The Importance of Maintaining Focus with Sheriff Woods

In this episode Sheriff Billy Woods shares his extensive experience in law enforcement, discussing the challenges and burdens faced by officers. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining spiritual well-being, work-life balance, and the qualities that make a good law enforcement officer. Sheriff Woods encourages open communication with family and highlights the need for compassion and humility in the profession. In this conversation, Sheriff Woods discusses the profound sacrifices made by law enforcement officers, the importance of compassion and understanding in their interactions with the community, and the emotional toll of dealing with traumatic experiences. He emphasizes the necessity of faith as a guiding principle in navigating the challenges of the profession, highlighting the battle between good and evil that law enforcement faces daily. Sheriff Woods draws parallels between his experiences and biblical figures, particularly Job, to illustrate resilience and purpose in the face of adversity.

Takeaways

• Maintaining spiritual well-being is crucial for officers.
• Work-life balance is essential to prevent burnout.
• Seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly are key principles.
• Engaging with family helps officers cope with their experiences.
• The qualities of a good officer include compassion and unconditional love.
• You can be an ambassador for Christ in any position.
• Resilience comes from being internally focused and purpose-driven.

Transcript

Critical Aspects Podcast (00:01.495)

Alright, welcome back to Critical Aspects of Law Enforcement. I'm your host, Vernon Phillips. And today on the show, we've got a special guest. We've got Sheriff Woods. And I want to turn it over to him. Just let him introduce himself. Give a little background about who he is, how long he's been in law enforcement. So Sheriff Woods, I appreciate you coming on. So why you go ahead and give us a little background on you.

Sheriff Woods (00:22.786)

Well, thanks for having me, Vern. I appreciate the opportunity to come here and chat with you and give a little insight into maybe some things that hopefully can help somebody. But I'm turning on my 35th year in law enforcement. You I started my career with the Ocala Police Department. serving the public is not new to my family. My father served with the City of Ocala Fire Department for 32 years himself. 16 of those years, he was the fire chief for the City.

So, you know, we've, we have been in public service for an awful long time. You know, I grew up through the ranks to the Ocala Police Department. had the privilege of having many opportunities with them and working in special units throughout my career with them. And they helped me grow an awful lot. And then of course, as you know, Vern, in 2016, I ran for sheriff.

And the good citizens and the good Lord said they wanted me here in this position. That's where I am now.

Critical Aspects Podcast (01:28.143)

Well that's great, know that there's a lot of people that are appreciative of you in this position, myself included. obviously you're in law enforcement, your dad you said worked in the fire business, so what made you decide not to go to the fireside?

Sheriff Woods (01:44.142)

I really don't have an answer for that. It wasn't even in my mind. And truthfully, dad was a reserve for the sheriff's office here for several years. He worked for Don Moreland. Him and Don Moreland know each other, Sheriff Moreland know each other quite well. But dad told me this is his story. So he was in the Navy when he got out of high school. He went straight into the Navy during the beginning of the Vietnam War. And then when he got out, he put in two applications with the fire department, with the city of Ocala fire department, because back then the county did not have a fire department or they had volunteers. So he put in for them and then put into the sheriff's office and he said, back then, whoever called first, that's who you went with. And that was in 1966, that dad started with them. And they made the first phone call and he jumped on it. But I think he still had law enforcement in him and wanting to be.

Part of it because he became a fire marshal during his career and then becoming sworn. He got a certificate. There's quite a few people that was in recruit school that you and I know were in the same recruit school with him. But I had no desire to be a fireman. I was smarter of the both of us just so you

Critical Aspects Podcast (02:55.044)

wow, that's deep.

Critical Aspects Podcast (03:01.211)

You actually wanted to work for a living. don't know, can we say that? So obviously, you've got an extended history here in Marion County working in law enforcement. You've got a lot of years of service. And so as you kind of look back over that and now as the sheriff, obviously that's a very demanding job. There's a lot of things that take place behind the scenes that a lot of people don't see. A lot of things you have to deal with.

Sheriff Woods (03:04.019)

Yes, we can.

Critical Aspects Podcast (03:30.095)

You know, for yourself, how do you maintain just your overall physical, mental, emotional, spiritual well-being? Like, what is it that you do on a regular and daily basis just to keep yourself balanced and, you know, keep yourself grounded and not getting burnt out?

