Your Great Cloud

The alarm comes early, and the body either wakes up and says, “Good morning, Lord!” or “Good Lord, it’s morning!” Regardless of how you roll out of bed, there is a special purpose for many in these coming days. Our Law Enforcement, Firefighters, Medical, and especially our School Guardians start this new year’s classes from the “short summer nap” only to find the various ages of BEARS coming out of their caves agitated and wanting more summer. These heroes guide them, guard them, and help them move along. As the buses, cars, and bikes begin to pour into the school parking lots, it can often resemble the old bash and bang car derbies, but these men and women of steel stand, direct, and occasionally jump out of the way, to ensure a safe and secure environment for education. Since the Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School shooting in 2018, there have been and still exist security concerns in our schools. For over forty years, our modern knights continually wade through policy changes, student crises, and multiple cautious and concerned parents. As a Chaplain for many of our incredible First Responders in Hillsborough County, I want to encourage you with two powerful principles of purpose.

First, the race of life is not won by the fastest but by those that are willing to do whatever it takes to push forward and finish strong. As you prepared for your long, often hard, and steady run of the 23/24 school year, success is not where you are and what you know but what you learn and where you go. Through blood, sweat, and tears, you, as well as our future Warriors, must train and discipline your body and minds to meet the “expected” unexpected. At the beginning of your tour to “serve and protect,” you stood tall and took an oath to dedicate your life, even during times when it feels that general society will not protect you but make you a target. Plant City, however, is a different type of society. We are family here, and God help the one that thinks he or she can hurt you without coming through us first!

(Just say’n)

Second, we all need someone in our corner cheering us to finish. As a former FBI Chaplain, I had the joy in the summer of 2021 of cheering on the future agents on their final day of physical testing. With red and white pompons, a coffee cup close by, and the theme song of “Rocky” blasting, I was there to push them across the finish line of testing and their beginning race of serving. Many of the agents just shook their heads, smiled, and gave a thumbs-up! Others pointed their heads forward to the finish line and, with the “Eye of the Tiger” baby, ran faster! Why? We all need someone to help us put one foot in front of the other, one day in front of another, and one mission in front of another. I guess that is why the author of Hebrews painted this vivid picture in Chapter 12 of a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on. Steve Green, in his song Find Us Faithful, emphasizes this principle.

“Surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, let us run the race not only for the prize but for those that come behind us; let us leave to those before us a heritage of faithfulness passed on through Godly lives. Oh, may all that come behind us find us faithful.” Who do you have in your corner cheering you forward in this race of life? That will often depend on if you are willing to cheer others on in their race. I can guarantee this; there are no fools in faith, only faithful followers that create momentum to help others make it to the end and finish strong. My prize, at the conclusion of that FBI testing day, was the 100s of “Thanks, Chap!”. In your race of a rugged year, who will you thank? Better yet, who is thanking you? Just remember, you have an Infantry Chaplain that has never retired but is simply re-assigned to help and harass any way I can until the final race is finished as I hear the words of my eternal Chaplain and Creator say, “Well Done! How about so Holy Grounds Coffee!”