Encouraging One Another in Difficult Times as We Live Through Another Hurricane Season
Ivan
“We need one another. The more things get crazy and spin out of control, the more we recognize that our true allies are standing all around us, men and women as bemused by events as we are, as tired of living in the daily disaster as we are, longing for the firm ground of an honest dissent and a democratic process. Until that crazy gyroscope of power stops spinning, we need one another. We need common sense, strong values, deep listening, and honest talk. The counterweight to confusion is community, the balance to chaos is a coherent vision.” —Bishop Steven Charleston, Facebook page.
I remember a trip to the Gulf Coast after several hurricanes. We sent prayers for safety to our friends along the Carolina coasts, still recovering from Hurricane Florence. We also prayed for those in the Florida Panhandle, who were hammered that weekend by Hurricane Michael, especially those in Panama City, Mexico Beach, and Port St. Joe. We prayed for their churches on the Central Gulf Coast, including Trinity Apalachicola, St. James, Port St. Joe, St. Patrick’s Panama City, Holy Nativity Panama City, St. Andrew’s Panama City, Grace Panama City Beach, St. Thomas Laguna Beach, St. Matthew’s Chipley, St. Luke’s Marianna, and Nativity Dothan.
I vividly remember the year we were on our way back to the Alabama Gulf Coast after Hurricane Irma. Our destination was not damaged by that storm, which devastated neighboring Florida. All the cars we followed had Florida license plates. Some were packed to the gills, And some were dangerously carrying extra cans of gasoline in their trunks and on their roofs.
Trucks with generators passed by. Pickup trucks were filled with bottled water. We spent the night at a hotel on the way, where the parking lot was filled with cars bearing Florida license plates. The hotel was more like a hostel, housing large families with their large and small dogs.
There was no water under the causeway at Mobile Bay. It had all been blown out to sea, into the Gulf. Could this have been how the Israelites crossed the Red Sea in the Exodus? Hurricane-force winds pushed the waters aside, allowing the Israelites to cross, and then the storm surge came in as the tide changed, swallowing the Egyptians.
We prayed as each car passed, remembering our return to the Gulf Coast after the devastation of Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. The memories are still painful—of not recognizing our road or our condo building, of not knowing how to enter it, and of the overpowering stench of rotting food in the refrigerator.
Perhaps this is what we have to offer. A small connection to what people are experiencing in Texas, the Carolinas, Florida, and the Caribbean, while recognizing that their experience is so much worse. We send prayers and financial aid to help them get through. We are waiting to hear more details. Most of all, we stand together in relationship with them, hoping they can feel, in some way, the cosmic love being sent to them.
We send hope, love, prayers, and financial support, but mostly the hope and promise that resurrection can emerge from these Good Friday experiences.
Joanna. joannaseibert.com
St. Peter’s By the Sea