A Happy Ending: Deputy Spillman Survives Attempted Murder Of A Peace Officer

I just posted a blog honoring three  fallen Texas Peace Officers.  My cousin, a police officer at Baylor University, informed me of Deputy Spillman's brush with death in Waco this week.  Lt. Spillman was shot while he and other officers confronted a kidnapper and the kidnapper's victim in one of the rougher parts of Waco.

The shooter had kidnapped his on-again-off-again girlfriend and police were called.  During the confrontation and rescue of the hostage, Lt. Johnny Spillman was shot by the suspect.  The suspect then received his just reward in the form of several police bullets, and is now in the hospital in critical condition.  Deputy Lt. Spillman is at home with his family and will get to celebrate one more Christmas with them.

The victim and the shooter had a relationship that had gone on for several years, and had involved calls to the police in the past.  It is a shame that officers must put their lives on the line for victims who continue in deadly relationships even though they have been abused, humiliated, and even injured by the person who "loves" them and without whom the victims just can't go on living.

Having been an officer for several years, then a child welfare investigator for several years, yes...I am aware that victims trapped in abusive relationships find it difficult to get out of those relationships for many reason, not the least of which is fear for their lives at the hands of their significant other.  Yet, for all those reasons to leave, many victims remain in the relationship.  That is their choice.  The bad thing is that these victims not only endanger their lives, their children's lives, their relatives' lives, but also the lives of officers who must come (often numerous times) to save them from the harmful and often deadly attacks by their significant others.  In the end, even though we have sympathy and compassion for those victims, they are still adults who made obviously informed choices, and remained in harmful relationships.  And like in this case, it so often innocent people who pay the price for the "victim's" choices. 

May the Good Shepherd continue to watch over the officers who place their lives at risk to protect those who do not have that same respect for their own lives.

Prayers to Lt. Spillman for his speedy recovery.

End Of Watch for Three Texas Peace Officers: Deputy Adam Davis, Sergeant Investigator Adam Sowders, and Officer Robert Deckard

Due to uncontrollable circumstances, I have been off the grid, so to speak, for several days.  Sadly, as I return to my blog, it is to honor three Texas Peace Officers, all who were killed since December 11th, 2013.  I have made it a ministry of sorts to honor all fallen Texas Peace Officers in my blog, but it is still a somber duty, and with the pain I feel, I cannot even imagine what the families of these officers must be going through, how these officers' colleagues must miss them.  All of their deaths were related to situations of high risk, though in reality every time an officer confronts someone, it is a high risk situation.  It is in believing that a contact is "routine" that an officer exposes a weakness.  People outside law enforcement tend to wonder why that police officer that wrote the traffic ticket kept his hand hovering near his gun throughout the contact.  Some may wonder why that police woman seems so cold and unfriendly while taking a report.  In fact there is no routine situation for a police officer simply because the officer never knows when his or her life will be threatened, as officers must react, while a criminal can act whenever he wants, especially when he is at the advantage, either through numbers, or through the officer's ignorance that the "civilian" he is talking to just murdered someone down the road.

On December 11th, Deputy Adam Davis of the Bell County Sheriff's Office, responded to a call of someone brandishing a firearm and threatening those around him.  The officer drove as fast as he safely could in order to reach the scene, which was several miles from the location where the deputy received the call.  Deputy Davis put the safety of others over his own as he drove at rescue speed on a treacherous Central Texas farm road.  Unfortunately the officer lost control of his vehicle and died in the resulting car crash.  May God bless his family and his fellow officers. 

Just a few days later, on December 19th, Sergeant Investigator Adam Sowders of the Burleson County Sheriff's Office, made the ultimate sacrifice as he and other officers forcibly entered a residence where a wanted felon was hiding inside.  As officers entered, the criminal opened fired and struck Sergeant Sowders several times.  The officer died at the scene, while the suspect meekly surrendered as he realized the numbers were stacked against his continued resistance.  May God bring peace to this officer's wife, children, and friends.

