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The Scariest Duty - Part 3

Featured Author:

Chaplain Bill Wolfe

Chaplain Bill Wolfe is a deputy with the Llano County Sheriff’s Department in Texas. As an ordained minister, he also serves as a chaplain for Llano County law enforcement and EMS agencies.

He holds a Basic Chaplain Certification from the International Conference of Police Chaplains and is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers.

For more information:
- Visit Chaplain Wolfe’s PoliceLink profile

More articles from this author:

• The Scanner
• The Parable of the Lawnmower?
• Chaplain's Corner: GOA and UTL

Welcome once again to the Chaplain’s Corner. I’m glad it’s April again. Spring Break is history one more time, and the bluebonnets are blooming, and we’ve had a little rain. I’m always glad to see it green up in the Spring… specially when everything turns brown in late August due to the lack of water.

The Scariest Duty – Part 3. It’s been enough now that some of you don’t remember parts 1 & 2, I’ll bet. As a starting point, let’s review a concept I threw out in the previous articles:

What makes something scary? Well, there is some component of the scenario that triggers a fear response. That component can be as diverse as the person facing it. It could be the subject(s) involved, the location, the time, the availability of backup. But I would suggest that two of the major things are the lack of confidence in the ability to control the situation, and the fear of the unknown – the inability to know all the variables in the situation and the unpredictability of the outcome. Or, to put it another way, the fear of the unknown is a fear of what impact the resolution of the event will have on me physically and/or mentally: Will it mess with my “status quo”? Will it rock my boat or sink it?

Religion in Policing

• Chaplain's Corner
• Christian Cops & Supporters
• Shomrim Society of PoliceLink
• The Police Officer's Bible
• [TRACKLINK:Become a Detective|http://policelink.monster.com/content/education-resources

Facing the scary scenario and plowing through it is what some call taking a step (or leap) of faith. A person may well come out the other side a changed individual…

“A person may well come out the other side a changed individual…” Gee. I hadn’t realized that was in there until I just reread it. It has a relevance to what I was going to share that I hadn’t seen until just now. We’ll come back to that thought.

I want to share with you for a few minutes here, about a Man some deride as being a wimp…a lightweight. They don’t have a clue. This was a Man who faced the future knowing what, for the most part, it would bring and had the courage to go through with The Plan. It’s one thing to be brave when you don’t know the details about what you have to go through to reach the other side of an incident. But to know how much physical suffering is in store and choose to go ahead requires courage. To make a mental assessment of the scary situation is one thing. To take that “step of no return” is quite another.