A month ago, the Secret Service was in the news daily. Since you are reading this a month after it was written, there’s a good possibility that they are still in the news. The news hasn’t been very positive on their behalf.
As one of America’s oldest federal law enforcement agencies, they were “originally created in 1865 to stamp out rampant counterfeiting in order to stabilize America’s young financial system. By the end of the Civil War, nearly one-third of all currency in circulation was counterfeit. As a result, the country’s financial stability was in jeopardy. To address this concern, the Secret Service was established in 1865 as a bureau in the Treasury Department to suppress widespread counterfeiting.”1
In 1901, after President McKinley’s assassination, the Secret Service was given the responsibility to provide security for the President. While the agency has gotten some bad publicity over the past month and a half, they deserve to be applauded for the work they do. “The Secret Service is entrusted with the responsibility of protecting our nation’s leaders, major events, important sites, and visiting heads of state. The agency provides full-time protection for the President and Vice President of the United States and their families; former Presidents and First Ladies; and various other high-level cabinet officials. The Secret Service also protects crucial locations such as the White House, Vice President’s residence, and foreign embassies in Washington, D.C. Securing National Special Security Events (NSSE), such as the United Nations General Assembly and State of the Union, is also under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service.”2
What is required of a Secret Service agent is equally impressive.
Entry level agents aged 21-37 must have a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a qualifying GPA. At least 18 credits of graduate school must be completed. They must have a year of relevant experience before applying for the Secret Service. Fitness standards must be met. A physical, polygraph, background check, and psychological profile must be passed. Next comes 18 weeks of specialized training in the ways of the Secret Service as well as firearms training.3
If you pass through this phase and are welcomed into the secret service, you will spend your first couple of years behind a desk while you receive more training, hone your marksmanship skills, and learn the investigative side of the agency. Once you receive your field duty along with your suits, dark glasses, and earwigs, you are going to learn that with each assignment comes with odd or sacrificial duties.
Guarding the president means monitoring his food, especially when travelling. You will have to take up whatever exercise he enjoys so you can accompany/guard him. President Clinton’s agents had to go jogging while President Reagan’s had to learn horseback riding. You may have to endure 24-48 hours without sleep or food while never losing your edge of alertness. You will guard dignitaries, constantly surveying the landscape for threats. You will accompany the president to doctor appointments and bathroom visits. Video is constantly being taken and reviewed so that the agents and agency can learn how to do their jobs better.4
While this devotional is purposefully intended to compliment and commend a law enforcement agency, it is also intended to demonstrate that when a job is worth having, it’s worth the sacrifice.
As Christians, the “job” we have been given is worth the sacrifice. Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” To willingly offer our lives on God’s altar of sacrifice in order to serve Him fully is considered reasonable service. It’s only logical that we would do such a thing.
Yet, how many of us don’t?
We keep portions of our life back from the Lord. We reserve time and energy, calling it “me” time. Our finances are guarded like we are taking it with us to fund our eternal stay in Heaven. We refuse to stretch or be stretched for the Lord. And we easily and readily collapse if the burden becomes too great.
This is living beneath our calling!
Paul reminds us in Romans 7:4, “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” Peter adds to this in 1 Peter 2:5. “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”
The Secret Service agents are willing to “take a bullet” for someone else. They are willing to put their lives on the line. If they would be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice as well as the daily sacrifices for unworthy humanity, how much more should believers be willing to sacrifice our all for the One who is totally worthy?
Hebrews 12:28-29 leaves us with this. “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: (29) For our God is a consuming fire.”
1https://www.secretservice.gov/about/history
2https://www.secretservice.gov/annual-reports/fy-2023-annual-report
3https://www.forbes.com/advisor/education/law/become-a-secret-service-agent/
4https://www.grunge.com/1588783/weird-rules-secret-service-has-to-follow/
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