The very next day, Police Officer Robert Deckard of the San Antonio Police Department, spotted a vehicle that had been used in fifteen bank robberies in and near San Antonio.  The officer pursued the vehicle, which was occupied by two men, into neighboring Atascosa County.  During the pursuit, one of the suspects opened fired, sending several rounds into the officer's windshield.  One of the bullets struck Officer Deckard in the head.  The injury was fatal, but the officer also suffered other injuries as his vehicle crashed after he was shot.  Again, as is so often the unfortunate case, the two suspects meekly surrendered when they were confronted by several police officers in Wilson County.  Even after Officer Deckard was mortally wounded, he continued service to others, as he had previously designated himself as an organ donor.  May the Good Shepherd be with this family and with Officer Deckard's colleagues, and comfort them.

I am proud to honor these men with my blog space.

 

An Officer's Last Watch: Deputy Adam Davis, Bell County Sheriff's Department

The people of Texas lost another Peace Officer this week when Deputy Sheriff Adam Davis, of the Bell County Sheriff's Office succumbed to injuries he sustained in a one-vehicle accident.  Deputy Davis had served as a peace officer in several agencies in Bell County, including the Rogers Police Department and the Troy Police Department.

On December 11th, Deputy Davis was responding to a report of a man brandishing a weapon near Troy.  As the deputy drove at emergency speeds on FM 1237, he lost control of his vehicle on a very sharp curve.  Peace officers often put the safety of other citizens over their own as they try to come to the aid of other persons, usually people they do not even know.  Officers are not only at risk when they face persons with guns or other weapons, but also when they must speed down rural roads and highways to reach distant parts of their jurisdictions. 

Officer Davis did his best to place himself between citizens and the person threatening them with immediate harm.  In so doing, he paid the highest price a peace officer can be called on to pay.  The Deputy left behind a wife and a young son.  May the Good Shepherd comfort this family, and the officers who lost a friend and fellow deputy.  I am saddened but honored to offer my sympathy and respect for Deputy Davis here on the pages of this blog.

May God bless and protect all police officers as they do they their jobs, regardless of the danger they face in the performance of their duties.

 

A Parable We Call "The Prodigal Son" Part 4

Yesterday, what a glad and happy reunion we saw, when the son completed his journey home, yet, while he was still afar, no doubt dreading the impending meeting with his father, the father ran to him.  Yes, the father RAN TO HIM while he was still at a great distance.  The father fully accepted his son back into the family.  In fact, the father did not even let the son finish the speech he had rehearsed for days.  Instead, the father clothed the son in the best robe to be found on the property, gave the son a ring (which I believe was a family signet ring, but that is an opinion only!), and placed new sandals on his youngest son's blistered and dirty feet.  Then the fatted calf was slaughtered, a great celebration followed, and the family, as well as the servants on hand, began to be merry!  A great reunion was had by all!

Well, almost all.  Like I said yesterday, I have often wished the parable ended right here.  But Jesus was not finished.  He had yet another lesson to teach.  So we read today that the older son was not at the celebration.  In fact, he did not know that his brother had returned or that the fatted calf was slaughtered.

It happened that, presumably because everyone was so overjoyed with the prodigal son's return, no one went into the field to tell the great news to the older and more faithful brother.  The brother toiled through the day and finished his work.  Only in the evening, at the end of his labor, did he begin the long walk from the fields back to the family home.  As the older brother neared home, he began to hear the music and dancing, the shouting and the laughter.  He sent one of his servants ahead to find out the reason for all this clamor.  The servant returned with the good news!  I can hear the servant shouting with joy, "Rejoice, for your lost brother has returned!  They have slaughtered the fatted calf, and everyone is at the party but you.  Come, let us celebrate!"  The servant's words here are just my conjecture, but I think this must be fairly close to what was said.  I can almost see the servant tugging at the older brother's arm, trying to hurry him to the celebration, to the glad reunion.

The older brother immediately began rejoicing at the glad news....well. no.  Not really.

In fact, the older brother was filled with anger.  The Good Shepherd said in St. Luke Chapter 15:28, "But he was angry and would not go in."  I suspect "angry" was a rather kind and subdued word for what the brother was actually feeling at that moment.  In any case, he told the servant he would not even enter the home, much less join the celebration.  But the father, so happy that the lost son had returned, went himself to his older son and pleaded, yes, begged his son to enter the party, to join the family in celebrating the return of the prodigal son.  But the son was angry beyond comfort, even though his father wanted him so badly to join the celebration.

