How to Pray For and Help Those Affected by Hurricane Katrina

It is obvious that we should pray for those whose lives have been, or will be, disrupted by Hurricane Katrina. What is sometimes less obvious is how to do so. Here are some suggestions:

The Direct Victims

- For protection, strength, provision, and rescue for those still trapped/stranded.

- For comfort, patience, strength, provision, and special grace for those in shelters and for the amelioration of conditions there.

- For comfort, peace, patience, strength, provision, and special grace for those who are now homeless.

-For the elderly, young, sick, injured, orphaned, poor, and others who are particularly vulnerable.

- For those who are particularly isolated.

- For John and Robin DeLamatre, their friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances, and colleagues.

- For Greg Eiden’s daughter and her friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances, and colleagues.

- For all those who have been, or will be, unemployed as a result of the storm.

- For those who are unable to get a hold of friends and loved ones.

- For those whose educations have been, or will be, disrupted.

- For those who are, or have family members, on active duty with the military or who are otherwise unavoidably away from home.

- For all the churches, para-church organizations, their staff members, their members, and clergy affected by the storm and it’s aftermath.

- For those in rural areas.

- For all those who work in agriculture, the energy industry, fishing, tourism, hospitality.

- That disease not spread.

- That levies, pumps, utilities, communications and transportation systems be preserved or repaired as soon as possible.

Those Involved in Rescue and Recovery Efforts

For wisdom, strength, energy, compassion, and endurance for:

- All civilian federal, state, county, and local officials/employees and their families.

- All those serving in the active duty military, national guard or reserves, law enforcement, and public safety organizations and their families.

- All those working in non-profit groups like the Red Cross and their families.

- All Christians working to help others, that they may truly be “Jesus with skin on.”

- All those in the medical professions and their families.

- All those that work for or with utilities and their families.

- All those working in sewage treatment or disposal, waste treatment and disposal and other sanitation related areas and their families.

- All those working in funeral homes, mortuaries, morgues and related areas and their families.

- All those in construction and their families.

- All those in transportation and their families.

- All those working for the relief organizations listed below.

All of Us

- That we learn what God wants us to learn from this catastrophe.

- That the adverse enviornmental, economic, and social impacts be minimal.

-That we each do what we can to help.

Material Support

We can also give material support through The Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, Lutheran World Relief, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Baptist Disaster Relief, Episcopal Relief, and United Methodist Disaster Relief Fund.

(Images about prayer were posted September 17, 17a, and 17b; October 8 and 17, November 13 and 19, 2004 and May 27, 2005.

Images about the fact that God blesses us in order for us to bless others were posted September 12b, 18c, and 18d, 2004 and August 27, 2005.)

Mature Christians Are Like Well Worn Blue Jeans—The Process of Achieving "Holeyness"

So how do Christians get to the state described in the previous post? By being used for their intended purposes and being cleaned.

Being Used

Jeans become supple by being worn—a lot. They're put between their wearer and rough, sometimes dirty, conditions, absorbing sweat from the inside and grime from the outside. That’s what changes them from rigid to conforming; the more that happens the more they get broken in.

It’s the same with Christians. We mature when we let God use us for the things He designed us for. That’s often difficult; it puts us between God and tough situations, feeling pressure from both sides. But that’s what takes us from stiff to supple. Just like jeans, we can’t get there if we’re sitting on the shelf.

Being Cleaned

Another way jeans get broken in is by being washed. That grit and grime must be removed periodically and the process of doing so itself fades their original colors.

The same thing happens to maturing Christians; we must regularly get into God’s Word and conversation with Him. That not only cleans us for our next use, but each session takes out a little more of our original, sinfull, nature, making it less and less prominent.

(Images about conforming/yielding to God were posted September 12a, 18a, 18b, 18d, and 23; October 3 and 3a, November 6; and 21, December 8, 12, and 15, 2004 and January 10d, February 18, May 11, June 18 and 27; August 21 and 27; and October 3, 2005.

Images about the process of growing/maturing in our walk with God were posted October 3a and 17, 2004; June 11 and 18; July 20, August 21 and 27; and October 3 2005.

Images about diligence/perseverance in doing God’s will were posted on October 1, 3a, 8, and 17 and November 7, 2004 and January 10c, June 11, 13, and 18; July 15 and August 27, 2005.

Images about the fact that God blesses us in order for us to bless others were posted September 12b, 18c, and 18d, 2004 and August 27, 2005.

Images about the importance of exercising the spiritual disciplines were posted September 17a, 18a, and 18d, and October 3a, and 8, 2004 and January 10d and August 27, 2005.)

Mature Christians Are Like Well Worn Blue Jeans—Aspiring to "Holeyness"

Mature Christians are a lot like blue jeans. Most started out stiff and deeply dyed. As they walked with God they were broken in; they became softer, more conformed to His shape, and their original colors became less pronounced. Eventually, they got thinner and thinner, so that folks saw more and more of God, just as one sees more of the wearer of a threadbare, and ultimately holey, pair of jeans.

(Images about conforming/yielding to God were posted September 12a, 18a, 18b, 18d, and 23; October 3 and 3a, November 6; and 21, December 8, 12, and 15, 2004 and January 10d, February 18, May 11, June 18 and 27; August 21 and 27; and October 3, 2005.

Images about the process of growing/maturing in our walk with God were posted October 3a and 17, 2004; June 11 and 18; July 20, August 21 and 27; and October 3 2005.)

What We Can Learn About God From Being Parents: “Because I Said So.”

My three year old daughter is well into the “why” stage; I tell her something and she wants a rationale. Most of her questions can be answered easily enough, but some things just can’t be explained. They are beyond her capacity to understand at this point in her development, even though they are very clear to me and even though they have real impact on her life.

The best I can do on those is “because I said so.” That doesn’t always satisfy her, or me, but we both have to live with it. Someone has to watch out for her, I’m the parent, so it’s up to me. We’ll both be happier when she is able to understand.

There’s no doubt a similar dynamic between God and us. We’re simply incapable of understanding some things that must be painfully obvious to Him. They’re beyond our grasp, even though they reach into the deepest parts of our lives. We too have to be satisfied with a divine, and sometimes silent, “because I said so.”

(Other images comparing our relationship with God with our relationship to our children can be found at What We Can Learn About God From Being Parents.

Images about trusting God amidst the unexpected/difficult/incomprehensible were posted November 7, and 15, 2004, and April 25, July 11b, and August 9, 2005.)

Discipleship is like Riding a Bike—Keep Your Eyes on the Path and Yourself Away From Its Edges. (Proverbs 4:20-27)

Experienced cyclists and mature Christians both find that that accidents occur much less frequently if they keep their eyes on the path instead of other things. They also learn they are less likely to take painful spills if they stay in the middle of the path, rather than going as close to the edge as they think you can get away with.

That’s nothing new; Scripture recorded those dynamics thousands of years ago. Check out Proverbs 4:25-27.

(Images dealing with cycling themes were posted July 11, 15, 20, and August 3, 2005.

Images about the benefits of eliminating things that distract us from God/His purposes for us were posted September 18d, October 3a and 14, November 21, December 8, 2004 and February 28 and August 3, 2005.)