Hurricane Harvey: There's more LOVE than WATER in Houston.

Living in Houston and experiencing the horrible effects of the storm, it's been hard past few days to see everything under water but HOPE is floating everywhere. Love for one another is so evident and so real that thousands of stories echo in the city of Houston today. Few things transcend life’s events more dramatically than natural disasters. The weather events that have occurred over the last few days in East Texas have really defied adequate description. “Terrible”, and 20 other similar words you can come up with, dramatically lack the severe impact of what’s been happening. Hurricane Harvey and all the weather events that have accompanied it will be an event that will alter people’s lives for many years and on a more grand scale than any other U.S. natural disaster before it.

               Now, historically, many positive effects have sprung from tragedy. People enduring a common, excruciating journey tend to band together, no matter the language, nationality, socio-economic status or any other exterior circumstances that needlessly separate us. The human spirit has always dictated that beautiful things can rise up amidst calamitous times, communities can find strength in the people within the shared circumstances.

               There have been stories of people opening their homes, rescuing countless individuals in peril and spreading the word about people trapped in nursing homes. As it looks like Harvey will continue to linger and wreak more havoc, there will, unfortunately, be many more opportunities for more people to help one another. Acts of grace and enduring humanity will no doubt continue from here on out....”Heroism” doesn’t accurately define it as well as the “Human Condition”, people refusing to sit back and watch others suffer, even as they are suffering.   

               There are plenty of other predictable images we could cite, most of them revolving around “hope”. The floods can wash away buildings and roads, but cannot drown hope. Hope and the Human Condition go hand-in-hand…It’s always going to be there, as long as you look for it.

               It’s kind of hard not to accept the premise. But, thinking about it, a question arises for me: The aftermath of historic events like this will usually produce Hope in abundance….but why wait? There are situations we encounter every day, certainly nowhere the scope of the heart-breaking events in East Texas, that do test our mettle. Grave personal illness can befall us or our loved ones, financial difficulties can negatively impact us for interminable periods of time, any range of difficulties can be beset us on all sides which can make it difficult to slow down, take a breath and think with a clear head. 

               We’re definitely not trying to equate everyday difficulties with what looks to become one of the major crises of our generation at all. Hurricane Harvey and everything that has come and is coming with it is surely an event for which we must focus our thoughts and energies in order to move forward and live our lives and find opportunities to help others in need. 

               How we deal with the varying degrees of crisis we encounter in our lives go a long way to determining how happy and/or successful we can be through everything, through life. We have choices as to how we guide our thoughts and our actions through these times of crisis. Everyone has their own situation, but everyone can choose “hope”. God works beautiful things out of the ashes of life, HE is a master builder of Hope in times of despair, HE is the author & creator, who restores and puts the broken pieces of life together that reflects HIS beauty and glory. Let us look to the creator, author and finisher of our faith "Jesus Christ" who is our hope. Please keep the people of Houston and Beaumont in your prayers. God Bless.