April 25 – “Sweat the details”

Yesterday was not one of those “take a leisurely nap on Sunday afternoon” kind of days for us.  I went to the opening session of the National Honor Guard Academy over at Moody Gardens.  Personnel from fore departments, police departments and EMS units all over the state are here to learn how to most effectively honor the flag, the fallen, and the family.  It started at 1:00, so after church I grabbed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and headed over.  They are graciously allowing me to sit in on whatever conference topics I can without paying the $400+ tuition.  It pays to be the host group, I suppose. 

Looks like this conference may be a little more than some of these guys and girls anticipated.  They have to start each morning 6 a.m. with physical training “to get them stretched out.”  They will be doing a lot of drilling and learning formations, so the instructors “don’t want any pulled muscles.”  It will be very close to a military training mission, and I could tell right away the ones who were familiar with military life.  They stood a little more rigid when at attention.  They moved instinctively at the commands given.  Not to say the others didn’t do well, however.  I look forward to seeing how that particular intangible spreads throughout the group over the course of the week. 

They have a lot of ground to cover in the teaching modules.  Things like Establishing Standard Operating Procedures, Flag Etiquette, Funeral Planning, Colors Posting, Casket Vigil and Casket Movement, and Line of Duty Death Notification and Planning. Beyond the classroom, though, the training group’s stated core values are honor, dignity and respect.  They will attempt to instill that in the group as well.  And the other thing that stood out to me was their emphasis on family.  Your own family, the family you are dealing with in a crisis situation, and the families of your fellow emergency personnel. 

And finally, they teach the group to do it all with excellence.  Comments like, “You set the standard,”  You are the Blue Angels,” and “You are the Tip of the Spear” all reflected that goal.  The lead instructor kind of summed it up this way … “It’s up to us to sweat the details.”   

Mark 9:35 says, “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.’”

Father, thank you for this opportunity for our Galveston fire fighters and police and EMS guys to get a taste of this form of ministry.  Give them all energy to get through the next few days.  Amen.