Wading through life

I think I’ll be hosting my own new CD release party tomorrow in my car on the way back to Pigeon since I can’t make it to Staple’s official party in Westland. I just got it in the mail today.

Franklin Graham is on Fox News right now and he has a lot of good stuff to say.

"If all the churches of the south would take in 10 families for three months, it would put a huge dent in this problem. It’s an opportunity for the Church to step up."

That’s what I was thinking about when I was mowing lawn tonight. All the focus of the relief efforts is around the government. And, for the most part, rightly so. The government needs to help. But where’s the church in all this? If the church were what it’s supposed to be, they would be a major player in this whole mess as well. And I’m not talking about "churchy" organizations like the Red Cross…but THE CHURCH.

Maybe a lot is going on that the media isn’t covering…but to offer a relevant message of God’s love to people, we need to be more active putting legs to that message. I’m not great at this myself…so, let’s pray about it together.

There’s gotta be some people thinking this right now…

Silence
Jars of Clay / The Eleventh Hour

take, take ’til there’s nothing
nothing to turn to
nothing when you get
through
won’t you break
scatter pieces of all i’ve been
bowing to all
i’ve been
running to
where are you?

where are you?

did you
leave me unbreakable?
leave me frozen?
i’ve never felt so cold
i
thought you were silent
i thought you left me
for the wreckage and the
waste
on an empty beach of faith
was it true?

yes, i, i got a
question
i got a question
where are you?

scream
deeper, i wanta
scream
i want you to hear me
i want you to find me
i, i want to
believe
but all i pray is wrong
and all i claim is gone

well, i, i
got a question
i got a question
where are you?

yeah,
yeah

well, i, i got a question
i got a question
where are
you?

where are you?
where are you?
where are you?

Well, I heard back from my colleague / friend, and he’s doing OK. He actually just left for a two-week travel / work stint, so he won’t even be in the area. He says they’re based in Houston for now and his girlfriend and cats are safe

But check out the latest two CNN Breaking News e-mails to come through:

• EMA suspends boat rescue operations in New Orleans because of dangers to rescuers, officials say.
• New Orleans hospital halts patient evacuations after coming under sniper fire, a doctor who witnessed the incident says.

Are you kidding me? People are out of their mind down there! Gunfire at rescue helicopters, fires preventing rescue buses from accessing the Superdome…?

Pastor Scott brought up a good point at church last night: that we don’t know how we’d react since we’ve never been in a situation close to what those people are going through. So, I need to hold back judgment. But it’s nuts. A man shot and killed his sister over a bag of ice. HIS SISTER!

When I heard they were packing them into the Superdome, I thought it was bad news. Too many people with too much stress with not enough food and water coupled with sweltering heat and no air conditioning. One little spark could set off that whole bunch. Cabin fever…it could be like The Shining–but with 20,000 insane people rather than just Jack Nicholson.

Pray, pray, pray. This situation sounds way too much like prophetic end times scripture…which I can’t find the reference for now, but will append to this blog when I get a chance.