Late last week I spoke with my best friend from New Orleans.
Our family lived in the Crescent City for five years (1975-1980). I completed seminary while there. I also enjoyed (and I do mean enjoyed!) graduate work at Tulane University while we were there.
My ministry in those years was with a downtown church located just 3 blocks off Canal Street.
We loved the city.
Recent events break my heart.
But, back to my friend.
He traveled back to the city for a brief visit week before last. He returned to his temporary home in Arkansas in a state of shock. He couldn't believe the devastation and loss.
"Larry, if you were addicted to material things, Katrina sure helps you get over that!" he told me, trying to bring a laugh even in tough circumstances, his typical reaction to his own loss.
Several times during our brief conversation, my buddy found it difficult to speak. Tears overcame him. Emotion stopped his tongue.
"Larry, we left behind the same people we have been leaving behind for years. The poor were basically on their own," he reflected with tears mixed in his words. "The churches in the city have been unresponsive across the years to the poor. It is terrible to realize now."
"You know, it is as if the Lord said, 'If you won't come to them in their persistent need, I will send them out everywhere to you across the nation so that you will see what is going on in this country," my friend concluded.
You may want to argue the point with him.
For me, I simply listened and shared in his tears.
It is curious, isn't it? The poor from New Orleans have resettled in every one of our fifty states.
I pray the nation will get the message.
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