Hurricane Rita is presently bearing down on my home. The family is on the road and pretty prepared for times like this. I times like these, when you have to look around your house and decide what to take and what to leave, that you have to face up to what it is that you believe is truly important. Some things that seem valuable lose their value when you start thinking about the necessities of life.

My wife and daughter got out and that's all that I care about. If they're safe then the world is right. Recently, the three of us were flying back to Houston from Philadelphia. The plane was flying high and faster than usual and we were experiencing a lot of turbulence and it felt like the plane might go down. Rochelle looked at me with a worried expression. I looked back at her and said, "Everything important to me is on this plane."

They are the most important people in the world to me and their safety is all that matters.

May God bless and protect us all as we endure this coming storm.

The Weight of Glory

Whenever I begin to feel a spiritual lull I know that I can always return to the thoughtful commentary of C.S. Lewis. This winter my wife, Rochelle, and I are teaching a class on the life and teachings of C.S. Lewis. I think we might call it "No 'Ordinary' Life" taken from Lewis' "Weight of Glory". Here's a thoughtful little quote from 'Glory' concerning God's expectations and sin.

"Our temptation is to look eagerly for the minimum that will be accepted. We are in fact very like honest but reluctant taxpayers. We approve of an income tax in principle. We make our returns truthfully. But we dread a rise in tax. We are very careful to pay no more than is necessary. And we hope--we very ardently hope--that after we have paid it there will still be enough to live on."

See Ya Soon

A Note: I'm going to be out of pocket for a few days so I will not likely be posting.

I'll leave you today with this quote from Thomas a Kempis:

"The devil sleepeth not, neither is the flesh as yet dead, therefore cease not to prepare thyself for the battle, for on thy right hand and on thy left are enemies who never rest."

The Blame Game

I posted this a few days ago on the Emergent Houston blog.


It's amazing what you don't care about when something as shocking and amazing as Hurricane Katrina happens. Just a few weeks ago, the news was filled to overflowing with Cindy Sheehan's campout/protest at Crawford, TX and her bus ride to Washington, D.C. You have to look hard to find any news about that right now. Katrina has stolen everyones headlines.

Every so often something happens--something out of the ordinary; something so magnificently terrible that the moment defies words. It's not that people don't try though. Just flipping on CNN, MSNBC, or FOX News will let you know that people can throw around words.

Interestingly, so many of those words have been about blame. "Where was the aid? What took FEMA so long? George Bush doesn't care about black people! The local mayor and Governor wasn't prepared" On and on it goes.

The real blame belongs to me--and people like me. People who are too busy with their own jobs, families, interests and pursuits to notice people in desperate physical need. As I watch TV and visit with evacuees here in Houston, I'm struck--not so much with the level of need they now have--with the level of need they had BEFORE Katrina. I'm embarrassed that it took Katrina before I went through my closet to see what I no longer wear, or look through my wallet to find what was excess. What went wrong in my own spiritual formation to be so busy with ministry that I have forgotten to help people?

My prayer is that through this horrific happening God will raise up in me and His church an awareness if the least of these. May God so invade our hearts that when we see people without the basic necessities of life that we would be so moved as to take the blame.