Late Thursday evening, I told Margaret if she didn’t mind, I was going to a movie. I knew enough about “Munich” to know it was a story I was interested in and that she would not enjoy it. Three hours later, I walked out of the cinema with mixed emotions. Following the killing of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, a small band of commandos sought out the assassins and exterminated them one by one. This Steven Spielberg movie is quite different from anything he’s has done before, and I thought it might be the diversion I needed. What did I need? Probably a good western. A good old-fashioned clear-cut moral tale of good and evil, with good winning decisively. But it was not to be.
The protagonist (that’s the hero, remember?) was not a professional killer but a family man, deeply troubled by the revenge killings he had to do. The bomb-maker was tormented because he saw Judaism as all about righteousness–“It’s a beautiful thing, right?” he said–and ended up destroying himself with one of his creations. In short, there was wrong on both sides, perhaps a little right on each side, and me caught in the middle. This was not the movie I had wanted.
I’m in the middle of a novel about the Battle of Waterloo, Lord Wellington and Napoleon and all that; it’s my bedtime reading and I get about 5 pages done before turning off the light, so it’s taking forever. But I’m about to lay it aside. The sides get too complicated, too many good guys on the bad side and crazy people on the good side. I don’t need this at this point in my life. I have enough complication in the real world.
Wednesday morning, the Times-Picayune presented the report of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission that was released later that day. Some of the recommendations from this distinguished panel include halting all renovation and rebuilding in the flooded zone for 4 months, turning large areas of the city into parks and greenspace, building a regional transit system which would include light-rail to Baton Rouge, streamlining local government (consolidating many offices, cutting out excessive assessors and courts and judges), and preparing a flood control system based on the Dutch model. I’ve not read the actual report and at this point, don’t know how to get hold of one, but only the synopsis in the newspaper. Immediately, however, people started hollering throughout the city.
All day Wednesday, special interest groups were on television, complaining about how their homes and neighborhoods and businesses and what-not were being left out. The New Orleans City Council went before microphones and unanimously opposed many features in the plan, especially the part recommending that certain sections of the city be left open. These council members have cow-towed to their own residents for so many years without a thought to the best interests of the city as a whole, they do not know how to do the right thing. This, I remind you, is the council that voted the other day to recommend to Saints owner Tom Benson that a local boy should be made coach of the football team.
I was hoping it would be simpler. Clearer. Easier. Blacker and whiter, if you will. Instead, it’s going to be an uphill fight to get anything really helpful done. Our governor and mayor will have to get their heads together and agree on a workable plan and then show some courage in working the plan. People will yell to high heaven, but nothing, absolutely nothing is going to please everyone. President Bush was in town all day Thursday, saying on the radio that “New Orleans is a great family place to visit,” sounding for all the world like he was reading a script written by Mayor Nagin. I hope he had some backroom visits with the gov and the mayor and told them how things have got to come together if we expect federal help.
A caller to WWL radio Wednesday afternoon wanted everything to go back to the way it was before the storm. Host Garland Robinette said, “You liked the city the way it was before Katrina?” “Yes, sir. That’s the way I want it.” Garland said, “Sir, we were crime central of the USA and had the worst schools system on the planet. Drugs were everywhere, parents were afraid to let their children walk outside the house. You want it that way?” “Oh no,” he backpedaled. “I didn’t want that. Just everything else.” Yes sir.
Driving home from Alabama Tuesday, I picked up a popular preacher on the car radio. He was preaching about Jesus. “Before His death, Jesus said, ‘I have finished the work you gavest me to do.'” Then, he addressed the radio audience. “Friend, if you knew you were to die tomorrow, could you look back over your lifetime and say to God, ‘I have finished the work you gave me to do’? If you can’t, then your life has been wasted. You have been spending your life on the wrong things and you need to repent.”
“Wait a minute,” I said out loud to the radio. “It’s not that simple. I’m a Christian. I’m a preacher. I love the Lord Jesus Christ. But I don’t know if I can say I have finished all the work He has given me to do. I’ve done some of it right and loused up some of the rest. It’s not so simple, friend.”
