No Man Left Behind

Love can make you do some crazy things…like choosing a profession that seeks to protect and defend others.

Imagine you are a cop, or a soldier. Crazy as it may be, you leave the relative comfort of home and the possibility of a safe life in hopes of offering something more. You train for and engage in an occupation that includes protecting or rescuing the innocent from being taken advantage of by an aggressor.

In police work, or in war, each day, each moment and sometimes even each breath comes with the reality of what is at stake and the sacrifices that need to be made on behalf of others. It also comes the knowledge that you are not alone in this endeavor, that you have a team of others in support of the mission who themselves are also making sacrifices. They, too, have a heart for the mission and the hope of living for a glorious purpose that transcends self for the benefit of others.

Day after day you gear up for your assignment. You seek to protect people and property. You are on watch for those who break the law and put others at risk. Sometimes the ones that you are there to protect are not always happy to see you. You go on search and rescue missions for the lost. The pay typically stinks and the hours are long; However, with each person that you somehow touch, with every arrest of a law-breaker and the appropriate justice that is served, with each life you save, you are reminded of the importance of the mission and, though exhausted, continue to do your part.

Now imagine finding yourself in a battle in enemy territory. This time, however, you are not the rescuer. YOU are the lost or the wounded. Dazed and confused you scan the landscape looking for friendlies. You ask yourself, “Who, if anyone, knows I am down?” You realize that in order to be saved others are going to have to risk their lives to come rescue you. You find yourself wondering if just one man’s life is worth risking the lives of so many men and resources. You reluctantly radio in the “man down” alert with your best recollection of your location. That transmission in itself is an admission that you are unable to save yourself, try as you might.

“Did anyone hear my radio transmission?” With no response you now wrestle with feelings of being alone, and afraid. Perhaps you feel guilty for being in this situation in the first place, questioning your judgment and choices that got you there. Blame is deadly. Lay there long enough without a response and you might even feel abandoned or expendable. Your training reminds you to reset your mind on the horizon. You are wounded and weary but still in the fight. Believing. Waiting. Yes, hoping. Crazy perhaps?

If YOU are that person in need of rescue, cost is inconsequential. You simply hope that someone is coming to help. So, who will that be in your life?

This picture is one of my all-time favorites, because it stirs something DEEP in my heart. No man left behind. Brotherhood and sacrifice for a greater cause. Dangerous for a good cause. I love that the guy being rescued is still fighting mad and is still in the fight. I hope I would be like that. But he is dependent on another. Not a safe place. Not an easy way in or out. Not a preferred position. Truth be told, I’m not sure I like depending on others.

The reality is that we cannot and should not live alone, isolated, friendless. Like it or not, there is a spiritual war at hand (Eph. 6). We have a real enemy and he wants to destroy us. The strategy the enemy uses is to divide and conquer. Isolate and devastate. We need a brotherhood, but most men, especially cops, live in some degree of friendless isolation. As cops, even as men, we do not like to show weakness or need. In this profession, we cannot show it…it can be deadly. So, we become accustomed to keeping our stuff to ourselves. We compartmentalize our junk, which can lead to some unhealthy attempts to medicate.

We just do not recognize that this, too, is deadly. It kills our hearts and souls to carry some of the stuff we have to face every day. The problem is that it is often not a single devastating wound. It is death by a thousand small stabs.

If you are a brother or sister in law enforcement or the military, you are not alone!

The good news is that God wants to respond to your transmission, not by offering a set of rules and regulations or by having you becoming “religious”. Far from it. He is a Good Father who wants to heal and restore you. His offer to you is life!

For 30 years now, we have been called to bring hope, freedom and life in Christ to the lost, the broken, the forgotten. This especially (but not only) includes our brothers and sisters in law enforcement. We have our share “war stories” to tell to the glory of God. Lives saved. Many marriages restored.  Fathers and mothers turning their hearts towards heaven and towards home. Strongholds of sin broken. People set free in so many ways. All the work of God. Most of it one person at a time.

God is pursuing you, my brother or sister. The question is will you allow yourself to yield to Him showing up in your situation and fight with Him as He takes you to a place of restoration? Or, will you fight against Him by refusing His mission to bring life to your heart and just lay there and bleed out over time?

If you are ready and willing, we will fight alongside with you in the journey to freedom and life.

In the movie Braveheart, William Wallace says. “All men die, few men ever really live.”

We live to see you set free.

Love can indeed make you do crazy things.