Sheriff Woods (03:45.314)

You know, there's no perfect solution. There's no perfect scenario for myself. Obviously as you grow through ranks and then obtain a position such as this, your responsibilities increase and sometimes those burdens get bigger. The load gets bigger. The weight gets bigger. Because the truth is even from day one, and you've heard me say this, Vern, us in law enforcement, we do not get called to birthday parties. Okay?

We don't get called to the individual's happiest point in their lives. They don't call, hey, let's dial 911 and have the police come. We just won $2 million or today's our birthday. Let's have the police come. It's not the exciting points. We in law enforcement are dipped into the true evil nature of the human being every single day that we work. And people don't realize the toll that can take on a human being. Whether you're, a Christian or not, whether you believe in God or not, it has a toll on you. It has a toll on your soul and beats you down because you're staring evil in the face every single time. And you see what the human being is capable of doing on the evil side and it beats you down. And people wonder why, why did this person go rogue? Why did this person do this? Well, the truth is, is temptation.

Critical Aspects Podcast (04:46.991)

Yeah, absolutely.

Sheriff Woods (05:09.358)

is not around the corner. Temptation is always sitting on our shoulder and it becomes difficult sometimes for people. I know you've heard me say this before when I talk an awful lot. People think that we're perfect and we're far from it. We're just a human being. Because here's the truth. There were two people that lived on this earth, right? Two people all by themselves lived in the most beautiful setting, most perfect setting. Okay?

They had one rule to follow, only one. And they couldn't even do that. And it wasn't a hard rule. It was simple. Don't eat from that tree. That was it. It was like a short little sentence and they couldn't even follow it. And then we in society now have so many rules that we can't even follow, but it takes a beating. You know, I encourage those in law enforcement, one, spiritually, to rely heavily on the good Lord. You know, talk to him. And when I mean...people, here's what I get upset at, is when people talk about prayer, it becomes a formal thing, okay? And I get asked to pray an awful lot. And I take that very seriously, okay? Because what you have just done, you have just asked me to step into the presence of God Almighty. That's what you've done. And you have a lot of people that have come out here and they'll read their prayer from a note.

Now, my question to your listeners, when you go to somebody's house, you go have a conversation. Do you have your notes with you and then all of a sudden you go, hey, Vern, can we do this today? Is that how the conversation goes? Is there an intimate? it between you and I, like you and I talking right now? There's a reality. And that's the way we should be praying because you're stepping before the presence of God. And truthfully, those that are reading, they're not stepping before the presence of God.

Now granted, he hears and he listens on a daily basis. Every second, every fraction of a second in this world, he hears every conversation. But do you think those prayers are being listened to? And that's what's a shame, that's what hurts me. So I encourage people to go before the Lord and talk to him, like you and I are talking. That's the first thing that they should do. Now, I will tell you this.

Sheriff Woods (07:34.23)

and I'll tell the listeners and I hope there's law enforcement, your home life, your personal life will affect your work life. And your work life in this law enforcement will take a toll on your personal life. And you have to separate the two. You really do. Sometimes spouses,

Families don't understand why you don't want to talk about certain things when you come on. And they're curious and rightfully so because probably they're scared, they're worried. What did you go through today? You don't want to tell them that you just had some idiot point a gun at you or you had an idiot that you had to take a knife off of or that you had three fights tonight and you got beat up pretty good. You don't want to walk in at seven o'clock at night getting off shift and tell your wife, hey, dear, I just had a gun shoved in my face. You know, that it takes a toll.

So me personally, I have always separated the two. Not that I didn't want to talk about it because there are some people that should. You shouldn't allow what I've just discussed to eat you up on the inside. Talk to the family members. If you need to, you should. And there are things they shouldn't know. They really shouldn't, just for their protection. But when separating it is you're not talking to them like you would talk to an individual in the street. They are your family. Take the time, take the days off, pull it away, shove it in a corner, the work needs to be shoved in the corner, spend the time with the family. Now in my position, that is an utmost because as you know, Vern, my schedule is, there's a dot on every single day of the calendar year for me and it had started day one when I took office and it won't end until, I have a whole pile of friends and I know that when I quit being sheriff, all those whole pile of fins disappear all of sudden. The fact is, you have to give yourself personal time. You have to allow you to let it all out. Let it all go. And take the vacation. Okay? Don't allow it come to a point where you end up taking sick time. A lot of people just take sick time because they don't want to show up for work.

