Bold Witness: Taking The Good Message To Bad Places | Joe Hernandez

Joe Hernandez shares his journey from rubble to redemption, arguing that the disaster scene is holy ground and the work of care is a living sermon. Hard lessons from Oklahoma City to Surfside interweave with grief, quiet courage, and practical ways to share hope when time is short.

• Urban search and rescue teaching and field experience 
• Surfside after-action failures and wellness gaps
• Be what the moment demands in crisis care 
• One-to-one ministry without pulpits or pews 
• Trauma on civilians, families, and teams 
• Reframing hoodies and sagging as shields, not threats 
• Sharing good stories at home to blunt secondary trauma 
• Scripture for courage, protection, and purpose 
• Practical compassion at death scenes and pediatric palliative

Transcript

Silver Sword To Gold Sword

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm retired, so that's that's a good thing. Way over on that side. And they were talking about finally reaching that and stripping us from that badge or that uniform. I'm there. So I've been rehired, right? You never retire, you just get rehired. And so I've been teaching for the last 12 years in the urban search and rescue component. I teach the doctors and the paramedics who are gonna go into the rubble pile and learn how to do extreme medicine in that hole. So once the person is located in there, there's a 75 to 85 percent survivability increase if you treat them while they're still entrapped. So first deployment was Oklahoma City bombing, and then the last one was the Haiti earthquake. And so, in between, all the disasters that have happened in the U.S. and then a couple abroad in other countries, Puerto Rico, uh Philippines. And then I was kind of rehired by FEMA to come and talk about the surfside building collapse because it affected so many people, and we did so many things wrong again. So we needed to try and get them right. And all that is great. That's what I did for a living. That was my silver sword. This is my gold sword. My my wife, my children, and serving the Lord. That's my gold sword. That's what keeps me alive. We were just taught you you just heard it. That's what keeps me alive. This is great. And now I get to something faith-based. And I can't even mix it with the work I do for the urban search and rescue and for teaching. You know why? Because it gets federal funding. You know what I can't mention when you get federal funding? Jesus! Yeah, hello? And I wasn't even trying to be politically correct and put Christ, you know, in Christ and Christ. Nah, nah, I'm gonna put father, I'm gonna put Jesus because I call Jesus, I call God my father. I'm an orphan, right? We're we're orphans, and we've got a great father that's looking out after us. What's our responsibility as a father and as a mother to train up our kids that when they're of age, that they go on their own, and somebody tells them, you're special, you're somebody incredibly and you're I know that. I've been being told that for 18 years of my life. You tell somebody for 18 years of their life that, guess what happens? There's no rival. What are you talking about? There's no rival. I wasn't raised that way, but I've tried to do the best that I can in my own, in my family with my children. I'm grateful that I met a girl during FCA. Remember those things in high school? FCA? In high school, I went to a church, the coach took us all there, and my future wife was sitting in that audience. She was a minstrel, and that just became the beginning of a lot. So it ended up going different places. I know we got a lot of different experiences in a lot of years, so five years, ten years, twenty years, everything takes a toll, and everything takes time for healing to begin. We'll just talk a little bit about taking what we have into those areas. Uh, that's who I was. I am a father and I'm a brother. And anytime that you guys want to talk, please reach out. That's really my most important thing. Um try to get some things together on talking about the Lord, sharing our message, sharing what's in our heart, what has changed our life in our calls. Completely different at times with PD because of the way that you have to treat, completely different with fire rescue, and then different on that phone when they're listening to 911 dispatch calls and listening to all the same things you sent you hear. And as we heard from a nurse, that hospital bedside, that same thing. So all responders of some sort, yet dealing with that load and dealing with the opportunity to share somehow. So Isaiah 6.8 says, Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? So you've already been called, and who will go for us? And I said, Here I am, send me. So if we could pray for a second, Father, we just ask for your grace, your mercy. We ask for a great understanding, for diligence as we gather. We're thankful that you brought us here together to be able to minister to one another. We're thankful for those here in attendance, for those that have not been able to make it, and for those that we look forward to meeting one day. In your precious name we ask. Amen. Okay. First responders, we don't run from danger. I'm going to get you in the mood that you live a life like Christ without knowing it. So we don't run from danger, we run towards it. We enter chaos, tragedy, trauma, not because they're easy, but because they're necessary. The calling that mirrors the heart of Jesus, who stepped into a broken world to bring healing, hope, and salvation. Seems like you too have that same kind of calling. How many before you started your careers were told, You're going to be a minister? Man, you're going to you're going to be a great minister, and you don't end up being a minister. You don't end up being a pastor. You don't end up being an evangelist. You have a different calling. Something called you to something different. And then all of a sudden, boom. You're serving. So we're going to talk about serving. Does it have to be behind those closed doors and that stained glass, or can we do it where we're at? Is it alive? Okay. Yeah, and you ask yourself, what does this have to do with me? And we talk about, I got to do my job, so how do I do both of them? How can I talk about what's in my