Here is what the older son told his father: (St. Luke Chapter 15)

²⁹ So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. ³⁰ But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’

How I wish the parable had ended with the celebration, but the Good Shepherd had to explain another great truth to us, even though this truth is not necessarily good news.  You see, the older brother can be seen as representative of many of the Lord's servants today.  They have worked for the Lord for years, doing good and helping those around them.  But somewhere along the way they, like the older brother, lost their joy in their service.  Their Christian lives became not a source of joy and strength, but of tasks and chores, of rules and commands.  They were Christians, yes, but they found little joy and happiness in their service.  And they became bitter and envious.

The older son worked for his father, not because it was a good way to earn a living, not because he was helping his father sow and reap in the fields, but because he believed that he was EXPECTED to work at these tasks, but never to have joy, never to celebrate.  And not only that, the older brother probably spent a lot of time watching his younger brother as the younger man worked in the fields.  Maybe the brother was a little too happy, a little too light-hearted as he worked.  Maybe he was too pleasant and kind to the servants, who were not part of the family.  The longer the brother labored for his father, the more bitter he became.  I believe he was so bitter that he NEVER ASKED his father for a feast.  He never asked his father to allow him a party with his friends, and to kill the fatted calf.  Why, he even told himself, my father would not even let me have a miserable, sick goat to share with my friends.  He felt sorry for himself as he labored day after day, unnoticed by his father, he believed.  No doubt he was bitter even before the younger son took his inheritance and left the family. 

When the older brother learned that his little brother had gotten his inheritance and left the family land, I suspect that he was almost glad his little brother was gone.  Did he even hope his brother would not return?  But while the prodigal son was gone, the older brother still labored and toiled in bitterness.  This is apparent because he never asked his father for anything, even a party with his friends.  But something else was apparent, too.  The older son, through means unknown, had somehow kept track of his little brother.  He knew his brother had engaged in prodigal living.  He also no doubt knew that his brother had squandered away his father's wealth then was penniless when famine struck that distant land.  Since we know that the prodigal son nearly starved, and only saved himself by becoming a swineherd, it is clear that the older brother never lifted a finger to help his sibling.

But the father explained to his son: (St. Luke Chapter 15)

³¹ “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. ³² It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

Jesus, the Good Shepherd Himself, tells us that we who labor for Him are with Him, and He is with us ALWAYS.  All that He has, He has given us, including eternal life.  The Good Shepherd gave us peace and joy as we serve Him and as we walk with Him, the kind of peace and joy not found in the world at large.  He gave us the "fatted calf" so that we can celebrate and be happy in Him at any time.  How much more should we be happy and joyous when we learn that a lost brother or sister has at last returned to the Lord, and we have the privilege to celebrate with the person, because in reality we are celebrating with Jesus.

So, in a way, I wish the parable had ended with the celebration of the prodigal son's return.  On the  other hand, the Good Shepherd had a bigger purpose with this parable, and I have come to see that purpose as well.  In this parable we are taught both to work for Him, and to find joy in our work.  We are taught that it is good to be faithful and obedient, but if we stray, we are always welcomed back with celebration.  And, we are taught that we can celebrate our blessings anytime; therefore, working for the Lord  should never be unpleasant and obligatory toil, but should be our way to express our love and care for our fellow Christians, for our fellow man, and for the Lord.

The Parable of The Prodigal Son is and will always be one of my favorite parables.  At different times in my life, I have found myself in the shoes of both the bitter and envious older brother, and in the beaten and worn out sandals of the prodigal son.  How great is it to be a faithful servant to the Good Shepherd, but how great it is to know that if we fall short, we are always welcomed back by Him, and thus we SHOULD always welcome back our brothers and sisters in the Lord, when they have strayed but then return.

May God Bless You

A Parable We Call "The Prodigal Son" Part 3

When we left the prodigal son yesterday, he had started out on the long trip back to his father's land, and he had decided that he could only hope to be hired on as a servant, having lost, he believed, his status as his father's son.  Things are looking bleak for the young man as he finally headed home, but he did not know his father as well as he thought.  He had turned his back on his father, disdained his father's blessing and squandered it all, and finally had worked tending swine, which he not only had to care for, but undoubtedly he also had to touch these animals and tread in their filth.  Surely his father would refuse to let the young man even enter the family home, but rather would cast him out to live with the other hired servants.