Sheriff Woods (09:54.018)

That's not the good route. You should have already taken that time. Even when you're ending the shift at the end of the day, you come home, you got kids, you go embrace them. You talk to them. Find out what their problems are, listen to them. Because in a way, it will be a soothing, refreshing, cleansing for you personally because now you're talking to your child, now you're talking to your spouse and not talking to evil and you're not in evil. You know, when you make decisions and I'll tell your listeners because I know you've heard me tell you say this many times there's things in us in our life there's three things I tell them always to do seek justice love mercy and walk humbly Micah 6 8 if you do those things in law enforcement okay and when you make your decisions and the actions you take they will always be for the right reason and we have to do that and you know, we kind of mentioned off radio about experiences. You know, I'll tell you, in my young career, I have been a person, and that's what makes it, I don't want to say makes it easy for me. It makes it easy for it to remind me to never forget where I come from. In my early in my career, I became a very disgruntled employee. For those that don't know, I was married before before Samantha and I went through a very rough divorce and it took a toll. Now, if you wanna lose weight, I don't encourage a divorce, but if you wanna lose weight, take the divorce diet. I'd tell you, you could lose hundreds of pounds in about two seconds, but the fact is, it took a toll, okay? And that toll took a toll in my career.

Critical Aspects Podcast (11:43.323)

Cough

Sheriff Woods (11:49.902)

to where I was a disgruntled employee. I didn't want to do this. I didn't want to do that. Administrations over there saw it. I never got picked for anything, never got put into positions, but a light bulb eventually did come on. And what helped me through it, okay, is I found something in the organization that I had a desire to do, which was traffic. And I focused on

building my career at that time in the traffic realm of being a motor unit, being a traffic crash reconstructionist, and then being a supervisor over the unit for numerous years and privilege. But it gave me a focus and it redirected everybody's opinions and redirected me and it brought me back into where I should be. Because I allowed personal, allowed the the beating of the work all combined at once and take you a toll. You know, I know there's there's individuals in our profession that are out there that

Sheriff Woods (13:00.748)

They look at the dark side and look at the dark side within themselves.

You know, Vern, both you and I know that the good Lord promises us everything and both you and I know that the good Lord is going to give us everything that he promises. And you have to stay focused on him. In our lives, listen, I am only here. I am only here in this position. I am only here as a human being. I'm only here on this planet because the good Lord allows me

It's as simple as that. We get so focused as human beings to be the worldly possessions, money, objects, trips, all these things, which is great. But our lives, our lives are so small compared to eternity. You know, I've always heard it when I was young. You've probably said it in sometimes in your sermons, but

to compare our life to eternity is we are a grain of sand on the beaches of this earth to eternity. That's what we are. And what we have, and we keep our focus on God and Him sending His Son for every single one of us. And if we do everything for Him, our rewards are far greater than anything that we have right now. It's as simple as that. Never deny Him.

Sheriff Woods (14:45.452)

You know, are we perfect? No. Far from it. We are so far from perfect. And he knows that. And you and I have to know that, that we're not perfect. I'm going to make mistakes, but I have to know that it is him that I have to go ask a forgiveness from. It is him that I have to stand before one day and explain certain things. But the fact is, is his arms will be open for us.

Critical Aspects Podcast (14:49.577)

yeah.

Sheriff Woods (15:13.612)

And that's what we have to focus on that this world that we live in is a finite small fraction of what's to come.

Always look at the good that's in the world. Look at the good that is in the human being.

Sheriff Woods (15:37.696)

And I think and I believe that individuals personally, if you focus on that.

Well, a buddy of mine always says, how do you do it Sheriff? Because we've hunted together for many years. He, I go to bed at night. I'm usually asleep in about 30 seconds. And he goes, you have a cleared conscience. And

If you do the right thing all the time, when it comes time to go to sleep, you'll have a clear conscience and you know you can sleep well at night in life. I know I went a little bit long there, Vern, but that's a little bit.

