Prayers for people on the Creek.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

And not only that, but we* also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.      Romans 5. 1 – 11

            Yesterday two of my boys took the boat down Black Creek to survey the damage that has been done by the recent deluge of Tropical Storm Debby. The Creek (as we call it) is the highest it has been since 1919, and the boys said they saw sofas and refrigerators and tables floating by. Homes on the creek are flooded up to the eaves, families are homeless, and though the rains are over, now the damage has to be determined and the terrible job of clean up in the sultry Florida heat must begin.

            The passage below from Parker Palmer reminded me of what lies ahead for the people who have been so displaced and hurt by this storm. As the gospel of Matthew says, suffering produces endurance which produces character which produces hope…and as Palmer says, nature will use devastation to stimulate new growth slowly and persistently. However, these words are probably not very comforting to those whose homes are underwater right now. I will hold these thoughts in my heart, praying that soon nature’s restoration will begin, but in the mean time I will pray for the good people on the Creek who are struggling to survive…prayers that in the midst of their pain and confusion, God’s grace will bring them snippets of relief and peace. Please join me in prayer for them.

Every summer, I go to the Boundary Waters, a million acres of pristine wilderness along the Minnesota-Ontario border. My first trip, years ago was a vacation, pure and simple. But as I returned time and again to that elemental world of water, rock, woods, and sky, my vacation began to feel more like a pilgrimage to me--an annual trek to holy ground driven by spiritual need. . .  But on July 4, 1999, a twenty-minute maelstrom of hurricane-force winds took down twenty million trees across the Boundary Waters. A month later, when I made my annual pilgrimage up north, I was heartbroken by the ruin and wondered whether I wanted to return. And yet on each visit since, I have been astonished to see how nature uses devastation to stimulate new growth, slowly but persistently healing her own wounds.

(A Hidden Wholeness by Parker Palmer)

(Couldn’t resist including this section from the gospel appointed for today…the ultimate in helicopter parenting!!!!

“Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ “Matthew 20. 17 – 28)