Oh Oklahoma.
The news of the storm there came pulsing through the Facebook feed as I was working on collecting information for a high school class reunion here. And my heart was split, and spilt out, dredged by a mighty wind of grief and guilt, hope and mirth submerged beneath the rubble piles.
Who can think about this without getting tearful? Who that has lived in central Oklahoma, or has friends there, or has lived through any sort of natural disaster, could rest in the immediate aftermath? Am I the only one who is almost sick at not being able to really do anything?
I tell you something awful, and it's something you've probably already thought of. As I looked at those piles of rubble, saw the impossibility of quick hope, a bit of 9/11 came back to haunt me. I had just moved to Oklahoma a few months prior to that attack. And again, the waking nightmare of knowing there were survivors trapped, time running out. Children in schools. Families in interior rooms.
Then, as I was watching the live OKC news online, I saw a viewer feed where a debate raged over who caused the storm. "God did this," was followed by the mockery that Obama had done it. This while bodies were still being recovered. Mercifully, it appeared that someone had stopped the feed after awhile. I have tried to ignore this part, but I just can't. And honestly, the more I think about it, the more I feel like that is the heart of the issue.
The Pharisees of the New Testament era are the type of frigid-hearted cultural critic who would post such hateful curses, always trying to prove how much more spiritual they were when anyone else, eager to catch someone else in a fall. Attempting to trick Jesus, Matthew 22 records,
5 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Here is what I think. I think that the same things that have made Oklahoma a place people want to live, despite the constant weather weirdness, are what will help it rise from these ashes: love for God and man. I am content in my faith that the Lord is very close to the brokenhearted, that none of the devastation is invisible to God, and that He is neither smug nor indifferent. To those who want to finger-point blame at the suffering city, I have one word: Job.
This isn't really the direction I meant to go today; I hope I can post about a song tomorrow.
Stay strong, Oklahoma. I love you.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Here is what I think
Oh Oklahoma.
The news of the storm there came pulsing through the Facebook feed as I was working on collecting information for a high school class reunion here. And my heart was split, and spilt out, dredged by a mighty wind of grief and guilt, hope and mirth submerged beneath the rubble piles.
Who can think about this without getting tearful? Who that has lived in central Oklahoma, or has friends there, or has lived through any sort of natural disaster, could rest in the immediate aftermath? Am I the only one who is almost sick at not being able to really do anything?
I tell you something awful, and it's something you've probably already thought of. As I looked at those piles of rubble, saw the impossibility of quick hope, a bit of 9/11 came back to haunt me. I had just moved to Oklahoma a few months prior to that attack. And again, the waking nightmare of knowing there were survivors trapped, time running out. Children in schools. Families in interior rooms.
Then, as I was watching the live OKC news online, I saw a viewer feed where a debate raged over who caused the storm. "God did this," was followed by the mockery that Obama had done it. This while bodies were still being recovered. Mercifully, it appeared that someone had stopped the feed after awhile. I have tried to ignore this part, but I just can't. And honestly, the more I think about it, the more I feel like that is the heart of the issue.
The Pharisees of the New Testament era are the type of frigid-hearted cultural critic who would post such hateful curses, always trying to prove how much more spiritual they were when anyone else, eager to catch someone else in a fall. Attempting to trick Jesus, Matthew 22 records,
5 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Here is what I think. I think that the same things that have made Oklahoma a place people want to live, despite the constant weather weirdness, are what will help it rise from these ashes: love for God and man. I am content in my faith that the Lord is very close to the brokenhearted, that none of the devastation is invisible to God, and that He is neither smug nor indifferent. To those who want to finger-point blame at the suffering city, I have one word: Job.
This isn't really the direction I meant to go today; I hope I can post about a song tomorrow.
Stay strong, Oklahoma. I love you.
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