Katrina: Perspectives and Affects

A couple of days ago, I posted some wandering thoughts that I was trying to capture and sort through as our nation began to realize just how devastating Katrina was, and still is, at least in affect. In the time since, there has been breaking news story on top of breaking news story (most of which were bad – really bad!), gas prices have jumped around the country, people are responding, people are thinking, people are talking, and the world is watching. I wanted to try and group some of these ideas into one common place, to give you all each a chance to kick around some of these perspectives. So here goes . . .

The World is Watching: Check out this story that Reuters is reporting from London. I wonder sometimes if others outside of our country can’t see things a bit more clearly because we are all, to some extent, affected by our country’s culture. Certainly a sobering look at what the rest of the world thinks of our nation.

One person’s thoughts: A blog that I frequent, and that I highly recommend as a source of well written, challenging and insightful thoughts and comments, is Through a Glass Darkly. In a post on Friday, September 2, abbasfriend (the blog owner) wrote a great piece that I encourage you to read. Then re-read it. Let it sink in. Good stuff, to be sure!

A Way to Help: The United Methodist Church has a relief center in Baldwin, LA that is serving as a distribution point for supplies being sent to shelters, refugee centers, etc. They are providing a hand’s on way for folks to get involved. Check them out at this site: http://gbgm-umc.org/global_news/full_article.cfm?articleid=3438 There are links from there to other ways of helping through the same agency. I’m not a United Methodist, by the way, but I do think they are in a great spot with a great way to help.

A Pastor’s Rant: A pastor and author that I highly respect is Doug Pagitt from Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis. On his blog, he lets it eat today, and if nothing else, I encourage you to check it out to get a sense of his passion.

Some Kids Respond: My son and some friends wanted to do something to help out after the hurricane hit, so they decided to buy some of the rubber slogan bracelets made popular by Lance Armstrong and LIVESTRONG. So, we parents helped find a supplier, and are in the process of ordering 300 purple bracelets with “Katrina Relief – Love Wins” imprinted on them. The kids are going to sell them for $5 each, and send 100% of the money to a relief agency. Whatever they end up with is more than I would have done in 6th grade, that’s for sure.

Gas Prices, Consumption, and the Kingdom: I couple of posts ago, I talked about the FX show “30 Days,” how I was being challenged to consider how I consume resources, and how that was a reflection of my attitudes towards the Kingdom of God. Ya, I did some thinking about all of that stuff, but it wasn’t until Wednesday that I began to do something about all of that. Gas prices went from $2.49 in our area to $3.19 in one day – heck, I think it was even in like 4 hours! So, I parked my pickup truck, and dug my bicycle out of the storage shed. Thursday morning, I pedaled of to work, and 30 minutes later, I rolled in. I gotta tell you that I wasn’t thrilled about heading home after a physical day, but it was all good. In fact, I’ve enjoyed it, and now, another guy from my neighborhood is joining me. I have to admit that me saving a buck in gas money played a part in this. But I think Jesus, to some extent, was involved too. And that may be the biggest lesson for me – even though I intellectually believe that He should be impacting all of my life, including the decisions I make, I know that’ not always the case. But slowly, that’s changing. If it took $3 gas and an old Schwinn to make me see that, then that’s cool with me.

Blogs that are speaking volumes about Katrina: Lots of folks have more and better stuff to say than me about Hurricane Katrina, how she has changed our country, and how we can help. Check some of them out:

http://scottbridwell.typepad.com/
http://www.katrinahousing.org/
http://webranding.typepad.com/projectkatrina/
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/30/help.agencies/index.html

Okay, after all of that, I think the best thing we all might do for a night is turn off the TV and the computer. Relax. Breathe. Chill. Create the time and space to enjoy a night free from thinking about death, destruction and chaos. As I mentioned in the last post, God is still on His throne. That IS enough.

Peace.