Critical Aspects Podcast (16:31.631)

Yeah, no, I appreciate it. We should probably just end the show right there. No, there's definitely other things to talk about. And that's very important because I think the spiritual component is one that we oftentimes leave out, right? We talk a lot about the physical, right? And the mental, the emotional. Those are kind of like the big ticket items now in the first responder community. The conversations are, hey, let's talk about the mental and the emotional, right?

Sheriff Woods (16:36.056)

Hahaha!

Critical Aspects Podcast (16:59.897)

The physical has always been there, right? Because there's that aspect of being in some type of physical shape because of the job you're in, the profession you're in. So that's always gonna be there. That expectation to take care of yourself physically is always going to be there. But I think over the last several years, we've seen an increase in interest in the topics, just of your overall wellbeing, especially the mental, the emotional. But now I kind of see this from my position where I'm at is now we're kind of seeing this, the spiritual aspect kind of start to drift back, right? But it very much plays a factor in who we are, right? Because it's a makeup of who we are, right? The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual are building blocks of who we are. And a lot of people are like, well, I don't believe in anything. Well, but unfortunately,

Sheriff Woods (17:34.734)

Yeah.

Sheriff Woods (17:52.11)

They're idiots.

Critical Aspects Podcast (17:54.981)

But that's still a belief, right? They're like, what? I don't have a spiritual belief, because I don't believe in anything. Well, unfortunately, that is your spiritual belief is that you don't believe in anything. And if you think about it, it takes a whole lot more faith to believe in nothing than it does to believe in a heavenly father that's created us, each and every one of us, exactly how we are, and sent his one and only son to die in our place, because that's nothing we could ever do to atone for our sinful lives, right?

Sheriff Woods (18:03.512)

So true.

Critical Aspects Podcast (18:23.629)

It takes a lot more faith to say, there's nothing that it does to say, no, there there is, we are created. There is a heavenly father that loves us and cared enough to send his son. But that's a, that's a whole other topic we can get into on another, on another episode. So, but no, I appreciate you sharing that because those, those are important things. And I think a lot of times we lose those factors. You know, we lose the thing about, Hey, when you go home, you know, check work at the door.

Sheriff Woods (18:40.321)

I cried.

Critical Aspects Podcast (18:53.383)

And when we talk about that, it's not like, just don't check it at the door and then come in and be completely checked out, right? But engage with your family, have that quality time. know, don't go home and then take everything that you've experienced and dump it on them. Cause you know, they're not equipped to handle that. If you know, most of this profession, you know, they struggle with a lot of the things that they've gone through and dealt with. So it's like,

Sheriff Woods (19:11.534)

That's right.

Critical Aspects Podcast (19:20.839)

You've been trained to do X, Y, Z, and you go home and you dump all that on your family and they have no coping skills to deal with that. So absolutely checking that stuff at the door, being present with your family and definitely starting today and making sure that you are having those conversations with the Lord. mean, that is all good vital points that need to be plugged in there all the time. But as we kind of, you progress forward when we start talking about the profession and from where you're at now and you look at the profession, what are three of the most significant things that you've learned in your career that you'd want to pass on to somebody else? You could just say, hey, here's three things that those coming into the profession, those are currently still in the profession, what are three of the most significant things that you would to pass on?

Sheriff Woods (20:14.208)

I think I already said them.

You seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. Because, you know, they all play an important part, you know. In our profession, obviously, we have a job to seek justice because I'm a firm believer that Romans 12 gives us. This is a calling, okay? It is a mission by God, and it's not a mission of some people think like we're out here to...squash evil and all that. No, we're just to ensure justice to the people. know, loving mercy is a big part of it because not everybody has committed that unforgivable sin. Okay? Not everybody has crossed that line. There's many people just like myself, you, we all make mistakes. And as long as that

We see that when we're dealing with the public, when we're out here engaging with a community, we got that understanding, say, hey, I get it. I know the problems that are here. Having that mercy, doesn't mean having mercy means you let them get away with everything. Having mercy means that I'm going to help you, but this is what we got to start with first. And then lastly, the walking humbly. I think in our profession, a lot of law enforcement think underneath the church is a big S. Okay, it's not there. Walk in humbly because especially for those that work for the office of the sheriff, we hold such immense authority and power. Okay. And this great nation of ours, we have our constitution. It gives us all of the rights, know, inalienable rights, many things that