heart and do my job at the same time? I wasn't called to the ministry, so why on the job now? When and how do I share the good message? What if there's just no time to share? And what if there's just too many people around? What I want you to try and walk away with here is I want you to remember to be what the moment demands. You've been called as a public servant, and now you're being called to spread his word on a one-on-one basis. It's just you and them. It's not a big congregation, it's usually just them. Where are we at when that happens? Is it at the bottom scene where we're transferring a patient? And I didn't get to say anything. There were too many people around. I was a rookie. I didn't really want to say things. He's a criminal. He's going to be all the things that go through our mind. But what about if I would have just said a prayer? What about if I'd have just touched him? What about the times that we on our jobs? We start at the beginning of life, and sometimes we go all the way to the end of life. And then all the ramifications that are in between. We talked a little bit, they talked a little bit about that. On that top scene, it kind of just changes everything. When do you talk about what's going on? How do you handle that? Where do I talk about what's in my heart, what has changed my life, and does it really make a difference up there? That top scene is a group of city of Miami firefighters who were called to the scene to recover the body of a girl who was the daughter of a city of Miami firefighter who was killed during the surfside building collapse. And so the talk wasn't so much at that time, there was a lot of talking after. And then there was more talk, not just to those in the scene, but what about those outside of the scene? And we'll talk about that. I know that Galatians 6, 2 tells us to carry each other's burden, and that's what they were doing. They were carrying each other's burden by saying, I got your back. What do you need us to go do? And we'll take care of it. We'll talk and we'll heal later. So that way we fulfill the law of Christ. You see, the good message is meant for broken places. Absolutely. My motto in my business as I teach uh the urban search and rescue is taking good medicine to bad places. Miguel's taking good coffee to bad places, and now we're pushing the good message for bad places on another arena so I don't get in trouble with that. So the gospel's not meant for the pew, not just the pew. It's meant for the street. It's meant for the accident scene, the disaster, and the emergency room. Jesus didn't wait for people to clean up before he approached them, he entered their mess. First responders are often the first carriers of compassion in the moments of crisis. Interesting. You may not preach with words, but your actions speak volumes. The call comes in. Whoever receives the call. There's screaming going on, there's wailing, there's crying, there's all kinds of emotions. And then the one that walks in you. You are the one that walks in. You got called to the scene. The scene didn't get called to you. The doors didn't open and the congregation didn't come to talk to you as the pastor. They asked you to come and you're walking into that scene. That is your holy ground. Bad places aren't just physical locations as we think, they're also spiritual conditions as well. Most of our law enforcement officers have to deal with that issue because we're talking about addiction, violence, despair, and corruption. So how do I handle it without making myself look weaker? I don't want to look weak in front of my peers, and I don't want to look weak, possibly in front of a suspect. So how can I do that as an officer and still maintain my composure? A little different on that other side of fire rescue, a little different on the military side. So every time that you walk in, you carry that message. That's your pew. Jesus went into those bad places first. And you're being called to that. Or you're being called to help those that have been there. So in this scene, we talk about greater love has no one than to lay down his life for another. It was written on my two sons' arms when they went overseas in the military, and one had a cross on the other side as well, so that if they ever got caught, they'd figure, hey, they're both Christians, let's put them down. And they were proud to be to be tattooed with religious Christian emblems as they went to go protect our country. It was a very interesting dynamic that I saw that. This scene is a little different. This was 1995, a long time ago. Um, it's the Alfred E. Mira building, and that's the Oklahoma City bombing. That was our first incident in the United States of domestic terrorism done by our own. Um 17 children were in the nursery, and that affected many of the people. The responders all get to go home and then go back to work and then get to see each other. What happens to the civilians in there? What happens to the tow to the tow truck driver, to the cherry picker that's pulling the debris off, and they tell him, Stop, because there's a body in there. So he has to stop. Where is his or her counseling and follow-up? I have a very good friend who's a civil engineer, and after the surfside building collapse, there was a lot of after-action reports. Adrian was part of helping that. We stayed within that group, fire, police, etc. What about all the other civilians? So much he suffered that he went into a spiral and he just now attended a function that we had two weeks ago in Miami for the task force, and he was so thankful that he was brought back. He's an engineer. He has no idea, he's not trained in what we do, but he was shoved into it at one time. And so we have to think about them as well. And as counselors, there's so many of them. Because at the same time that this is going on, and we can replace it with ground zero, you're getting phone calls, no, because there's no phone, but you're getting emails, no. You're getting contacts through the task force, possibly. Of dad, we're seeing people jump in from the building and they're landing on people. Is that going to happen to you too? So what you've chosen not only affects you on the job, you at that profession, you counseling individuals, but what about everybody else that's in that