Rev. Wonder – Synchronicity
During my law enforcement chaplain class last Saturday we had several speakers. They were people talking about the ugly side of broken laws. The first speaker was a cop that lost his cop girlfriend and his partner in 3 years. The second speaker was a transgender male that as a female cop, on her 3rd day of the job shot and killed a man that was going to kill her. As she went through her trauma and PTSD symptoms, she wasn’t well tended, had some horrible issues and after realizing how badly it affected her she retired with a workman’s comp claim and later had surgically changed from female to male. Our class was the first time he offered his whole story, and many were curious, yet nonjudgmental of his situation.. a rare thing in a Christian based group. There was a man that lost his 29 year old son to a drunk driver…the son was a cop run down on the highway, and a father who lost his 2 year old daughter to shaken baby syndrome. The nanny was never found guilty, and went through two trials, but he has dedicated his life to sharing information on Shaken baby syndrome and has through education see the numbers of infant deaths drop dramatically.
What was very cool is after the debriefing, one of the Chaplains in training, who was unusually quiet and forlorn, finally spoke up and told us that her husband of 30 plus years had gone through gender reassignment a couple years ago and she was living with this “secret” in the Christian community for all that time. She feared backlash from the group as she had been dealing with it from church to church as she was treated so very badly by some of the larger Christian churches.
What happened next brought me to tears. We all stood, came to her side and started to pray, I sent as much healing energy as I could, healing for her heart, her pain, her soul. Not one thought twice about it, not ONE. I understand her fear, it’s real. When the faith you have leaned on your whole life seems to have let you down in a time when you need it most, you feel so alone. This lady should feel alone no longer. I have to tell you how honored I am being in a group of people that have offered their time, love and life with no payment, no agenda, just the need to help others, is nothing less than a great honor for me.
I started to say that I don’t feel I fit in, I am not the Christian they all are, but you know what, I am. I am there for a reason, my faith is strong, my heart is good, my body willing. I will continue to keep my words soft among them, though I fall from grace constantly, but never do I feel judged. What a great thing that is to me.
God bless them, each and every one of them, the cadets, the teachers, the chaplains that come just to be a presence. What a damn fine group of people.
Peace, Rev. Wonder