Three times in the last two days, I have had this conversation (or variations of it) with church leaders from other states interested in bringing teams of volunteers in to help us rebuild New Orleans.
The caller says, “Joe, what our church wants to do is for you to match us up with a good church in your area, one that has been damaged and we can come in and fix up. A church that wants to grow and reach its area for Christ, and we can send in our people for backyard Bible clubs and block parties and evangelistic events.”
I answer, “Sounds good. But I can’t help you.” “What? What do you mean you can’t help me. Don’t you have some churches in need?”
“We sure do. We have forty or fifty of them.” “So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that the churches that need your repair crews to go in and fix them up have no one living in their neighborhoods. Nobody. They are smack in the middle of the flood zone and the homes are unlivable. For some of these churches, it will be years before enough people live there for them to have worship services.”
This is always followed by a long pause. Then, “Well, what do you suggest?” That’s when I’m able to tell them the choices that are available.
We all want it simple. I sure do. Thankfully, some things are simple, but many of the most important issues in life have two or more facets, with good people defending each aspect as the right way. That’s when God’s people learn whether they have what it takes to live up to their calling and show each other respect, give one another grace, cut each other some slack.
We all need lots of grace and mercy, from one another as well as from the Heavenly Father. Nothing complicated at all about that.
This is a postscript to the article. Today (Thursday) some of us drove by Getsemani Baptist Church on Elysian Fields Avenue. A team from Durham, NC, was hard at work restoring the electric wiring inside the sanctuary building. Dan Yarbrough said they are planning on having a block party of sorts there Friday, hot dogs, that sort of thing. Someone else said they had walked up and down the surrounding streets and found maybe five people to invite. No one is living there, of course.
Another Tarheel, David, said he told a friend he was coming to New Orleans. The fellow said, “Why? What’s going on in New Orleans?” David told him, “Well, they had this hurricane down there. You may have heard.” The friend said, “I thought they were past that.”
David said to me, “You know that’s the problem, don’t you. The nation is not hearing about New Orleans. It’s yesterday’s news. They don’t have a clue that we’re going to be working for years to restore this city.”
I know. Dear Lord, how I know.
Well, this explains a lot.
Another outstanding entry Brother Joe. You’re in our prayers constantly as you must be getting tired. We hope you continue this great and important work.
It does seem as though the rest of the world thinks we have gotten on since Katrina. At the airport, I hear it all the time. People are amazed that services are not what they used to be. We get complaints all day everyday about us not having enough waiters or skycaps for example. I have to explain that the city is still short about a quarter million of it’s people. And, that most of them were low end service workers. I’m especially troubled though, when occasionally the complainers are returning evacuees. And outsiders can’t understand why evacuees are just now returning. I’m tired of telling folks, “Well, it’s kinda complicated but, for one thing there’s nowhere for them to live.”
I know of at least a dozen blogs or sites trying to keep the city’s situation on the forefront, but I can tell from some of the comments posted to them that a lot of people don’t care to know. Just a lot of mean stuff.
A lot of folks are facing really hard decisions. Simple would be nice but, there isn’t a lot of that around right now. From the leaders on down to the folks starting over from sctatch, they all need our prayers and what ever help we can send their way.
Thanks again to you, sir, for your deligence and dedication.
David Davis
Brother Joe, My heart is heavily burdened for the New Orleans area, in particular Alluvial City Baptist Church, and NOBTS. I served as the pastor of Alluvial City while a student of the seminary, and have found only 1 member who was refuged to Florida. I am praying for you, and all of those who have been affected by Katrina. I am also praying for myself, for God’s direction, as to how I can help. I would love to hear about the whereabouts of any of the Alluvial City members if you could pass this on. I would like to encourage you with I Corinthians 15:58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that ye labor not in vain in the Lord. This scripture has helped me in times past, when I felt I was laboring in vain, Brother Joe, you are doing a great work, May our Lord refresh you anew.
