A Message

            from the Pastor: 

Of course, the big news story of the month was Hurricane Ike.  Why I had a feeling when it was ravaging Cuba that it was going to impact us here in Southeast Texas I don’t know.  But I did.  I worried and watched this one.  The night of the storm’s landfall, I, like many others, stayed up to watch its progress.  I was prepared for the worst – the 75-100 mph winds they were predicting for us, tornados, etc.  I got my kids to bed and let my wife and her mother and grandmother go to sleep, but I watched just in case we needed to move quickly to a closet or something.   However, it shifted slightly east of Houston.  At about 4 a.m. the weather man said it was tracking east, then I allowed my guard to go down and my tired body to nap – at least for a couple of hours.  It had missed us.  Not by much, but the slight shift east pulled the worst away from us.  I gave a prayer of thanks for my family’s safety, and asked the Lord to be with those in the path as I drifted off for a little bit.

In the aftermath, of the storm, the questions began to run around my head, “Why were we spared?  Why did God allow it to miss us?”  The answer, though, should be obvious: we weren’t blessed for our own sake, but for the chance to be a blessing for others.  In a way, we were given the opportunity to help our neighbors in their time of need.  We had family members staying at the Klak hotel, and weopened our doors to others we knew who had gotten caught without power or water.  Many others did the same.  I also have heard since then of local farmers and ranchers giving away bales of hay to those who lost them for their animals down along the coast.  Generators were being shipped over, food, clothing, etc.  This is God’s love and Christian charity at its best!   I can’t say for certain why, in His wisdom, God would even send a storm

like this to the folks hit by its devastation.  But I can say for sure that in the midst of Ike and its aftermath, that for us God allowed it to come through to test us in how we will respond to a need, and maybe even to learn to trust Him more to watch over us and give a protecting hand when WE will eventually have to pass through the storms of life.

             This, then, was not just a lesson for how to react to natural disasters.  It highlights for us our failings to look at our neighbors, friends, and even families to see them in any kind of need—and to respond in love with mercy and grace.  We may be quick to judge and refuse to help, scoffing and saying it was their own fault.  We may even simply look with a pity-filled eye and say, “I’m sorry this happened.  That’s too bad.  But keep the faith.”  That is a sin we all too often, though not always, struggle with: the sin of indifference, the sin of self-concern.  When we see a brother or sister, a neighbor, or even (are you ready?) an enemy suffering – whether it be of their own making or through unfortunate circumstances (it doesn’t matter)  – we are commanded to help.   As Jesus put it: “Give to everyone who begs from you… Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?... But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.” (Luke 6:30-32, 35)  Or, as James, the brother of our Lord, puts it: “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (James 2:15-16)  And John puts it the most forceful of all: “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s good and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help.” (2 John 3:17)

May Ike’s positive impact be one of reminding us that as part of the Body of Christ, we function best when we remember we are in this together, and that we are here not for ourselves alone, but to help bear each other’s burdens.   Not just after “real” storms, but in all the ups and downs of our lives.  God bless us all!

 

 

 

   In Christ, Pastor David Klak    

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