Under Water

In recent years, the phrase under water has come to mean owing more on your home mortgage than your home is now worth.  This weekend, here in South Carolina, we have gone back to a more literal interpretation of that phrase.  Much of my beloved home state is, quite literally, under water.

This photo, which was making the rounds on Facebook yesterday, pretty much sums it up: 

Bridges have washed away.  Creeks and ponds have overflowed their boundaries.  Neighborhoods have been evacuated.  The ground has washed out from under the roadbed, leaving roads collapsing.  The flood gates at Lake Murray were opened yesterday.  For you non-South Carolinians, Lake Murray is a large, man-made lake in the center of our state, with more than three hundred miles of shoreline, held in place by an earthen dam.  Right now, that lake, like so many other lakes and ponds and rivers and streams, has too much water in it.  There's just too much water everywhere in South Carolina right now.

We South Carolinians are a pretty resilient people.  We've been through a lot since the first English settlers came ashore in 1670.  We will survive this and we will thrive again.  But right now we are hurting. 

Times like these provide great opportunities.  Opportunities for the church to be the church.  To reach out and help those who are hurting.  Those whose homes are under water and who have no place to sleep.  Those who are without electricity and drinking water.  Those who can't get home because roads are closed or washed away.

Those of us who are nearby and who are fortunate enough not to be in such dire straits have an opportunity today to reach out and help those in need.

All of us, whether near or far away, can pray. 

May we be faithful to do that today.  Pray for those who have lost their homes.  For those who have lost family members.  For those without power and water.  For those who are frightened.

Look for an opportunity today to be a blessing to someone. 

And pray.