person who needed help only knew that when they called – help arrived. They didn’t need to know all that transpired prior to when I showed up or how I was going to resolve their problem. Not at all - all they knew was their help was there. Well, this is exactly what happens with God. As Christians, we need to be available for God to use and ready when He sends us to minister His Word to a hurting generation. I’ve learned to listen and say what the Bible says in Isaiah 6:8, “Here am I! Send me.” I now know the importance of just going to wherever or to whomever God sends me and do what He would have me do. It’s not always at full throttle, lights and sirens blaring - sure there are those times when there’s urgency- but there are also times when He would have me speak a Word to a gothic kid who has no concept that God loves him. Here’s what I know, that God is no respecter of persons, that’s Bible-speak for it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve ever done – He loves you. He doesn’t just see a glimpse, but He sees the whole picture and whether you need rescued or you’re the rescuer, He is fully able to handle it. If you’re reading this and it feels like you have the weight of the whole world on your shoulders, can I tell you something? Help is on the way. God loves you and He’s right there where you are. Call out to Him now. You don’t have to use fancy words. If you’re tired – tell him. If you’re hurting – tell him that. Whatever it is, just talk to him and tell Him you need help and you want to know Who He really is. If you do, trust me; I’ve learned how to serve and obey. I can tell you from first-hand experience, I serve an awesome God and I want you to know with a certainty that He will absolutely deliver you!

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