Sheriff Woods (22:08.916)

We, in law enforcement, have in a split second the ability to take that right away. The right of freedom. The moment I put handcuffs on a person,

I'm taking your freedom away from you. And that's a lot of authority and that's a lot of power. And we have to remain humble to the fact that we have been given this and that I'm not any better than anybody else. I need to remain so humble that, you you probably said it to your kids, I said it to my kids, I know my dad told me, I didn't believe him. You know, when he gave me a good old fashioned spanking,

He says this hurts me more than you. Back of my head, I thought he was nuts, okay? But now as an adult, I fully understand what he meant when he said that because you look at people out here, it breaks your heart that you have to listen, we've had to arrest our own. You're talking about something that breaks your heart? It breaks your heart. We have to remain humble in those particular aspects in our career of what we do. You know, one of the questions, and I really hate, and that's a strong word because I really hate the question. A lot of times CEOs of law enforcement get to ask you, what are the qualities in which you're seeking from an individual? Well, what do want me to say? I want them to be rapists, murderers, do all even. No, the common things are, you know, integrity, honesty, trust. But how do I know? How do I know

My name doesn't begin with a capital G and it doesn't end with D and it's not three letters. I don't know the human soul. So of course what I want is a good honest person. I want them so that they tell the truth. I want their integrity. Those are the qualities you should seek, but how do I know? You know, Vern, when I, I finally figured it out. It's taken me an awful long time how to answer who I look for in this scenario in law enforcement.

Sheriff Woods (24:21.494)

I'm looking for...a mommy and a daddy. Now not a mother and father, okay? And probably your listeners are going, well, Sheriff, they're the same thing. No, they're not. See, a mother and a father is the biological process that requires us to do so that a population can keep going on this planet, right? So what's in that component that does not exist in the mother and father which is in the mommy and daddy is what's on the inside. Think about this. Parents, you, especially moms, okay, and that's what draws my attention. They have an unconditional love. They have an unconditional care, unconditional sacrifice. You would move mountains for your kids. You would sacrifice your own self regardless of whether it be your life or change places where they made a mistake in their life.

Sheriff Woods (25:37.314)

those characteristics.

That's what I want in a law enforcement. Because if they have that to treat their fellow human beings, you imagine how much better this world will be, how great that law enforcement officer will be in their career but I don't know it. And every time we try to hire somebody, we're taking a gamble. It's a 50-50 shot. I don't know. There's no promises. I can't see into their heart. I can't see into their soul. I just hope that I picked the right one. And for those that are entering, and I want you to think about it, this is not a job.

It's a sacrifice, one of your life, because you're going to give an awful lot of your life for people you don't even know.

And if you're gonna do it, it better be for the right reason.

Sheriff Woods (26:37.26)

Hopefully I answered your question.

Critical Aspects Podcast (26:38.703)

Yeah, no, then those are great points. And I don't think a lot of people think about that when people ask, know, sheriffs and chiefs, like, hey, what do you desire? What do you want to see in your people? it's kind of a loaded question, right? And it's the question like, well, how do you want me to define that, that doesn't paint me into a corner, but then also kind of directs me to get the qualified individuals that we want? So.

Sheriff Woods (27:01.08)

Yep.

Critical Aspects Podcast (27:06.879)

I think that that's a good description and good makeup of what we should be looking at because if you can interact with somebody as a mommy and a daddy, right? Because just like you said, when you get called father or mother, that's different than when you're called mommy or daddy, right? Because there's that expectation there that even though I messed up, you're still gonna love me. Yes, there might be consequences, but I know that you're still gonna treat me the way that a mommy and a daddy would treat me. Right? And that's the same way that like you're saying is how we deal with the interact with the public. There might be somebody who does something and they make a mistake and they mess up. but they should still be treated that, you messed up. There's going to be consequences for your actions, but that doesn't mean I'm going to treat you any different than I would anybody else. And you made a comment that, know, underneath that we all seem to have this idea. There's an S and

Sheriff Woods (27:59.235)

right.

