DELIVERANCE . . .

It's like the worst car-wreck ever, and I can't look away. But I shouldn't; I shouldn't look away from the South for a moment, lest I forget or lest I get distracted or lest I think for a second that things are fine. Things are not fine. In the same way that the church is Christ's body, so is this country my body; if one part of it suffers, all of me suffers. And that's how it should be, and this is how we should be connected, so that we stay united and remain cognizant of our citizenship and our brotherhood.

The stories are all the same now: everyone's focusing on New Orleans, but there are entire regions, states, backwoods communities that are being ignored. The National Guard has arrived to face scattered applause, little thanks, constant recriminations. Marauding bands of young men continue looting, destroying, and now raping women, you know, because it somehow makes sense to them to add suffering to suffering. Everyone is blaming Shrub for being too slow, too uncaring, too preoccupied with sending resource and military and manpower abroad at the expense of his own countrymen. Politicians and talking heads are loving this devastation because it gives them just another soapbox to stand upon and from which to spew irrelevance. Folks are saying the South is being ignored because there are so many poor and black people there; the ACLU is gearing up for civil rights lawsuits (was there ever a time I'm more ashamed to be an attorney?).

At the same time, I also hear that generosity and compassion abound. Colleges and universities around the country are offering semester placement to displaced Southern college students. Families as far away as Maine are offering their homes to homeless victims. The Guard is now landing and distributing food and water, and restoring order, even having the head of the troops yell at a Louisiana state trooper to drop the weapon he had trained on refugees; "this isn't f*cking Iraq!;" he screams. Movie stars and musicians are rallying their resources and influence to raise money; millions have already been raised and donated by ordinary folk like you and I.

And the strangely best news of all: people are calling upon former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani to head on over to lead the rescue, recovery and rebuilding efforts in the South. ROCK ON. Rudy was arguably the best thing that ever happened to New York City, and certainly so in the aftermath of 9/11. Rudy would rock their world, keep out irrelevance and bring a happy jolt of old-school Brooklyn to the house. It's good to have a chuckle in the midst of all of this agony, after all ...

Today is a deceptively beautiful day, filled with deceptively happy and fun events. My resolve is not to be morose or morbid or self-righteous in my heavy-heartedness throughout today, putting on a sad face just to make others put on a sad face with me. No, my resolve is to not so shallow. My resolve is to cling to Christ and believe in the providence of His endless mercy and compassion, and the magnitude of His power. May all of these things be made real and physical through us, through the volunteers, through the news media, through the National Guard members, through the citizens themselves, as they are refreshed and restored. And may all of you know that our prayers for you who are suffering -- all we can offer at this time -- are ceaseless, and our love for you is abounding.