A Hypocritical Dog

Trinity really loves the show "Dog, the bounty hunter". I have to admit that it is kind of entertaining but one day she told me that he was a Christian. "Really." was all that I could say. "Yes", she went on, "Often times, before they go after a guy, they pray. They always pray for the safety of the pursued.". I stared back at her with 'Dad' eyes and simply stated that praying did not make him a Christian nor validate the fact.

Yesterday, she informed me that she had set the recorder to tape a all day Dog marathon. "Do you want to watch it with me, Daddy?", she asked. Now, when one of my daughters uses that special word, Daddy, it either means that they really want me to do something or that they are in trouble and are trying to soften me up.

I knew that I needed to watch at least one of the episodes with her so after eating supper, I went to the TV room where she was watching and watched one with her. Well, kind of watched anyway as I sat to the side and checked a few things on the computer while we watched. I will admit that my mind was more on the Blazer game down in Dallas when I heard Dog tell one of the crew to say a prayer. I stopped and listened as the young man spilled out a fairly good and seemingly sincere prayer. He prayed for their safety and the safety of the man that they were going after. I think I even heard him pray that they would be good witnesses also in the way that they would go about their business. I did hear him cap off the prayer using the name of Jesus.

With that, my attention was off of the computer and on the TV as I watched the band of hunters close in on their prey. They surrounded the criminal in a back yard of a house. One of the bounty hunters asked the man politely to exit the yard so that they could talk. The hunted, just as politely said, "No". Then the whole thing blew up. Starting with Dog, who screamed at the man and then began tearing down the fence to get to him. Now, I know that a police officer must instill fear in his pursued to take them down with less violence and that was probably what Dog was attempting to do but the words that came out of his mouth were only partially able to make it past the screeners bleeps or what has now become just silent marks in the sound of his voice. Since one can see his face, it is very easy to know exactly what the words that are uttered are. In the case of the next few minutes of the show, there was far more silence than words as Dog and his crew tore down a fence (I am sure that it doesn't matter to Dog who owns the fence since he has plenty of money to repair it) and takes the man into custody. The silent spots continue as they scream at him in the car. "This will all change in a minute.", Trin reported, "Pretty soon, they will be friends with him and will probably do something special for him before they take him in.".

I sat down on the back of one of the couch chair and fishing for the right words to say, I looked at Trin and just said, "I am sorry, but that is hypocrisy. To pray as they did and even cap it off with His name and then to use that same name in a foul laced string of words just minutes later. They would be almost better off not showing that prayer before they went in.". Her silence showed me that my point had been made so I left it at that.

And speaking of hypocritical, I feel that way somewhat myself right now. As not two weeks after I told me crew that my goal in these hard times was to get us all through without letting anyone go, I have done just that and dismissed one of the crew. Now, I had my reasons and even choose good council before making the decision and then going through with it but because of the timing and the words that I chose during the team meetings that I held, I guess I will understand when some of the crew will now doubt my sincerity.

And so, even though I know that it was the right thing to do, I am awake at 2AM wondering how they are doing. I know the person is hurt and angry. In a way, I am hoping that they are more angry than hurt for in that anger sometimes you can find more strength. It is the part of my job that I like the least. I struggle with it even when the person is deserving of it. But, my job is foremost to do what is best for the business. If the business does not survive than all of the people that are working there are out of work.

Although I have not looked at the figures, the first month of the year felt pretty good and I remain positive that if we can keep our prices reasonable, our value up, our service high, and most importantly, our attitude right; we can weather any storm that is put in front of us.