Critical Aspects Podcast (28:05.477)

So we all do have an S stamped here, but it's not for Superman, it's for sinner. So we all do have that S, but that's something that we all need to be reminded of is, when we interact with other people, we need to interact with them the way in which they see that, yeah, you know what, I've messed up and these consequences are on me. And you're here doing this job because this is what you're called to do.

Sheriff Woods (28:10.59)

That's exactly right.

Critical Aspects Podcast (28:35.649)

And I think if we were to do that more often, I think you'd see a different reaction than sometimes we get. But unfortunately, we can't control other people's perceptions of what law enforcement is, but you can control how you interact with people and you can dictate for yourself how the individual you're speaking with or dealing with perceives you. But maybe not the community as a whole, but you can change it with interaction.

Sheriff Woods (29:00.628)

Absolutely you can. I totally agree.

Critical Aspects Podcast (29:03.515)

So in your position, obviously, there's a lot of stuff that you deal with on a regular basis. And there's probably a lot of things that you've gone through here just in the last several years being sheriff. But when you look back over your career and I gave you the option, kind of what way you want to go. what's one of the experiences you've kind of gone through, whether you want to share one that was awkward or funny or even one of the harder ones. But if you decide to say, hey, this is one of my more, you

Challenging calls, but this is what I did to get on the other side of it because I think we do get a lot of people kind of stuck in Those areas where they have a particularly hard call You know and they usually they involve you know deaths of kids and those are always some of the worst right and but

Sheriff Woods (29:50.71)

You know, it's odd that you just said that because while you were talking, a particular case come in mind early in my career. I don't want to say that it was any form of an obstacle, but it was one of my, it wasn't my first call that I worked, but it was probably one of the first major calls within the first year of working. And the call was to a home were an infant and the infant was three months old. And I got there and at that time I had not had any children so I wasn't a parent at the time. But however, the three month old was black and blue from the top of his head to the bottom of his toe.

And what we had found out later is the child, pretty much every bone in its body was fractured in some shape and that had come by the hand of its own biological father because the child had crying all the time. Now he was a drunk, but he had beat this child so much to what we saw.

you look at something like that.

Sheriff Woods (31:18.484)

It takes you emotionally in so many different directions, okay? And, you know, on one hand, immediate reaction is to take him in the far corners where no one could ever find him ever again is what first comes to mind. But the fact is, is in our profession, and we've discussed this already of seeing and dealing with those things, those obstacles, what you have to remember is what you are looking at is not you. you're looking at is not anything that you've done. It's not your fault. It's nothing you could do to prevent it.

In a way, an individual, close friend, many years was a supervisor of mine, once said, you have to come into these scenarios with a seared conscience. And what I mean by that is to some degree, you almost have, you have to be oblivious to what you are looking at and focus on what has to be done in the job. Focus on how are we going to take care of the victims in the whole scenario.

How are we going to ensure justice is done by preparing for those cases? I told you in the beginning that there's no perfect answer to any of this stuff. In 35 years, there really isn't anything that ever surprises me anymore. Now, I might get a little shocked and go, wow, but it doesn't surprise me.

I've seen that too of a man that killed four of his children, strangled them and his wife, put them in containers and held them in those containers for weeks until we found him and arrested him and now he's charged with a homicide.

Sheriff Woods (33:35.072)

I don't know, there truly isn't no perfect answer, with the exception of one thing.

Sheriff Woods (33:45.1)

And really the whole podcast here discussion is ensuring that we turn our eyes back to God.

That's what it boils down to. I don't care what anybody thinks. And yes, I don't know if you've ever watched Steve Harvey. Okay. Steve Harvey did an interview and I don't think it, I forget who was with. It was one of the big time individuals doing an interview like Oprah, but I forget what it was. And they were asking me, because Steve Harvey is a very strong faith individual, believes in God. Okay. And he was asked the question, well, what about people that...don't believe in God. His answer was, I think you're morons. Okay. I was like, are, you're, know, he goes, I cannot, he goes, I cannot understand how people can believe that they came from a monkey. Okay. He goes, you're idiots. And he goes, I won't even talk to him. He just walks away. 

You know, what's wrong with the world is our eyes are in the wrong direction.

