I had a friend who just got home from volunteering with the Red Cross, and was sent to
Baton Rouge to help with the hurricane aftermath. Her description of how things are progressing is scary at best. This doesn’t even touch the people in Houston or anywhere in Texas and their situations. How does one respond to such overwhelming need? I don’t really know, but I do know this.
Often it seems like bad things happen to good people. (I think there was a book by that name) J Here is how I have come to think about that. Often we get a hold of something that we determine is what God wants us to have, and we hold on so tight that it can’t change into what God wants us to have. Only by letting go, or loosing what we are holding onto, can we grasp anew what God has for us. This is often uncomfortable at best and terminal at worst, yet necessary.
I can remember my mom giving me a rose with thorns on it when I was just a little girl. (I know, its hard to imagine) But, what she told me after I squeezed it so hard that I stuck the thorns in my hands, was “You must learn to love gently, only hold things tight enough to help them feel safe and loose enough to breathe.” I try to remember this, but continue to have to learn about the thorns over and over again.