Well, I think people (at least locals) DO Want to know what is going on. One of the main complaints that I have heard is that people feel that they are not getting enough information and straight answers from the government. Which they may not be. And no, the solutions are not going to be to everyone’s satisfaction. I posted some questions in this blog just recently and I did not get any concrete answers, I got more information on Vieux Carre Baptist Church, which had nothing to do with what I was asking to begin with. And I am vey much aware of these local forums, NOLA.COM has several of them, and some of the comments can get very harsh at times. But these people are dealing with a lot of changes right now. And as a Christian friends advised me this week, people don’t always adapt well to change. And they don’t cotton to the rest of the country living life as usual while their’s is at a standstill. This is just a strong indication that when the going gets tough, the tough don’t always get going. I think each person, whether you accept Jesus as your Saviour or not, is going to have to decide on this. And Christians are going to have to be tough, because from all this controversy it is obvious that Satan is not going to easily let go of this prize possession called the City of New Orleans.
I don’t want to start a forum here but, I respectfully submit to Ms. Worley that Satan has no more influence in New Orleans than in any other city.
Also, that the government will hand down decisions, not necessarily answers. Government can not be depended on for everything. The Lord will give you everything you need and nothing you can’t handle. When you follow Jesus you come to understand this.
Brother,
My name is Bryan McAnally, and I am on staff at First Baptist Church in Grapevine, Texas, where the wonderful pastor and preacher Warren Jones has “off-site” worshipped following Katrina. He was with us this past Sunday and preached a Spirit-filled, powerful message that the nation needs to hear (i’ll see how to forward you the mp3 of it asap!)
I thank you for your updates, and wanted to encourage you of the good work you are all doing. We pray for you daily and are planning ways we can effectively support you as you rebuild.
As an aside, if you have another soon-coming urge to catch a movie, on Jan. 20, “The End of The Spear” is coming out, telling the of the New Tribes Missionaries who were slain in 1956, and the redemption of the warriors who speared the five missionaries. It will be in wide theatrical release, and offers a clear moral message of restoration and forgiveness.
Anyway…we’re praying for you and are thankful for opportunities to partner with you.
I think your last statement “We all need lots of grace and mercy, from one another as well as from the Heavenly Father. Nothing complicated at all
about that,” summed it all up.
Thanks for writing. I really needed to hear those last words.
Lots of people probably read your emails, but tell me, do they read them all the way through ??
Its like when I’m in my Catholic Church, and people leave before the Mass is over, I say to myself like — whats the point in even coming if you are going to miss the BLESSING ??
Thats how I feel about your blogs — If you dont read them ALL the way through, how can you receive the blessing ?? Some words may touch one person
differently than how it touches another, — here we are talking bout how things are ‘finished’.. you know when you are finished writing your blog –right, yet how does one decide when we are finished reading it ? Do they just skip over certain parts, or do they read it all the way
through ?
That about sums it up in a nutshell.
I have not had a particularly great weekend, but just by reading those last words in your email, was like striking gold. Thanks for being there
for me, and everyone else. You are truly a blessing !
Jean
Dr. Joe…..some or a few may not know it but your son,Marty, is responsible for all the work
of posting your information each week (and sometimes almost daily) and we appreciate his time and effort to keep us up to date on all that is happening in NOLA. Don’t let the politicians lead you astray..they have no solutions. Very few of us have sensed the magnitude of the recovery effort and what the future holds for NOLA. Keep up the good work and we will keep you in our prayers. Luvya, Bro.
Having led a mission trip or two, I can still recall how my heart may have been in what I thought was the right place, but my ignorance of the situation plainly misled my good intentions. One of the things that always amazes me is how we want to help, but we do not want to bother with the “attendant issues”, whatever they may be. Being on mission has nothing to do with what the missionary gets out of the work done (accomplishments, accolades, etc.)but has everything to do with being the hands, heart and help of Jesus. There is no personal glory in offering just a cup of cool water, in Jesus name! We would all do well to remember that.
Just a thought,
Bryan