Sheriff Woods (34:57.198)

Simple as that. There's no complication. There's no thinking about it. Our eyes are in the wrong direction. And in all of these scenarios, even myself, you you know this, I've had to arrest deputies. I've had to arrest employees. And some of them break my heart because I was personally close to them and never saw it coming.

And you just want to cry for a long time just because disappointment, sad, tarnish the badge, tarnish the star, all that goes through your mind.

Sheriff Woods (35:41.794)

But you have to focus, turn your eyes back in the right direction and dealing with all the scenarios, every scenario, doesn't make a difference what it is.

Do not allow evil to rule your focus. Do not allow evil to rule you.

Because, listen.

If God is behind you, there is no force in the universe that can stop him. And if you turn your focus

Sheriff Woods (36:25.74)

He will clean it out for you, your mind, your soul, your spirit, everything. You have to turn back to it. It is. I probably took this in a different direction that you wanted to go,

Critical Aspects Podcast (36:39.097)

No, that's fine. No, and that's the thing. mean, it goes, you know, there's been conversations where it kind of goes, you know, this way off this way. And I'm like, you know, I wish we were kind of going more to this way, but no, but I appreciate just your honesty and just that focus of getting back to, you know, where all of our focal point should be, which is should be the Lord, right? Should be our relationship with the Father because, you know, when we get distracted, that's when we mess up, right?

You know, look at King David, a man after God's own heart, he got distracted and ensued a whole lot of chaos, not only for himself, but also for his family. you know, but being a man after God's own heart, he knew, hey, what do I need to do? I need to refocus. I need to come back to what I know is right. And that is my relationship with God the Father, right? And fortunately for us, we have that through the son.

I think that that, like I said before, that's something that we're missing, I think, in just in the first responder profession. We're kind of getting away from how much there's a spiritual significance that plays into this profession, right? So, yeah.

Sheriff Woods (37:51.855)

Well, think about our job. It's good and evil. I don't care what anybody says. It's a fight of good and evil. That's what we do.

Critical Aspects Podcast (37:59.855)

Yeah, you're either following after your father, God, or you're following after your father, the devil. I mean, right? So, and that's what scripture tells us. And you know, we even see in the New Testament where Jesus actually calls people out and he's like, I don't know what you're talking about. You follow after your father, the devil, right? So, yeah.

Sheriff Woods (38:06.263)

Exactly.

Sheriff Woods (38:21.006)

I take the whole thing is for us in law enforcement. I often times and I just thought of this. know that you asked me quite a bit of questions. What I do. I look back on the life of Joe. Okay.

If people were to look at the whole story of Job, what the man had, what he lost, what he went through, God put him in that position because God already knew what his heart was. But you want to talk about faith, you want to talk about trials, you want to talk about tribulations, you want to talk about torment.

You look at that and to see what he went through and he still stood tall. Holy mackerel. I don't know if I could ever do that, but it's something that's we, it's our example that we should look at and even him in this career and our career, that's what we should look at is something like that. You know, it's not about, it's not about me. It's not about the individuals, not about you when you're thinking about things it's not about me I I I I know it's not

Sheriff Woods (39:50.934)

It's well beyond that.

Critical Aspects Podcast (39:56.079)

Yeah. And when we think about the career and you know, people always talk about resilience and hey, how do you, you know, how do you manage the career and how do you, you know, keep from allowing things to impact you? And I go back to the spiritual component is, you know, I look at there's, there's a specific, you know, things that are set in place that make somebody resilient. And when I talk about resiliency, I'm talking about it from a biblical perspective, right? So when we look at somebody who has resiliency from a biblical spiritual perspective. It's they're internally focused. And when I say they're internally focused, they're internally focused on what their relationship with the father. Right. So they're internally focused or purpose driven. And when I say they're purpose driven, they're purpose driven on what we

Sheriff Woods (40:38.157)

Mm-hmm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (40:47.501)

are set out to do or what we are called to do as believers, which is to what? Go and be the example to others, to go and be Christ to others, right? So you're internally focused, you're purpose driven, and that gives you the ability to face adversity, right? And not only just to survive it, but thrive in it. And when you look at that and you look at scripture and you look at the Old Testament, you see it in individuals like Job, right?