chain of command? Your children and your significant others. What are they going through? They're not trained for this, but now they're having to swallow the pill that has been given to them as well. So it's a thought as we go home, if we build ourselves up and we carry our message of what we want to share into the workforce, and I tell you good stories, because I could tell you some good stories of some really good things that happened. And I go home and I share that with my wife. Instead of sharing the normal everyday trauma. Oh, honey, you should have seen this guy. This guy was. What does that do to something? Tears it apart. But what happens when I go home and share? You should have seen the look on his face, should have seen the look on her face. When I that carries into your home, that builds your relationship, that builds yours. Watch what the Father does with you as you continue to work in this direction. He went to those bad places first. He responded to emergencies like paralysis, sick, and death. Sound familiar? His ministry was mobile, messy, and miraculous. I I've seen people sit up after CPR. I've seen people from trauma scenes get up and walk away. I've seen miracles happen. Jesus performed miracles. He didn't wait for people to come to him, he went to them. The message travels best on foot and not just behind stained glass. As we heard, not just on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, or Wednesdays, but it can be every day you're on duty. Jesus saved lives, and he saved souls. That's our commission. We carry that light into darkness. Psalms 23, 4 says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. They talked about it in there, the fourth man. I've seen the fourth man. I've been in many situations where that fourth man was definitely there. I don't think I would have come out alive. I'm sure some of you could also relate to that. I went from being a responder to a respondee. My wife was away at my daughter's house, and I ended up doing the crazy of riding out Hurricane Ian, not here in Miami. I retired from here, remember? I moved to Pine Island. Pine Island is off the coast of Florida. We had Hurricane Ian sit on top of us for four hours. So I put 40 years of marriage and memories with five feet of water that entered the house into the trash and trusted the Lord to part the waters and to calm the seas as it sat there. So was it a struggle? 100%. Have I struggled with the Father? I wrestle all the time. We were minded in the word of someone that also wrestled with the Lord. It's common. Don't think he doesn't know our feelings. He knows them very well. And I retired for a reason. I retired because I had two sons in the military and one passed. And so when you lose a son who's that age, it changes your life. They don't have a word for us. So you lose a parent, you're an orphan, you lose a spouse, you're a widow or widower. When you lose a son or a daughter, there's no such thing as a word. So they give you a pair of shoes that you can't take off. But I can sure talk to others. And I will see him one day again, I promise. Absolutely. And so my responsibility was my gold sword and to keep my family intact. My son, who was also still deployed, my daughter who had just finished having her first baby. And my wife, my significant other. I met her when I was 18 years old, 17 years old. I had to keep that family engaged. So in giving up certain things, it's funny how the Lord just continues to open different doors. Am I going to have a big conversation with Job when I get up there? Oh, me and Job are going to go. Who else? You wonder who else went through the things that you went through? So him and I, well, we're going to have some good conversations. But I'm entrusted, and I know that I'm fulfilled in what I do, and that he's going to continually bless what I'm doing. And I'm watching it. I watch it every day. I now have five grandchildren. Really changes things. So we carry the light in the darkness. You walk into places that others fear to tread. You see the worst of humanity, and yet you still continue to serve. Remember, in walks you. You're there. They called you, they called for help, and you're there. In Florida, PD does the death certificates. And so a lot of times you hear that I don't get the opportunities that you guys do while you're treating the hurt. I don't get that. And I say, okay, let's go another place. I have had those, and she talked about it as a nurse, where you've had the passion or compassion to ask the spouse, an older person, you know that it's a medical death and not anything funny, and you say to them at that time, You want to comb their hair? What do you mean? Yeah, you want to get him dressed. We're going to get him out of the bathroom. We're going to clean him up. And then we're going to put him in the bed. Would you like? Do you have any clothes? Sh what? Yeah, he's not an ME's office. They're going to come in, pronounce him dead. He's on heavy medication, but he soiled himself. So if we left as fire rescue and the police officer arrives and now has to wait for the morgue to come get his body or the funeral home, what happens to that spouse? What an opportunity. One on one. No stained glass, no pew, just you and him, or you and her being able to talk. I have a good friend who is the medical director on uh one of the medical directors for City of Miami on the task force, and she runs Holtz Children's Hospital. She also runs a palliative pediatric center. And that means it's a hospice for kids. All of the children there will pass. It's evident. And so what a place to minister. Because healing is not always going to come on this side, is it? We know it's there for us, but it doesn't say where. I bet when we get there, there's going to be a whole room full of body parts. It's going to be incredible. But where is that? And so where does the Lord hold us on to? There's so many opportunities to be able to talk the talk and walk the walk. And I'm not saying in our profession, as they mentioned, it's tough because you get the rack and the you know what? And every time you slip, you get the point of the finger. If you try to do this within our workmates, they point the finger. I saw you, you know. And you're trying to talk to people about God, really?