Unknown to the prodigal son however, the father was in fact watching for his son.  The Good Shepherd tells us in St. Luke 15:20 "But when he was STILL A GREAT WAY OFF (emphasis mine)his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and FELL ON HIS NECK AND KISSED HIM (emphasis mine again)!"  This father was not a grudge-bearing father at all, but was full of mercy and compassion.  And we see that he did not even wait for his son, but went running to him while the son was still a long way off, still at a distance.  The Good Shepherd himself is never far from us, and runs to us even when we ours selves have gone afar, and remain at a distance.  God never runs away from us, but certainly runs TO us when we take just a few steps back to him.  He comes the rest of the way to meet us!

The prodigal son saw his father running to meet him.  We are not told whether the son started running to meet the father, but what a scene the Good Shepherd relates to us at their meeting.  The father does not reach out his hand to shake his son's hand, but literally falls on his son's neck, we might think of it as a bear hug, and begins kissing his son, a custom still seen in the Middle East today.  The father must have smothered his son with his loving embrace and his kiss of acceptance.  No doubt the father was shedding tears as well, and telling his son how much he had missed him.

At this point the son, having worked himself somewhat loose from the father's embrace, launches forth into his prepared speech.  Remember, I pointed out earlier that the speech consisted of three elements.  So the son tells his father, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son."  The prodigal son was able to make two points, that he was a sinner and had shamed his father, and that he was no longer worthy to be called his son. Before he could utter the third part of his rehearsed speech, however, the father cut him off. 

I can see the father cover his son's mouth as he began giving orders to the servants.  And notice what those orders were.  The servants were told to bring out the best robe and put it on the son, to place a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet.  The father wanted there to be no doubt that this young man was his son, and would be treated like his son, and welcomed back home in the highest way, by killing the "fatted calf" and cooking it.  Then they made merry!  It was such a celebration, and the father was happy to the point of being overjoyed, "for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."  And they began to be merry. (St. Luke 15:24)

The use of the word "merry" is not an accident, not a random selection of a synonym for "happy."  No, merry signifies a degree of happiness that is not an everyday thing.  This level of happiness is used rarely in the English language; in fact, we usually use it in ONLY ONE instance: that is when we wish our friends and loved ones a merry Christmas!  So the father, his son, presumably his mother (the Bible does not say this, so I am not forcing this on anyone), and all the assembled servants began to make merry!  There was much noise, much music and dancing.  We read in St. Luke Chapter 15:7, "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repents, more than over ninety and nine just persons, who need no repentance."  What a happy scene! The prodigal son was home, and was not taken in as a hired hand but as his father's beloved son.

No matter how far you may have wandered from the Good Shepherd, no matter how badly you think you have ruined your life, this parable teaches that us that while one is still yet far away from the Good Shepherd, He will run to meet the poor sinner, embrace him with His tender, yet strong comforting embrace and His kiss of love, and will take him back, not as a poor, unworthy servant, but as a son of the Good Shepherd Himself, once again worthy to receive the blessings promised in the Gospels.

I have to tell you that from the very first time I read this parable, I wished that the story had ended with the party.  There was so much joy, so much happiness, that this lost son was home.  But the story unfortunately, does not end here.  For you see, there was one person who was not present at that great celebration.  The older brother was at that very minute in the field working.  No one had even gone to tell him that his younger brother had returned!  Did you realize that the older son had finished that day's work and was walking toward home for the evening when he first heard the noise? 

Next time: The older brother is not so happy...

 

A Parable We Call "The Prodigal Son" Part 2

Yesterday we saw that the prodigal son had asked for, and indeed received, the blessing of his inheritance, even though this thoughtless and selfish son was both dishonoring and shaming his father.  But Jesus said in St. John Chapter 14:13 "Whatever you ask in My Name, that I will do for you."  So when this younger son ask his father for his birth right, the father gave it to him, just as he had asked.  And this son took the blessings, the wealth, his father had given him and went to a foreign land, where, we are told, the son engaged in "prodigal" living. 

One definition of the word "prodigal" is "spending wealth or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant."  We are also told that the son went to a "far land" or in some versions of the Bible, a foreign land.  But wherever the prodigal son went, it was apparently not so far from his home that word of his way of life did not reach his family, as we will see later.  But here is an interesting detail.  The prodigal son lived his wasteful, extravagant lifestyle for several years, until two things happened.  First he ran out of money.  But, no sooner had he run out of money than a famine struck the land.  So, he could turn to his friends for food, right?  Wrong!  It turned out that this young man, shunned and forgotten by his fair-weather friends, was in danger of starving to death.  What could be worse for this young man than starving to death? 

