waiting and praying...

It's a little after midnight, and Hurricane Katrina is a couple of hours away from landfall. I don't know how much sleep I'll get tonight. It's interesting how you find yourself responding to extreme situations like this. I find myself wanting the storm to just hurry up and do it's damage so that I can get back home to deal with the aftermath. I'm tired of the "what if"s. I'm ready to deal with reality, no matter how bad it is.

Crystal and I have tried to think through worst case scenarios. I guess it is possible that we won't be in our "home" (whatever that means) for weeks. If this is as bad as it could be, Crystal and the boys might fly to Pennsylvania for a couple of weeks while I go to New Orleans to figure things out. It is interesting to think through what life could look like for us for the next couple of months. My job is to help people in New Orleans, right? I am more than willing to throw myself into helping out in any way I can over the next couple of months...or years. Who knows what good God can bring out of tragedy? If we want a chance as a church to truly impact our community...could that mean that we play a role in putting our community back together?

Please keep my Dad in your prayers. I talked to him around six o'clock this evening and he was in fact still in New Orleans. It sounds like he was most probably going to ride out the hurricane at home. I'm sure that thousands of New Orleanians have made similar choices. Please, God, keep them safe.

I'm off to try to get some sleep. Who knows what kind of new world will greet us tomorrow morning?