The trunk of a police car is somewhat like a bed spread in a cheep no tell - hotel. Forensically, they look the same under ultraviolet lighting. It’s not a thing you would want to lay your face on. Smears of Jerry curl mixed with snot from people getting OC sprayed, blood mixed with saliva and certainly urine from some drunk passing by an empty patrol car. I heard a culture of swine flu genetically altered with Hep C was obtained in the back seat and on trunk lid of a patrol car.
As you know working graveyards is physically brutal. It feels like someone drained 50% of your stamina out of your body for 4 months straight. You spend the night looking for things to do, crooks to chase and people to laugh at. Patrolling the dark streets is difficult, but it’s hopeless when the fog bank rolls in. You want to die! You resort to terrorizing each other with pranks and playing bumper tag. Don’t ask. When your friends go out on an alarm call you sneak in and set their siren and lights to turn on with the ignition. When they start the engine it’s a shot of pure adrenalin. When they fall asleep at a stop light you pelt them with rocks so they think they have been shot at and cry as they roll out onto the pavement guns drawn. You put a dead or live animal in the back see and watch through long eyes. Heaven forbid they leave their keys in the ignition. Some have actually called in I need the air…someone stole my car.” “10-22, I found it.” Lots of mic clicks in the background.
One of my friends who is part POII and part John the Baptist was recently working graveyards. As he drove around in the fog and after the radio slowed to a crawl, he felt God talking to him. No it wasn’t a prank of beat partners setting his radio to scan NW Tac 12, but a strong yearning in his heart. He had been working with some other believers on the department and really felt he needed to do something. He sent a “to P” message over the MCT and asked them to meet him at a closed park. Normally the guys will meet to smoke a cigar, drink some coffee or chomp on a bagel. They tell a few stories that may or may not be totally true and get a few laughs to get them through the night. No self respecting cop eats doughnuts. (Unless its one of those bear claws.)
He pulled into the only open business bought a few items and drove to the park where the team was waiting. He climbed out of the driver’s seat surrounded by an AR-15, computer on a swivel and a 12 gauge shot gun in the rack. His lunch pale was safety belted into the seat. That’s the important stuff. He brought the bag from the 7-11 with him. It was about 0530 hours. The officer, responding to the influence of God opened the bag and pulled out some saltine crackers, Dixie cups and grape juice. He broke the crackers into smaller pieces, poured the juice and served communion on the trunk of a black and white as the sun rose into the sky. They prayed and thanked the Lord for safety and salvation on this beautiful San Diego morning. Seven men, united in the brotherhood of arms and eternity. As the sun rose in the sky it reminded the men of the Son of God who rose from the dead. After all, it was Easter morning!
It’s amazing to me that on a platform of filth God was honored through the obedience of a cop. Its kind of like our lives, we are that platform. “There is none righteous not even one.” And again, “your righteousness is like a filthy rag.” But God has chosen to use us as a platform to bring Him honor. “He uses the simple things to confound the wise.” There is not one of us God cannot use. The question is, are we willing and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Will we be his trunk lid.
I Corinthians 2:10 ff The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.[c] 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
This week I’m going to be a trunk lid for God.
Andy
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