"Out of Chaos, Hope"

I first visited New Orleans at the age of 13, and I was enamored. For a number of years the “Big Easy” was one of a handful of major cities that I dreamed of living in once I was older. Growing up in Charleston I saw New Orleans as our seedier, more intriguing, cousin city.

I'll never forget eating jambalaya for the first time. I'll never forget the ingenuity of New Orleans cemeteries and mausoleums. I'll never forget hearing big band jazz at each turn, left and right. I’ll never forget walking past French Quarter gift shops fronting their stashes of pornographic birthday cards and vulgar t-shirts. Thirteen years later I still love that town.

That experience was just part of my intrigue with the town. In New Orleans, humanity’s desires weren’t hidden or hidden from, but were instead woven into the city’s cultural fabric.

At the time, I never would expect to return to New Orleans 11 years later, ten months after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80% of the city. Things change.

In 1995 my dad and I never would’ve considered venturing into the 9th Ward. In June 2006 I found myself standing just north of North Claiborne Avenue at ground zero of man’s inability (in the form of levees) to overcome nature’s power (in the form of a hurricane). Things change.

At the time I witnessed destruction on a truly apocalyptic scale. The 9th Ward looked like Hollywood's most dramatic multi-million dollar portrayals of nuclear holocaust. But, it was indescribably real.




I’ve never been the same.

Pain, turmoil, death, destruction… this is what we face in life. The challenge is rooted in how we respond.

The Good News, a stark contrast in the face of nature’s unpredictability, is that compassion overcomes decimation.

Compassion is light in a chaotic world where darkness constantly falls. Compassion has paved the way to the Civil Rights Movement, to Tibetan Buddhists standing for their culture, to Iraqi school children dreaming for a bright future, to consumerist American youth longing to make a positive difference in a broken world.

Tonight, knowing destruction is impending, I pray for New Orleans… I worry for Pearlington… and I cry out for Houma, Gustav's probable ground zero.

No one knows what tomorrow brings. Gustav’s destruction is an unstoppable tragedy, but the compassion that will follow is the embodiment and example of God’s love in the world.

The slogan of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is, “Out of Chaos, Hope.” On Monday and the following days there will be chaos. The Gulf Coast will never forget that chaos, but with and through an indestructible hope, the Gulf Coast will press on.

To God be the glory.

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Note: Pearlington, MS is a very small town (post-Katrina pop. ~800) where my church has worked four separate weeks with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA). Pearlington was forgotten and utterly isolated by the government following Katrina. My life has been changed, my faith challenged, and my current hopes defined, by my time there. Pearlington is a special place.

Houma, LA is where our church spent a week working with PDA in October 2007. We planned to work in Pearlington again but were blessed to experience the people, culture, and incomparable cajun cuisine of Houma. Tonight Houma and it's five bayous (waterways) are directly in the path of Gustav.