There and Back Again
I recently returned from a nine-day trip to New Orleans, LA to build houses among other things. I traveled with members of FnC, the college ministry I attend, as well as some people who are friends of members. Therefore, the trip included strengthening of old relationships as well as creating new ones.
Trips like these often bring to light a new perspective on life, your relationship with God (if you have one), service, purpose, discipline, leadership, and so on. At least, these are a few of the things that went through my head while I learned how to swing a hammer in the six inches of space between my head and the roof of the house I was dry-walling. In the next few days or weeks, I’m going to be emptying all of that out here. Reflection is the best way to make memories last.
I, like most people in the U.S. Of A. recall the events of hurricanes Katrina and Rita as a highlight in a somewhat uneventful life time line. I knew people who lost family. I watched friends go south to help. I was grateful to live in the mostly mild state of Missouri but it never occurred to me that I could do anything. I’d never been close to construction other than the time my dad added two rooms and a deck to our house. I was eight years old.
I know more now. I know what disaster looks like, even three and half years later. I know exhaustion and I’ve experienced despair and hopelessness for all the work left to do. PDA is scheduled to continue their relief program until 2013 and then their resources will have evaporated. The social workers down there working with victims of PTSD and depression are on depression medication themselves. Who will help the helpers?
My college minister’s wife gave me the encouraging words that ‘life is full of work.’ God calls us to keep on doing what we can in our small ways. It may not seem like much but we must do it unceasingly, faithfully, and expectant for God’s miracles to appear now or, when humans usually become aware, in retrospect. There is always hope.