Hurricanes and Hope
By Rebecca Bowman Woods
Rebecca is the news editor of DisciplesWorld Magazine, and a student at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, USA.

Although Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath has been tragic for many, there are also many stories that are inspiring and hopeful. As news editor of DisciplesWorld magazine and its web site, I spent most of the week after the hurricane hearing these stories, writing them, and sharing them with others. Individually, these stories restore faith in humanity. Collectively, they give me a different kind of hope, because they hint at new possibilities. This natural disaster forced so many out of their homes (I’m reminded also that there were some who did not have homes) - Out of their dwelling places and into the arms of the cities and towns waiting to embrace them as best they can: Houston, Pine Bluff, Baton Rouge, Memphis, and even Portland, Oregon.

As the refugees make their way into communities across America, one thing is certain: we will be changed. And although I resist the temptation to blithely state that this is “God’s plan,” I can point to God at work in the aftermath, in the hands reaching out, and in the hearts opening up to these people – strangers, refugees, but also human beings, each with a story of great loss and eyes searching for hope. We are learning to see each other again, after so long.

We will be changed. We will never be able to completely go back to ignoring the plight of the poor, the sick, the homeless, the disabled, the elderly, the children and the lost among us. Not being able to go back, perhaps then, we are being nudged forward.

If we can house hundreds or thousands of refugees in sports arenas and convention centers, and if we can mobilize to feed them and clothe them and attend to their medical needs and eventually, find them jobs and even places to live, how can we go back to our old ways?

After this is over, will we try to redraw the old lines? Lines between the “hurricane homeless” and the regular homeless. Racial lines that we thought we had wiped out long ago. Lines that made it ok for some to have more than enough, while others had not enough. Lines between red states and blue states. Invisible lines in the desert, marking the territory of the illegal, the foreigner, the alien.

We’ve seen the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ – a power that lies within each of us, regardless of race, gender, age, religion or anything else – unleashed in the vacuum left by Hurricane Katrina.

Will we dare to gather up the power of that gospel? Will we hide it away, or will we let that energy now rule our lives?

<<Back to Archive

View for Printing

Contributors
Staff
Advertising
Internships

Send this Page to a Friend

Add Me to Mailing List