unknown 19:59

Yeah.

Pediatric Palliative As Mission Field

Stigma, Counselors, And Boldness

A 15-Minute Ride To Redemption

Triggers, Trauma, And Recovery

Symbols That Still Stand

The Cape And The Cross

Funding Limits And Workarounds

Hoodies, Sagging, And Seeing People

Identity Beyond The Badge

After-Action On Rest And Suicides

Forged By Fire, Led By Spirit

One-On-One Is Your Pulpit

Scripture For Protection And Courage

SPEAKER_00 20:00

That happens. But what about the ones that call you? What about ones that seek your help for what's going on? It's hard to get an open a firefighter, a public servant of any kind to open up to counselors. But we need them. We need them very, very badly. Because without them, without that conversation and that ongoing, we just fall into a darker and darker area. So you see the worst of humanity, and it's not just bravery, it's Christ-like love. You've been called. You tag your it. The gospel shines the brightest in the darkest of places. And the darker the night, the brighter the light. I had a girl who was 16 years old, and we got called to the house about five in the morning. Didn't know what to expect. Check on the welfare of a teenager. You're thinking, okay, five in the morning. Usually it's a cardiac arrest at that time. And when we get there, there's a young girl in a hoodie. We'll talk about that in a minute. Sobbing. And obviously had been torn up. And what she did was she had snuck out of the window in the middle of the night, went to the park, and was raped. And I knew it was the home we walked into. Obviously, I knew about God. There was a cross, I saw a Bible on top of the nightstand. So I knew there was a presence of the father in that house. But when the moment came, and I asked the mother, she told the daughter that it was her fault that she had been raped, that she disobediently snuck out, and that was God's punishment for her. I had 15 minutes with her on the way to the rape treatment center. Oh, was I going to share with her? God's love. 15 minutes. Not two, just me and her. Should have seen the guy next to me, the rookie, going, I had to talk to this girl. I thank the Lord for that call because I still get to pray for her. I don't know where she is in life. And that maybe changed her whole life. But all of you can tell me stories like that. All of you. I told her that not only did God was there when that happened, but he also wept with her, and he's weeping with her now too. Pretty familiar, this gentleman went to Haiti with us. He's a Miami-Dade firefighter. He's doing very well for himself. We asked him how he was doing after he was given certain assignments that weren't normally his. It reminds me of a gentleman during the Oklahoma City bombing. And if you're old enough, I'm 66, in 1995, when the Oklahoma City bombing happened, the U.S. World News held had a firefighter holding a baby in his arms. He had a red helmet on, he was a lieutenant. His name was Chris Fields. Chris continued to climb the ranks at Oklahoma City as a firefighter, became a lieutenant, became a captain, and he had a barbecue at his house. Poured brand new concrete in that. It became what we call the three S's sight, smell, and sound. It triggered his emotions. It took him right back to the Oklahoma City bombing six years afterwards. He now has an incredible ministry called Trauma Behind the Badge, and he's a phenomenal speaker. Incredible. Life stories within himself, based on a call, based on something he couldn't climb out of. But if we start going home, like I said, and you share these things with your significant other, iron sharpens iron. It's different than going home and say, honey, you should have seen this. We talked about that. So Joshua 1.9 tells us, be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Funny in disasters, I kind of was driven to taking pictures of what represented God and what was still standing. And i.e., a statue of Jesus with two cherub angels next to him. The water was four feet, the house is destroyed, there's no roof. You should see the cars if I open that picture up. But yet he still stood. The church was gone, no cornerstone, but the cross remained standing. In your life, those are the things also that remain standing. Those are the important parts of your life. Every call you answer is a chance to reflect God's love. Your courage is a sermon. Your presence is an answer to prayer. It's you on a one-on-one basis. They called you. So it's up to you and how you're going to share. You bring order to chaos, you bring peace to panic, and hope to despair. You don't just wear a uniform, you wear a calling. The cape and the cross. Sometimes that cape is good, sometimes it's not so good. Sometimes it can protect us, sometimes it can't. But we have it. Let's talk about those sagging issues. Um my daughter is a servant, but she accepts government funding. She happens to, she graduated from Southeastern. For some reason, she married a boy in the north, and I got five wonderful grandkids, but they're