Sheriff Woods (41:03.47)

Mm-hmm.

Critical Aspects Podcast (41:15.759)

He was internally focused on his relationship with the Father, right? And he was purpose-driven to live his life in a way that glorified God, and it gave him the ability to face all that adversity. And you can go through so many different individuals that we see in the Old Testament, the New Testament, even to Christ, right? Christ was internally focused on his relationship with the Father. He was purpose-driven, and what was his purpose? His purpose was to come and to be that atoning sacrifice that we could never be. Right? And that gave him the ability to face the cross and to take all of our sin debt on himself. So when we think about it, so we're missing that component and we wonder why people kind of start to lost and they feel bogged down and they feel that, you know, that there's so much that weigh on them. It's because, where at the end of the day is your focus, right?

Sheriff Woods (41:47.95)

You're right.

Critical Aspects Podcast (42:14.371)

If it's not on the father, then that relationship is not determining your purpose. Right, you're determining your purpose. So there's a whole lot that goes into that.

So.

Sheriff Woods (42:33.356)

A lot of moving parts. That's what it boils down to. A lot of moving.

Critical Aspects Podcast (42:39.291)

And you talked about earlier, as we kind of start to wrap up, you talked about earlier that the reason that you're in this position is because this is where God has placed you, right? And that's my whole thing is I'm where I'm at until God tells me otherwise.

Sheriff Woods (42:56.166)

Here's what I do know, Vern, is the good Lord gives us all a direction, okay? And he lays it out. Now, he doesn't hold our hands. He ain't gonna, you know, automatically appear in front of you or talk to your voice, but he does lay a path out for you. And it's our decision whether we take that path. Now, the good Lord sometimes subtly will say, hey,

You may want to go that way. Sometimes he takes a two by four and nails you in the back of the head, right? I'd rather the whisper than a two by four in the back of the head from God Almighty. If you think about that in reality, put that in perspective, listen to those subtle things when he's talking, you, me, and here's what's so special is you don't have to be behind a pulpit in a building preaching to be an ambassador for Christ. Just in any position from a tree trimmer to a doctor in the highest medical field there is, you can be that example. And that's what I encourage them because I've

I'm telling you, I know you keep asking me, what is it you do? What is it that keeps you? And people, you're not knowing what people ask you. know, those are the questions that are, I don't know. I just know where my heart is. That's all I know. I'm not Solomon, okay? I'm not some wise man.

I just, I know where I keep my focus. know, physical, the older I get, the physical kind of slows down. The physical, I played sports my whole young career and that took a toll on me. But the fact is, is you stay focused on unlike this camera that's going on. can't stay focused on me. So.

Critical Aspects Podcast (45:03.771)

You

Sheriff Woods (45:21.102)

It's about to irritate me as can be. I think that's Satan, because we're talking. That's him just reaching out, which is his sole purpose. That's sole purpose is to disrupt good. And remember that. That's actually a good point. Think about it for a minute. His sole purpose is to stop ruin, mess up good in the world. So when we have these scenarios, think about that for a minute.

Critical Aspects Podcast (45:26.258)

yeah, yeah.

Critical Aspects Podcast (45:34.395)

Yep.

Sheriff Woods (45:50.838)

Satan is standing there trying to poke you. That's what's happening. Don't allow it. Burn, I've talked an awful lot on you. Took you some paths when you didn't.

Critical Aspects Podcast (46:03.035)

No, it's great. This is why we do this, right? Just to have these authentic conversations and just talk about the profession and talk about real things that impact the law enforcement community, first responder community. And I appreciate your time coming on here. And usually I end with like, how much has your faith played in where you're at today? But I think we've probably already covered that. I think that conversation's already been had.

Sheriff Woods (46:26.36)

If it ain't loud and clear, they're deaf, okay?

Critical Aspects Podcast (46:32.697)

But I want to be respectful of your time and we've talked a lot and we've shared a lot of good things and you've shared a lot of good things, Sheriff, and I really appreciate it. So I appreciate you taking the time to jump on and share just your thoughts and share your heart and I appreciate it.

Sheriff Woods (46:49.72)

You're more than welcome, Vernon. 

Critical Aspects Podcast (46:52.335)

Thank you.