Jonah and the Kingdom

“Let them die, they don’t care about you.”

“These… [people] are hell-bent on killing themselves. Let them do it before they take someone else with them.”

Perhaps you assume the subject of these two quotes must be terrorists. They aren’t. They are quotes from members of our community here in Cincinnati referencing an individual who overdosed in public recently.

Online news articles almost always end with a comments section. If you’ve never read through them, or posted yourself, I urge you to avoid the temptation. They are almost always disheartening and the bitterness people feel toward their neighbors is downright terrible. Even worse, you will be tempted to chime in and it doesn’t take long before you are behaving in a manner far from our calling.

I have to confess that I did make the mistake of reading some comments recently on articles covering heroin overdoses and other crimes. A couple of quotes from that read preface this post. With each comment I read, I felt myself getting angrier and angrier.

Welcome Back & Prayer for Police Officers

It has been a long time since my last post. Too long. Nearly three years to the day. I’ve decided to begin writing again due to my current situation. As the new Director and CEO for Transforming Jail Ministries (Hamilton County, Ohio), I feel it is best that I share my experiences and what I learn as I take this journey.

In the midst of this transitionary period, I have decided to journal privately each day, tracking the greatest moments. My hope is to have a “first 100 days” journal that could potentially be useful for others who are becoming executives for the first time. 

Additionally, this new position has brought about a number of highs and lows. In my first month, I’ve delivered several death notices, gave an invocation and benediction for a sheriff’s deputy academy graduation, and learned that the relationship between faith and government is simpler than I had thought.