Pray for Law Enforcement - God of the Impossible: Day Nine, Week Nine

When I was in my 20s, I spent two years working for my local police department. I would have become a police officer had God not intervened in my life two weeks prior to starting the police academy. I spent a lot of my free time riding along with the gang unit on weekends and had a front-row seat to the ins and outs of how law enforcement operated. I have the utmost respect for our law enforcement community.

Back then, 30 years ago, the average person still held law enforcement with high regard and respect. There were invisible lines that didn’t get crossed by the criminally inclined, at least they were not crossed very often. But times have changed, and our law enforcement community is in the greatest danger they have probably ever been in in this generation.

As a clinician, I have worked with the families of police officers and officers themselves. For those who are not on the front lines, it is difficult to imagine what they actually experience. The level of depravity, the violence, parents and family members killing one another, and much more. Besides the ongoing threat of physical danger, they carry an enormous emotional weight that has lasting effects. 

There is a famous psychological experiment that was conducted to test what makes people feel safe. The psychologist took some children, gave them toys, and put them in a house’s backyard that ran right up to very busy train tracks.

The children investigated the yard, and wandered out into the grass, but quickly returned to the house when a train roared by, shaking the ground they walked on. For the rest of the day, they stayed near the patio and the back of the house.

Why? One thing was missing from this yard: a fence. Nothing separated them from the train and the tracks. They had complete freedom to roam and play, but there was no barrier to keep the train from them.

Later, they took the children, put them in another yard, gave them toys and free reign of the yard once again. Only this time, there was a fence. The psychologists watched as the children explored and played all over the yard, even right up to the fence, even with the train hurtling past them as before.

A simple fence gave the children enough of a security cushion that they could enjoy the freedom of playing, that a yard without a fence didn’t allow them to enjoy.

We live in a free society. We can go and do and explore as much as we like, mostly without fear of danger. We do this every day because we have metaphorical fences around us: laws and law enforcement willing to protect us and keep us safe. Rarely do we stop and think about it, but without law and order, there is chaos, fear, and lawlessness; something the Bible talks about will come in the last days. We are witnessing this now. Without the peace officers in our midst, mostly unseen, we would be like the children in the yard with no fence, living with the threat of danger and never feeling safe.

I think we all grow use to the common and familiar. Just like so many other things in our lives, it is easy to take law enforcement for granted because we see it as a job they are getting paid for and law enforcement has been around for hundreds of years. But today, I want to draw attention to their humanity and remind us that God initiated law enforcement centuries ago (Romans 13).

When I wrote out the 30 days of prayer, I felt impressed to include the law enforcement community. I hope that as you pray this prayer with me, you will not only pray for the physical safety but also pray for their emotional safety, their marriages and their children. I am so grateful for what they do day in and day out, and thankful for the contribution that community had on my life. 

Thank you for your continued commitment to prayer. It means a lot. Until next week, occupy until He comes.

Kathy Chastain