… My story is important not because it is mine, but because if I tell it right, you will recognize that in many ways, it is also yours. Maybe nothing is more important than that we keep track of these ‘stories of who we are’ and ‘where we have come from’ and ‘the people we have met along the way’ because it is precisely ‘through these stories’ that God makes himself known to each of us, most powerfully and personally… Telling Secrets… A Memoir p.30, By Frederick Buechner, 1991.
…On the 28th of June, 2006…I was the Chief of Police for The City of Eden Prairie, Minnesota and I was also the Chaplain of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association (MCPA). The MCPA Board of Directors, of which I was a member, was holding a training and strategic planning retreat up in Duluth at a Canal Park conference center. During one of our breaks, I grabbed a cup of coffee at the local Caribou, and headed to Northern Lights Books and Gifts to do some browsing. As I wandered the small shop I came across Telling Secrets… A Memoir. I was somewhat familiar with Fredrick Buechner, but honestly had never read any of his 39 published books. I was drawn to the 106 page autobiography (his third of three), so I bought it and headed back across the street to the conference… Chief / Chaplain Dan December 2024…
Dear Fellow Hikers,
Thank you for joining us today as we launch Life Hike Letters (LHL), a new outreach initiative of Public Safety Ministries (PSM). The purpose of this Introductory Letter is to help you better understand why we are heading down this new path and what this new journey is going to look like. We’re also hoping that, along with this simple orientation, you can take away some ideas that will help you personally in your Faith Journey Through Life.
I chose the above two statements to kickoff LHL for a couple of reasons. First, the Buechner paraphrased quote has been my inspiration of the benefits of storytelling from the first time I read it, specifically stressing the importance of thoughtful and intentional storytelling. To further paraphrase the above quote, I want to express my specific intentions of how and why I’m writing these letters…“I tell my stories with hope that they will help you to better hear your own…”. As we go forward, I hope it becomes clear that these stories I tell are not just my personal experiences, but that they include the abundance of stories I’ve collected over the past 40+ years of being intimately embedded in the public safety professions.
Second, my hope is that my brief story of a simple visit to a bookstore can shed some light on who I am (and was) at a major milepost in my life. It was a time of significant transition in my personal life and professional career. Six months after I bought that copy of Telling Secrets, I retired from my full-time Law Enforcement career as a sworn officer and began the new adventure…incorporating a non-profit ministry…entering seminary seeking ordination…starting to work (but not necessarily getting paid) as a full time Public Safety Chaplain “Providing Spiritual Care to Public Safety Professionals Throughout (literally) Minnesota” - an exciting and eventful adventure that you’ll definitely hear more about as we go.
And now, almost 20 years later, I (actually we - my wife and I) begin again on another new adventure. Details of what has led us to this new professional transition can be found through the links above to PSM and LHL pages. What I do want to share briefly here is the big personal change that we are going through. It is something many of you are currently experiencing, or most definitely will in the future… Elderhood. We all begin with Childhood, move into Adulthood, and eventually (hopefully) we will conclude in Elderhood. It is that Life Journey, and in my context of these letters, a Faith Life Journey, that defines every individual Life Hike.
The concept of a Life Hike has been bouncing around in my head for many years…and to be honest, many decades is probably more accurate. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, it began back in my youth with my first real backpacking/hiking experience. It was a weeklong youth ministry trip in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana. If my math is right, that brings us to about 50 years of developing a metaphor that describes a person’s journey through life, their entire life from birth to death..."Life Hike: A Faith Life Journey from Dust to Dust..." or better yet, a simple metaphor..."Life Is A Hike".
As a final note, I’d like to say a few words about Beliefs and Behaviors, Principles and Practices, and specifically for the purpose of these letters…how a person merges their Faith Beliefs with their Faith Practices will clearly define the quality of their Faith Lives. My life experiences over the years have led me to the belief that among the people I most deal with, churched or unchurched, conservative or liberal, wealthy or poor…most people do have fairly defined faith beliefs, or non-beliefs, but are significantly lacking in turning those beliefs into faith life practices. This is often because they are not willing to do the work, but far more often they don’t know how to do the work, or at least they don’t know where to begin. That is my primary goal with these letters - to help people with fairly clear faith beliefs explore and discover personal faith practices and apply them in order to greatly improve their faith lives.
Well, that about covers our introduction. I hope what I shared today will help you understand what this new initiative is meant to accomplish. And as I said earlier, I'm hoping some of the stories I’ve told will give you insights into what your own stories may hold for you now and in the future. I look forward to further connecting with you, and I hope you’ll continue to hike with us on our new adventure…we sure would enjoy your company!
With Care and Gratitude…Dan
Postscript/P.S.
Re: Postscript/P.S. My intentions are to use this Postscript/P.S. in two ways: First, I want to use it to provide additional information about what I write, and often how I write these letters. Second, I want to share what is coming up in my next letter. Think…“Stay tuned for some scenes from our next episode!”
Re: The Dots… I tend to use a lot of…dots…otherwise known as ellipses. They are used to represent a missing word or words. They can also be used as a pause, or to represent a continuation of thought that is not written. Now, I’m far from a grammar expert, and not sure what the English class experts might say about my use, but I primarily use them to guide the reader to pause and consider their own personal thoughts…the dots represent a time for you to ponder and think about the writing…
Re: About PSM and LHL If you are interested in more information about PSM and LHL, you can click on the links in the opening paragraph of this letter.
Up Next: “Five Basic Practices of Faith” (Thursday 12/12/24, S1/L2)
Thanks again, Dan