Getting to Know Your Vocation

Your name:   Nick Groth

How long have you been a member at Epiphany?  5 or 6 years

Occupation:   Investigator for the City of Racine Police Department, Assigned to the White Collar Crimes section of the Detective Bureau

What does your day consist of?  I am assigned cases to investigate.  To investigate them, I talk to victims, suspects, and witnesses.  I also prepare subpoenas and search warrants that I send to various businesses to receive information needed for the cases that I am working on.   

What is the toughest part of your job?  I would say that trying to keep a positive attitude about people in general.  So much of my job deals with dealing with people who frankly are not very nice.  I see the worst of society day in and day out.  Seeing that repeatedly beginnings to change how you look at the world in general.  I find myself becoming extremely cynical in life.  My knee jerk reaction in life is to not trust anyone and always think the worse of them.  Part of that is an officer safety thing, because I really do have to have the mentality of “how is this person going to try to hurt me and if something does happen, how am I going to get out of the situation alive?”  It may sound really drastic, but that is how I have to think to stay on my toes to make sure I make it home safe every night as well as all of my co-workers as well as the public that I am paid to protect.

What do you find most enjoyable about your job?   The reason that I got into my field was because I wanted to help people.  There is nothing quite like being able to make a call to a victim and telling them, “Hey, I just found the guy who broke into your house, or stole your identity, or whatever the crime might have been.”  It is in those cases that you feel like you really have made a difference and helped someone.  Those are my favorite moments of the job.

How are you able to hold onto your faith while in the workplace?  I like to believe that God has put me in the position that I am in, to work for him.  I like to think that I am there to help those who can’t help themselves.  I believe that God has put me where I am so that I can bring his justice to the world and that he can act through me in that way. 

My faith also motivates me in my work ethic.  In my job it is very easy for people to become lazy.  I try to show my faith by what I do at work and how I do it.  I always try to put forth 100% of my effort into everything that I am doing.  I also to try to be helpful and considerate of others while at work.  Not just with the citizens that I deal with, but also with my co-workers.  I try to always make myself available to anyone I work with who needs help with a case, or a computer question, or even just by being there as someone to bounce ideas off of.  In that way I may not be able to express exactly what I believe, but at least I can still display my faith through my actions.

How does your faith help you get through your type of work?  I count on my faith to keep me level headed and grounded.  I use it to help me figure out what is right and wrong every day.  There may be giant books of laws that I have to base some decisions on, but the first thing I always search is my heart to know what to do.  I try to keep my heart centered on Christ, or I would not be able to continue to do what I do.  Again, I believe that I have been put in my position on purpose, so that I can serve God through what I do.