I spoke with my mom this morning for the first time since the hurricane. She lives in Jackson, MS so there's no huge damage done there - just wind damage and a loss of power. Every kind of help is being diverted from there to areas that were hit harder which you can understand. My dad's in Biloxi trying to help in any way possible. The Salvation Army is doing what it can in providing meals, shelter, water and anything else that is possible. The astonishing thing to me is that they haven't heard what we've heard. They haven't heard that this hurricane has hit some places harder than Camille and done more damage in some places than that hurricane. They don't know what the news is saying about the total amount of damage across the states. They don't have power - no TV, hardly any radio - how could they know? I was shocked by that fact when I was the one who told my mom this morning the extent of the damage.

Then on the way to work I was listening to the radio and I heard the DJs wondering how long it would be before Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson came out with a statement about how this was God's wrath - his way of laying to waste the casinos and the sin in those cities. They talked about a statue of Jesus that still stands and how there's an apartment complex nearby that had 30 people killed in it. I wanted to call the radio station and apologize for Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. I wanted to apologize for the fact that they've made God seem like someone who's so unfeeling and uncaring. I wanted to apologize to them for not having a bigger voice and allowing them to be the "voice of Christians" in America. I can't understand why the rest of us have allowed that to happen - especially today when I know that no matter what the reason is behind the hurricane, my God stands beside every person who is grieving and holds them.

Then this morning I got to work and I read Psalm 46. "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging." Then later it says, "The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."

There is no land, no building, no place on earth that can save us - only God and he dwells not in time or space but beyond time and space and that's where our refuge lies. I'm not a person who was devastated by the storm. What I don't want to do is sell anyone any platitudes. These verses just spoke to me. So often I wish I could get past what's temporary and realize the value, the true value of the eternal. I just hope that those who were caught in the storm have the opportunity and the chance to talk to someone who will lead them to TRUE REFUGE while their temporary shelters are restored and their temporary needs are met.