It really never ends

I had a good day at work yesterday. I went to a couple of meetings, worked on my sermon, and we had our youth programs.

At the end of the day and after dropping all of the kids off it was about 6:30PM. I was tired and was ready to go home, relax, and spend some time with my kids.

Then I realized I had forgotten something. Earlier that day one of the kids that I had dropped off told me that his mom was in the hospital. She had gotten her gall bladder removed and was still there recovering.

So I gave my kids and my wife a kiss and told them I would be back soon; I had to go visit someone.

On the way to the hospital I realized that as an officer there is really no time off. I can say I'm taking a day off or that I am done working for the day, but in reality I'm always available for work. There might be some down time when there is nothing going on, but I am always "on call".

If something happens to a member I need to be there. If there is something at the Corps that needs to get done, I have to get it done. If someone wakes me up in the middle of the night because of a family emergency I have to be ready to be a source of support and guidance.

Imagine if a Corps member called me to ask me a pressing question and I said, "Sorry I can't talk to you right now; it's my day off." Or, "Sorry, I can't talk because I have already clocked out for the day."

That just isn't right. My work never ends.

That's the way it should be.