A Tale of Two Davids

Sadly, we have ended the month of August with, yet another, active shooter situation in Minneapolis MN.  These horrific incidents make all of question how a person could randomly take the lives of innocent children and adults they don’t even know.

Wrestling with lethal force is something that most of us never have to think about hopefully, but we should pause to appreciate and consider what it might be like for the people who put their lives on the line every day as uniformed officers sworn to serve and protect, even to the point of lethal force.

We see more and more film clips on the news of people attacking and ambushing uniformed officers. In fact, last year over 100 officers were killed in the line of duty, 104 to be exact.

I asked my friend Dave Wareham to share his first-person story about having to take the life of the shooter in that situation and how he felt supernatural protection and comfort amidst the chaos of the moment to do what he had to do. He also discusses the psychiatric protocols required for officers and their families following an event like this to give us a fuller picture of what they go through. (And we recorded the show before the Minneapolis shootings)

Wrestling With Lethal Force

Dave Wareham received the medal of valor for taking out an “active shooter” at the Thousand Oaks California police headquarters on August 3, 2003.

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I titled this month’s newsletter “A Tale of two Davids” because my other friend, David Nolde, was on the show to discuss something else that we see on the news all too often: people who are destroyed by  rapid or overwhelming success.  P. Diddy Combs is the most notable one recently. It may not be covered in the news or on television, but success has ruined many people for a very long time, dating all the way back to biblical times. In fact, one of the most familiar scripture verses to even secular people is Proverbs 16:18

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

No one is immune to the belief that our success is all of our own doing or that somehow we are above other people to a point where the rules no longer apply to us. It can be a hard lesson and success is something that many people actually have a very hard time wrestling with.

Fortunately for David, when he was at his lowest point, he found Opal Handy, a strong Christian woman, who helped deliver him from the pit and restore him like Job in the Bible was restored.

Wrestling With Success

David Nolde is someone who indeed wrestled with success and found himself in a situation like Job, richly blessed, then suddenly lost almost everything, and only through the love of a strong Christian woman, Opal Handy, has been slowly restored with a much humbler spirit and personal relationship with Christ.

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Toolbox Ministries continues to put out terrific Two Minute Toolbox videos weekly and I’m sharing one this month from Tom Douthit, the Executive Director, titled “Placed not Stuck” to help us change how we react to difficult situations.

Two Minute Toolbox

They say that life 10% what happens to us and 90% how we respond to it. Tom shares a terrific message on perceiving ourselves as placed for a purpose rather than stuck just to suffer.

Watch Two Minute Toolbox

Please share this newsletter or any of these episodes with friends or family that you think might be wrestling with similar issues or have them visit my website at www.thesavagepath.com to explore for themselves.  Remember, I am always eager to hear from my listeners directly through my email: david@thesavagepath.com

In Christ,
David L Savage

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