Integrity

Integrity is where it all starts and encompasses every realm of our lives.  The dictionary defines integrity as “entire, the unimpaired state, particularly of the mind; completeness; moral soundness, purity, incorruptness, uprightness; honest, and whole.” This is quite a goal in corrections work.

Valuables are often locked up securely or kept in a secret place.  One of the most priceless qualities we can have is integrity, yet it is so easy to lose and the least guarded.  Maintaining integrity can be easier when there are no temptations around or when you are surrounded by others who have integrity, but it’s often hard to maintain integrity working in the hostile environment of corrections, whether it’s integrity of the body or the mind.  The devil knows how to work on our integrity with the particular struggles that we have as individuals in relation to the multiple facets of our duty. Ever have a sound, noise, or a voice that’s irritating? You can handle it for a while, then you have got to leave. What if you can’t leave? Your integrity will need to be maintained on purpose or destruction is inevitable.  Protect this valuable possession.

Samuel Richardson said, “Calamity is the test of integrity.” The body will lose some integrity due to age and other corrections environmental stressors. Our mind can lose integrity by intemperance and by the constant attack from the harassing load and constant weight of corrections work. Even so, there are practical things we can do to combat those losses.  Most importantly, spiritual integrity can increase continually: the older you grow in the Lord, growing and maturing as a Christian, the more integrity is gained. This is possible because of Jesus Christ. He is complete and entire. We are to have the unimpaired mind of Christ; Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”  This encompasses the life of integrity that God calls us to live, including treating those in our custody right, using whatever level of the force wheel is necessary.

A Corrections Christmas Day

A Corrections Christmas Day

The family gathers round

They are missing you most

But they understand your duty

And the importance of your post

 

Thank you for your faithfulness

At your station this Christmas Day

I want to express my gratefulness

But it’s more than mere words can say

 

There is no one to pass the turkey

Or ring the Christmas bell

As you fulfill your vital mission

Checking cell by cell

 

It is still Christmas Day

Yet there are no halls decked with holly

And the scenery behind these walls

Is anything but jolly

 

No shared holiday traditions here

Of tinsel strewn upon a tree

And mistletoe under which to kiss

Or praying child on bended knee

 

Here in this concrete city

There are familiar things today

Of miserable choices and clanging steal

From which you’d like to turn away

 

One has responded to the call

Hope arises in my mind

He has brought a gift

A precious treasure to find

 

From Bethlehem’s manger to Calvary’s Hill

All the way to this jungle of concrete and steal

He has brought hope and peace for you

Strength and comfort that are real

 

The manger of Bethlehem was lonely and lowly

For our dear Saviour’s birth

May you fully comprehend

The excellence of His worth

 

I am thankful for you corrections officer

And for this gift of salvation today

So you can have the best and what matters most

This blessed Christmas Day!

 

If These Gloves Could Talk

 

If these gloves could talk they would break the silence revealing the things we’ve touched and handled that we don’t want to speak of yet are imbedded in our minds.  Seeing and hearing what we see and hear affects us, but there is an additional effect when “hands on” must come into play.

 

Gloves are for protection in a number of ways; there is no hesitation in using them and no doubt about the necessity.  May we be as diligent in applying what is needed to protect our hearts while we serve in the corrections environment. Proverbs:4:20-21,23 “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.  Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart…Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”Comfort and peace can be found as we communicate with Him, trusting in His Word.

Tactical Triumph

Escape is not retreat. Rather, escape is a tactical move that allows you to get back into the fight. The reason you work to escape is so you can come back to fight again; it enables you to get repositioned for engaging.

As corrections officers, we have temptations that are somewhat universal for our profession, they are common, but look what God promises here with the things we face: “a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it.” I Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

There are tactical moves we have learned in training that we use to get out of holds, to free ourselves from the grasp of one who has seized us.   We practice many different scenarios, but in our profession, we cannot predict every scenario that we will engage in physically. However, God has provided an escape for every temptation we will ever engage in spiritually, including emotional disturbances from our duty that grip us.  

What “temptation” are you facing today?  The temptation may be anger, fatigue, financial, despondency, callousness, depression, emotional isolation, paranoia, relationships, or countless others; whatever it is, God has provided so we will be able to “escape.” This provision allows us to “be able to bear it” as we fulfill this position He has ordained for us on the line that protects society.  This escape cannot be made on our own; we need Him.

Corrections work tends to entice our flesh to find a way to escape from what we have seen, felt, heard, and smelled that plays over in our mind and has so permeated our being yet we cannot find a way to express to another person, finding relief.  There are different things each of us are drawn to try to use out of desperation, convenience, or familiarity, and although some of those things may bring a temporary numbing, anything other than God’s methods and moves is of no true remedy. Let’s practice His tactical moves.