all up in Indiana where it's really cold. But she runs an executive director for a domestic violence shelter. They have an intake center and then they've got apartments. They take in children, they take in women, and guess what? They take in men too. Yeah, men are victims of domestic violence as well. Know it or not. She has to be very vigilant on how she can share. That kind of puts us all in that. You know, am I allowed to share? Will I get in trouble if you share? Not really if you're an employee, but if you own a business, you can get in a lot of trouble, especially with that federal funding. That's why I'm separating my two, so I don't have to hear from them. So she wanted so much because her degree is in theology. She graduated from Southeastern University. That's what she wanted to do, but she couldn't share. So I talked to her, and she's been bringing in, and what you all reminded me of, all these church volunteers. May the Father bless you. Thank you. She reached out to the local churches and asked for volunteers to come into the center and help. I need some painting and some stuff done. Oh, but by the way, this is what I really need you to do. There's going to be eight news intake people, and they don't know anything about the Lord. They just got, you know what I'm saying? So you can always work around things. Somebody told me maybe sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. And in that case, I agree. I agree. Bring him in. She the other day, though, she said, you know, Dad, it was great until I got a phone call from forgive me, Lord, from the Church of Latter-day Saints, and she said, I turned them down. I said, Why? She said they weren't going to share Jesus. I said, Okay, okay, okay. I said, that's right. But that's okay. But the compassion is there. So can we look at hoodies? Have we ever thought a hoodie and sagging pants is different than what we see? You know, you know the term sagging pants came from prisons, right? They took their belts away when you went to prison, and when you took the belt away, what happened to your pants? They became saggy pants. That is a prison term in a prison theology. Along with that came the sweatshirt. But what if we looked at the sweatshirt differently? What if it was a shield? What if that person wearing it really just wanted to keep themselves quiet, away from everybody else, just a form of inner protection. It's just a thought. It happened as we had a shooting in the state of Florida about 15 years ago, and it was a very heavy topic at that time. The hoodie and what that represents. Not a bad thing, more of an internal struggle thing. And I was hoping more police officers would at least look at that and on that side as opposed to a branding of I'm a bad kid. Not at all. I know that your mission is sacred. Psalms 91, 11 tells us, for he will command his angels to guard you in all of your ways. So you have to treat your mission sacred. You have been called not only to do your job, but to carry your gold sword. Remember, we we earn a paycheck with this. It's pictures of dead presidents on pieces of paper. That's all we do with this other stuff. I don't have a badge anymore, other than a souvenir. I don't have a uniform anymore. So my identity is on who I am. I am a child of God and I'm a messenger. And I need to continue that message and tell the everyone that I can see how it feels. This changes a little bit more for the mental health counselors. So in 1995 and 2021, we didn't learn a lot. Boy, a lot of years went between the Oklahoma City bombing and the surfside building collapse. Well, at the Oklahoma City bombing, we built little wooden shacks to rest in. We had nowhere to go. You know where they were? Right in front of the Alfred E. Mirror Building. Where was no rest? What happened at the Surfside Building Collapse? How many generations? We weren't there. I was already retired at that time. I went as a FEMA representative because they did the same thing. They found a parking lot that was hard, had a fence for security, and it was in front of that. And that was a big mistake. So the gentlemen in the top picture, they're resting. They just ate, they took off their helmets. But if you look behind them in the glass, what are they staring at while they're trying to get rest? Pastor Raz talked about it. That's not this. That's poison from what we were talking about. That's poison. We've had two suicides within the 12 teams that have responded to the surf side building collapse. Why? We don't know. But we continue to talk about them. They thought that maybe the bottom picture might have brought some closure for the responders. No. It was so difficult for them to deal with the victims' families while they were on a job sent trying to find victims and not going from a rescue to a recovery mode, which changes everybody's mentality when you go from rescue to recovery. And so the gospel wasn't meant to be confined in the sanctuaries, not just Sundays. Come on. It's every day. It was forged in the fires of