In the last 10 days, I have witnessed the top of a car being ripped open in order to try and save someone, trainees honing their skills and newfound strength while learning from a master, a couple being talked down from a domestic disaster, and a person withstanding and surviving a surprise attack. These events were not from a Marvel movie, Star Wars, or the next Batman franchise. Rather, they were performed by the first responders of Flathead County, Montana.

“Yes, it’s a job but it’s also a calling.”

As Braveheart chaplains, we get the humbling experience to “peek behind the curtain” of law enforcement and see the heroic acts done for our community. Because of this, it becomes as addictive for us chaplains to marvel (pun intended) at what we witness in the same way it is to binge-watch our modern fictitious heroes.

My intent in writing this is in no way to overdramatize the first responders and demonize those that find themselves on the receiving end of the law rightly being enforced. That’s actually the point. First responders inhabit the same humanity as the rest of us – the same emotions, successes, failures, fears, hopes, etc. Yet at a given moment of chaos or need, they will be the folks who will be present. From my short time being with them, I can tell you with absolute confidence that these are the faces you want to see if you find yourself in an emergent or imminent situation. As I’m told by many of them, “Yes, it’s a job but it’s also a calling.” 

One of the most telling pieces of evidence that first responders are actual superheroes is that in a split second, the first responder must act with city/county ordinances and laws in mind, knowing they are responsible for the full trajectory of a bullet fired, strategizing 4 steps ahead of what they’re about to perform, trusting their strategic training which means trusting the brother and sister next to them, oh, and then there’s assuring us the citizens at the same time. All in a split second!  Am I alone in being in awe of this? As a chaplain for Kalispell Police & Kalispell Fire who gets to work for and alongside these fine people, my humble plea is for us to support and uplift the person of the first responder in addition to the profession. Our first responder heroes don’t have the luxury of having a movie trilogy or a spinoff series to lean back on in case they get knocked down physically, emotionally, and spiritually. This is real life. Let us begin to expend the same passion and energy toward our real everyday life heroes that we do to our fictional ones.