I volunteered my time last night as a chaplain for the Mesa Police Department. Here were some highlights: –Investigated two different (but nearly identical) instances of mothers leaving their three children in the car while they went in and shopped at Wal-Mart. Apparently, this is a growing crime problem in Mesa. –Made my first trip inside the Mesa jail and got cursed out in Spanish. –Ate dinner at a Barcelona/Italy family diner on the SW corner of Lindsay and Main….

I was on a ride-a-long last Sunday with one of my friends from Third Format who is a Gilbert officer. He introduced me to his closest friend in the force and we got to talking over some food. I asked him about his view of God and he told me that he and God had an agreement. Intrigued, I asked him for the details. He told me that he agreed to not talk bad about God and that God wouldn’t…

I recently read through the book of Matthew and something stood out to me that I hadn’t noticed before. There are 4 times when Jesus looks at people and feels compassion for them (9:36, 14:14, 15:32, 20:34). I was extremely challenged by this as I thought about it. Is that my natural response when I see people? Rarely. So I started praying that God would change my heart so that this would be true of me as well. And I…

One of the ways that I get out of the Christian bubble is by volunteering my time as a police chaplain. It makes for some interesting stories to be sure. I was on a ride-a-long last friday and I got into some great conversations with the officer I rode with. I asked him all sorts of questions. One of them was “Do you ever get afraid?” His anwer kind of startled me. “Never.” “Really?” I said. To me, I thought…