It happened that things COULD get worse.  The prodigal son could not find any means to support himself, so in desperation he hired himself out to a landowner.  Guess where the son, a Hebrew, was assigned to work.  In fact, he was assigned by this rich man to work caring for swine.  In the Hebrew culture, swine were unclean and were not to be eaten or even touched.  But this was the only way the young man could survive, so he cared for the swine.  And, he noticed that he was barely given enough food to eat, while the swine were well-fed...by him!  The Good Shepherd tells us that here, at this low point, the prodigal son "came to himself."  It is usually when we are down at a low point that we come to our senses, as it were.  The young man, Jesus says, wished he could eat the very food the pigs received, but he was not even allowed to do that.  Then the prodigal son came up with a plan.

The prodigal son knew that he had done wrong, both in the way of life in which he had lately indulged, and in the way he had dishonored his father, and squandered the great gifts his father had given him.  The young son had done a stupid thing, but he was not a stupid person.  So he realized he needed to return to his father, even though it would be in a state of shame and humiliation.  The young man even rehearsed what he would say to his father when he returned.  The Good Shepherd tells us that the prodigal son decided he would say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” (St. Luke 15:18-19)

I would like to point out that the speech this young man devised for his father consisted of three elements.  First, the son confessed that he had sinned against heaven and before his father.  Second, the son expressed his self-judgment that he was no longer worthy to be called his father's son.  Finally, the son expressed his desire to return to the father's care as a HIRED SERVANT, not as a son.  So, when the prodigal son finally reached his father's land, he planned to say these three things to his father.  The prodigal son appeared certain of two things: one, he was no longer his father's son; and two, his father MIGHT be kind enough to let him stay and work the land, BUT ONLY as a SERVANT.

Next time: The father sees his son coming from afar.

A Parable We Call "The Prodigal Son" Part 1

One of my favorite parables from the Good Shepherd is found in St. Luke Chapter 15: 11-32.  It is sometimes called the Parable of the Lost Son, but I know it is the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  This parable has a story to tell, lessons to show us, that are in some ways the very opposite of what the Good Shepherd taught us about love and giving, and about the true meaning of Christmas, that is that God loved all of us so much that HE GAVE to us Jesus, who was Emmanuel (God WITH us).  Jesus taught many things, but the most important thing He taught us was that no greater love has a man for his friends that to give his life for them.  Jesus not only taught the principle, He lived it, and especially He DIED IT.

The Prodigal Son, in some ways, illustrates the opposite principles, yet it teaches us positive life lessons, nonetheless.  As we know, a rich man had two sons, both of whom worked faithfully and did as they were told.  However, a time came when the YOUNGEST son seemed to grow tired of working on the family land, doing the chores expected of him.  So he threw down his tools, went to his father, and demanded that his father give him his inheritance.  The father did so, and the younger son turned his back on his father, left his older brother laboring in the fields, and set on his journey to find his place in the world.  As we know, the younger son went to a foreign land, where over the next few years he spent every dime he had on partying and on false friends who wanted only to live off his money.

As I read this parable over the years, I came to believe that the father represented Jesus, and that the sons represented Christians who were to receive the promise of Jesus, that is the unknown riches we will receive when we leave this world and meet Jesus in Heaven.  What I did not grasp for many years was the underlying context of the son's request, that is the disrespect and dishonor that the son showed to his father by asking for his inheritance while the father was yet alive.  Especially in the Hebrew culture would this young man's request have been a slap in his father's face, and would it have brought shame on this family.  Just imagine going to your parents and telling them, look, I know you are still alive, but I want my inheritance now.  Not only was this a terrible and obscene request, but it violated another Hebrew custom, which was that the first-born son always received his inheritance before the younger children could receive theirs.

So we see that the prodigal son was thankless, greedy, selfish, and willing to shame his parents and disrespect his brother just so he could get his own share of the inheritance and go out to see the world.  What a far cry from the One who was willing to give everything, even His life, to save you and me.

NEXT TIME: The Prodigal Son squanders his wealth, then tries to return to his father.