persecution, whispered in the prison cells, and shouted in the marketplaces. And I know you too have been forged by fire. I have. When did you meet the Lord? I was raised a Catholic. My father was a womanizer. He was an alcoholic. That's what I learned. You know what I wasn't going to do when I became a man and came to know the Lord? Not teach that to my children and my sons. Right? So did we find the Father when we were young, or did we come to meet him as an older generation, which changes things and changes our mentality, changes the way we think. It's a wonderful feeling, however, we got there, but we just need to put it in perspective. But I know we've all been forged by fire one way or another. I know there's a fourth man in that fire, I'm telling you, he definitely is there. All right? He didn't avoid bad places, he walked straight into them. And you guys do that. Whether it's on a couch talking to someone, whether it's really on the job, whether it's back home, whether it's counseling somebody individually in a room. I have three brothers in laws who are pastors. I have a brother-in-law who's a police officer. I have two sons who are military. So it's kind of all mixture. And I got three nieces who are teachers. And I see them all into this, all have opportunities as public servants to share. Your mission is sacred. I want you to know that you're not alone. That's what the Holy Spirit is all about. Boldness. This conference is based on boldness. You have boldness. Ask for the boldness. Don't be ashamed to ask for your boldness. The message isn't fragile, it thrives on that hostile ground. Remember, all of the garbage is going on and in walks you. You're expected to bring the peace to chaos. Your work is on holy ground, even when it's bloody, smoky, and loud. Your life is a sermon. Let them see it. Let them feel it. Even if it's just a word, even if it's just a prayer, even if it's just holding a hand. Remember, you might be the last thing they see before they meet Jesus face to face. And when they do, and then you finally do, will we be asked, hey, you remember? You remember? I met her. I met her a long time ago. But I know you had the opportunity to share with her. Why didn't you share? One of those thoughts. I want you to know that one-on-one, you've been called to be a minister. You don't need a congregation. That's the best part of it. One-on-one. You're a walkie-talkie, just you and them. And remember, it could involve other family members too, and that would be even better. Keep carrying the good message, keep showing up, and keep shining. And what I again want you to remember is be what that moment demands. Sometimes it's just quiet and praying, and that's okay too. Prayer is very strong. And sometimes it's a little bit more than that. We know that our embodied courage, sacrifice, and service are deeply rooted in scripture. So I just kind of gathered the same scriptures that we talked about and uh just showed me again. So these Bible verses they resonate the calling and can offer encouragement. We talk about protection and courage. We know that Psalms 91, 11, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all of your ways. And Joshua 9, one of my favorites, is be strong and courageous, and do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Psalms 23, 4, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Rod and staff, depending on the church you were raised in, couldn't mean a spanking. I see it differently, because what a shepherd does with his rod and staff is he steers his flock where they should go and where they shouldn't go. It's a direction rod. It's not a punishment rod. It is a difference between a shepherd and what he does with that. I say there's a difference between a shepherd and a butcher. A shepherd runs that rod and he steers his flock in the right direction. And what would he do? For one. Right? Just for one. He'll leave all 99, but he'll go after the one that went away and got lost, just to bring them back into the fold. That's huge. That means a lot. That's a special calling for that. Our purpose and our sacrifice of service, greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for one's friend. In Galatians 6, 2, we talked about fulfilling the law of Christ by carrying each other's burdens. And our purpose and calling is I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Send me, Lord. Thank you for calling me. And if you just bow your heads with me for a minute in closing prayer, and I just ask the Lord to bless first responders, strengthen our hearts, protect our bodies and minds, renew their spirits, and help them to rest assurance that when they enter those dark places, that they soon will be back in your light. Let them know that they are not just doing a job, but they are also fulfilling a divine mission. Give them courage to carry your message into places others avoid. May they carry your message into every bad place, and may your light shine through them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.