A new normal...

This is the second time I have been down here and I have to say that the immediate shock and sorrow hasn't left or changed for me. As I look around at the 'rubble' of houses and churches and schools and businesses that are just a heap of stone, I can't even begin to ponder what that means for those who live this everyday, all the time.

And as I look deeper and get beyond myself and my own fears and frustrations, I can see the signs of hope, the signs of new life, the signs of a new or a growing normal. Driving home from Long Beach, Mississippi tonight we passed more and more houses with Christmas trees in the front windows, with manger scenes being set up, or with a simple string of white lights. Each of these lights seem to glimmer with the hope and promise that we are all given in Christ. That even amidst the most intense and destructive storms (whether natural or societal) Jesus is walking with all in the clean up, in the rising up, in the rebuilding, in the rebirth. And sometimes Jesus is the only persitant or ever-present reality in the midst of governmental agencies that are failing, social-service agencies that are being stretched beyond their limits, or church organizations sadly failing to work as a whole body and saying things such as, "We'll help our own, and expect you to contribute." Hmmm...

Yes, even we the church are failing here...but the new birth that is budding here is clear evidence that when we are able to step aside and let God work, new life begins. Yes, we work, pray, live, sleep, dream, and hope in and through Christ alone. And it is in that that we are called, as 'agents of Christ' working through various organizations (whether LDR, or LSS, or Habitat, or whatever) to be Christ in the world at all times - in the pounding of the hammer, in the clearing of debris, in the small devotional prayer, in the buying of boiled peanuts.

That's what this is all about. And for this gift of time and service we say, Thanks be to God!

Living boldly,
Kim Conway