Conversation Point

In This Moment

Katrina

There is no avoiding Katrina today.

News images of disengaged oil rigs floating in the Gulf of Mexico, a broken US Highway 10 divided into pieces like a giant candy bar, houses filled to their roofs with surging water, as if set down into a giant casserole dish to marinate in the aftermath of Katrina's passing.
Earlier today Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco made this statement: "At first light, the devastation is greater than our worst fears. It's just totally overwhelming." Eighty percent of New Orleans is under water, but because the storm veered east before striking land, the city was spared a direct hit. What "worse" means in terms of material damage and life lost is thankfully out of reach tonight.

When I woke up this morning, the first thing that crossed my mind was a prayer of gratitude for the rain pelting down on my roof. You see, where I live, the rain has been an infrequent visitor this summer. My yard was crunchy and brown when I left for vacation at mid-August, and it was still crunchy and brown, and about the same height, when I returned almost two weeks later. The prayer in my devotional, the Moravian Daily Text, seemed like such a gift: "Jesus, help us to trust in your master plan this day. Strengthen and challenge us in ways that confirm your goodness to the entire world. Help us to release those whom we might have oppressed and allow your righteousness to rain down on us this day. Amen."

Although the people's lives directly burdened by the assault of Hurricane Katrina woke u[ with a different prayer of gratitude this morning, the gift in the devotional prayer is still real. Although unimaginable, the storm could have been worse, and other storms have been. The levees, built after a time when the waters had earlier poured into the city, at least partially protected New Orleans. Most people were able to evacuate the places hardest hit. In these respects, the aftermath could have been much worse.

The majority of the United States can breathe a sigh of relief tonight because we were not in the sites of the rain and the wind these past few days. The blessing is that there are more of us to bring order and reason and hope back to the Gulf Coast than have been devastated by the storm's wrath. And therein is where God's righteousness lies.

Until next time, God's blessings.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 9:38 PM