As law enforcement officers, we see the worst of life all too often: family violence situations, vehicle accidents, deceased persons, line-of-duty deaths, hostage situations, shooting incidents, traffic stops gone bad—the list goes on. Daily, we witness the raw elements of humanity: fear, uncertainty, shame, depravity, isolation—again, the list goes on.
We swore to an oath: To protect and serve.
We bore to a sacred creed: To maintain service through integrity.
As public servants, as slayers of dragons, as police officers, we see the worst of life, we witness the raw elements of humanity, we hold tight to the oath, and we live and die by the sacred creed, with every ounce of sweat and perseverance we can muster. We take it all in, enduring a non-stop barrage of emotional—and many times physical—poundings. Processing day-in and day-out the flood of “other people’s problems,” our work becomes somewhat of a daily grind, making it difficult to perform our duties, not just with objectivity and reason, but with “common sense and good judgment.” We see the worst of it all and try our best not to let it beat us down.
And my brothers and sisters in blue, as we all know, this is just half the problem. All of these elements that we “breathe in” daily are independent of our personal lives and problems that occur away from the job: at home.
We come from different walks of life. We come from different nationalities. We come from different backgrounds and upbringings. We come from different family structures: divorced and non-divorced, broken and non-broken homes. From everywhere we come: north, south, east, and west; from Detroit, Dallas, New York and L.A.
And whereas we all may come from different places, there’s one common thread that runs through every one of our hearts, one thing that we can’t escape from: the stress of life. We all share the same problems, the same difficulties—maybe on different levels of severity, but we all deal with some of these struggles daily:
- Financial problems
- Marital strife and divorce
- Not enough time for the family and strained work hours
- My job has become my life
- Alcohol
- Maybe a guilty conscience over an act committed in the past
- Isolation (I’m the only one who understands my problems.)
- Easily angered
- Hopelessness and helplessness
It’s no wonder it’s become extremely difficult at times, as law enforcement officers, to perform our duties with a level-head, tenacity, perseverance and steadfast character. Where do we turn in our time of crisis? Who do we go to? What faith do we rely in? Do we cry out to God to help us in our own time of need? What is our release of this energy, this built-up hurt locker?
I’ve authored a book to answer these questions, titled God Loves a Lullaby. I’m a police officer, a husband, a father and a person who shares all of these same stresses, both on the job and at home. I bleed the same color as every other officer I serve with.
In my time of need, in my time of personal crisis, and in my time of fear and uncertainty, I turn to my faith. I turn to prayer. I hold fast to my convictions as a believer that there’s a God who desires to hear every facet of my heart, every cry, every suffering, and every angry breath I breathe to Him.
In the law enforcement profession, as well as in our own lives, we need to be able to let go of some of the chaos, lay our heavy burdens down and know there’s a God in heaven who desires to know our hearts and heal our hurts, whether it be a marriage in crisis or a fallen fellow officer. He wants to rescue our tired, our bruised, our broken, our angry, our bitter, our fearful and our persevering hearts. Through loss, hopelessness, grief, despair, fear, confusion, doubt and discouragement, God wants our cries, the long-sufferings of our hearts—for God truly does love a lullaby.
May His light of grace and mercy so shine before you, as peace officers who walk through some of the darkest places on Earth.
Sincerely,
Warrant Deputy Jonathan Herst
He can be reached at [email protected] or directly called at 512.699.9602.