shower the people

Always, always loved James Taylor, especially that song … shower the people you love with love … doesn’t that high harmony chorus just make you feel an overwhelming need to wrap your arms around someone you love? Love love love the song … it just never occurred to me I’d be living in the middle of it.

It has been absolutely amazing, the overwhelming support and affection the last 36 hours have brought to bear.

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My tasks have continued to change, and I haven’t even arrived yet! Talked with Jeff this morning, who was debating last night whether to call me and report that overnight lodgers had been processed down to several dozen; he was wondering whether I should still come, where I would be most needed.

And then this morning, before he could call me, he received a call. The other (smaller) shelters in Tyler are being closed by the EOC, and their residents processed over to FCC … tomorrow. morning. Probably more on the way. And another 200 sheltered at the Disciples camp in Athens (an hour-ish from Tyler). Safe to say: He’s not wondering anymore!

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One risk in doing this kind of work – not just ministry (although that, too), but specifically this specialized mission and service kind of work – is that ‘servants’ run the risk of getting the attention, when it’s really the issue, the task, and most significantly, the people that should be most closely considered.

Many years ago, in a prayer before a sermon I can’t recall (sorry, preacher friends, but we all know it’s true!), Zan Holmes offered words I have long remembered and often repeated, “Hide me in the shadow of your cross. And whether through me, or in spite of me, may your Word be known.”

There is this amazing current of faith, and a deep stream of love and commitment, just pouring from the heart of God’s people at Geist Christian, and friends and family across the country. Obviously the memory of this event will never be erased, but I pray so desperately that the waves of pain can eventually give way to the tides of compassion.

My hope is that this is but the beginning of a greater awareness of the need – the daily, urgent, real NEED – here, ‘there,’ and everywhere. There is always someone somewhere, standing on their own kind of car or rooftop, desperately waving a sign or rigging a flag and crying out “Help us! We’re dying!” We can’t let the flood take them all. We. simply. can’t.