Staff of the Gods...Broken

One week since I have last blogged, Hurricane Gustav has come and gone. It has been said that Hurricane Katrina devastated southeastern Louisiana, Hurricane Rita desolated southwestern louisiana, and Hurricane Gustav went and claimed the area between the Katrina and Rita. That is a fairly accurate description in my mind, which means that the center went near my own city, Baton Rouge. And the sights around Baton Rouge are disconcerting. Still, Gustav (which means "Staff of the Gods") was much less fierce upon landfall that had originally been predicted. Even in the midst of such natural destruction, the mercy of God is revealed.

Amanda and I got to experience the surprising joy of "contraflow" on I-55 North to Memphis, Tennessee. In other words, both sides of the interstate highway were directed north. It was a bit shocking and confusing to see traffic on the other side of the highway moving in the same direction as me.

We were with my immediate family and grandparents in Memphis for several days. Other than a somewhat threatening conversation with a drunk-as-a-skunk bum in downtown Memphis, the visit was agreeable enough. It was certainly a blessing to be able to escape Baton Rouge while the storm came through with its wrath...

We returned to find our apartment unscathed (alleluia!). But we found Baton Rouge experiencing something I doubt it has experienced before. Several days after the storm, much of the city was still without power; no stores were open; lines for gas were (in some places I heard) measured in fractions of miles; traffic was in gridlock; power lines, trees and debris were strewn everywhere; and the city was under an eight o'clock curfew. On Saturday, Amanda and I went to volunteer with the Red Cross. We were given telephones and told to answer the deluge of calls incoming to the Baton Rouge Red Cross. We did this for 6 1/2 hours and heard many heartbreaking stories and did what we could. In spite of all this, our state received Divine mercy; it could have been much worse.

I am reminded of a massive cyclone that struck southeast Asia in Spring 2008, earlier this year. The nation of Myanmar lost over 80,000 people. Can we begin to fathom this, Americans? Westerners? Surely, the few that have perished in Hurricane Gustav...this is a tragedy. But let us remember that it is not nearly as catastrophic as what occurred in southeast Asia a few months ago: eighty-thousand souls perished. I worry that our country has no real mental grasp of the true meaning of suffering.

I also wish to admonish Christians reading this to thank the Son of God that you profess to serve. God taught my wife and I a lesson through all of this. On Saturday night, still without power, we had nothing to do in a dark apartment. But I knew that God is still worthy of honor, and my wife and I lit candles and began to kneel and thank God for all His blessings. Just as I was beginning to finally surrender my desperate want for electricity and begin to become enveloped in praise, Amanda started thanking God for the luxury of electricity. Seconds later, we heard a boom that I thought was a gunshot. I realized it was a transformer, for the lights suddenly flickered on.

Attitude of gratitude, folks. We may not have electricity, but some people have trees in their homes...or in their bones, in the worst of circumstances.