One of the ways I know when the Lord is working overtime to get a message across to me is when He sends the same word by different means.

I’ve mentioned here about the time some months ago when I was driving to our associational offices along Elysian Fields Avenue and began to weep. I said, “Lord, it’s not just that drug store or that fast food place. It’s not this house or that house. It’s the whole thing. It’s just so overwhelming, and I don’t know what to do about it.” At that moment the Lord spoke to my heart: “This is not about you. It’s about me.”

I cannot put into words how liberating that was.

I mentioned here that last Saturday, Dr. Gary Frost of New York City brought a message to our conference at First Baptist Church-New Orleans entitled, “It Ain’t About You.” The very same point the Lord has been emphasizing to me.

Then Monday night, it came again. Dr. Wayne Barber, pastor of Albuquerque’s Hoffmantown Baptist Church, was bringing a Bible study to a group of our Gulf Coast pastors and spouses at the Riverview Plaza Hotel in Mobile. About 15 couples from our New Orleans association accepted the invitation for two nights, three days, and I went over for the first 24 hours. Tuesday, Freddie Arnold drove over and took my room and I returned home. I’ve known Wayne since he and I were staffers at neighboring churches in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1970s. He’s as fine as they come. We share one other thing in common. We both write (and I draw) for Pulpit Helps magazine, a pastors’ monthly, whose parent company, AMG International, co-sponsored this retreat.

Wayne took his text from Galatians 2:20. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

“You can’t, but He can,” Wayne told the ministers and wives, most of whom had lost their churches and homes in Katrina, and are facing mammoth tasks of rebuilding homes, restoring churches, and reviving their communities. “You can’t, but He can–because He lives in you,” he said. “We lose heart and quit when we lose our focus.” The exact point Gary Frost made repeatedly Saturday.

We hear you, Heavenly Father. Loud and clear.

Coming back from Mobile, I drove along U.S. 90 from Alabama to the Biloxi Bay where the bridge is out, then around it and back onto 90 into the middle of Gulfport. This scenic highway has always been a favorite of ours, going back to the late 1960s when we would bring church members from Northern Mississippi to the conference center at Pass Christian and drive into Gulfport and Biloxi to shop or eat. Even earlier, when we were in seminary, we bused the teenagers from Paradis Baptist Church to the beaches in Mississippi. They weren’t much even then, but they were lightyears beyond any beach in our part of Louisiana.

Today was the first time I’ve driven on this portion of U.S. 90 since Katrina. It was not a fun experience.

You know how upset we get in New Orleans when outsiders tell us they hear things are getting back to normal around here? It really irks us, because we are five or ten years from being “normal,” whatever it means.

I confess that this is precisely how I was feeling about Gulfport and Biloxi. I’ve not been hearing a lot about them one way or the other, except that the casinos were being rebuilt. No news is good news, I thought, so these cities must be coming right along. Wrong. Dead wrong.

About Ocean Springs I started noticing the massive hurricane damage that was still unrepaired. Shopping centers that were brutalized and vandalized by Katrina and have not been touched since. Closer in to Biloxi, more and more stores and restaurants were empty shells. In the city of Biloxi itself, the downtown looked so sad. The main sign of recovery seemed to be the casinos, some of them going up 15 or 20 stories, and an occasional hotel. From there to Gulfport, the news was all bad.

This strip has long been noted for the lovely mansions–think of the million dollar houses lining our St. Charles Avenue–on the highway facing the Gulf of Mexico. No more. Many are mere concrete slabs, some are mere skeletons, and others are being rebuilt. Dead trees and waist-high weeds were everywhere.

A new house gleamed along the roadside and sported a large sign out front, announcing that it was a couple’s new residence. Underneath in large letters, it read: “Thanks, FEMA.” That is one of the few positive words I’ve seen regarding this emergency management agency in a long time.

“Gone to the Virgin Islands,” read another sign, this one spray-painted. Behind lay the ruins of what used to be someone’s home. I wondered if those people were moving to the Virgin Islands to get away from hurricanes, and if so, what were they thinking. Almost every hurricane in this hemisphere warms up on the Virgin Islands before turning professional.

Somewhere I heard of a couple who watched as World War II unfolded around them and decided to move to a remote South Pacific island where they could live in peace and not have to deal with the realities of war. The island they selected was named Guadalcanal.

Toward Gulfport, the damage grew worse and worse. Almost no structure was left on the Gulf side of the highway and on the northern side, mostly battered signs remained, announcing stores and restaurants that have not existed for a year. Entire shopping centers lay as stripped and denuded as they must have a year ago. And yet, here and there a restaurant announced it was open for business. The Edgewater Mall, mid-way between Gulfport and Biloxi, was open and seemed to be doing a brisk business. An occasional hotel was running. But mostly, the area was as ugly and wounded and empty as a drive down any major street in East New Orleans.

That’s the point, I guess. Mississippi is still hurting, still a long way from being repaired and rebuilt and renewed. Still in need of our attention, our help, our prayers.

The director of missions for the Gulf Coast Baptist Association with offices in Gulfport is Steve Mooneyham. In response to my call Monday, he admitted most of their pastors would not be attending the retreat in Mobile. “The Mississippi Baptist Convention had a lot of our guys up there last week,” he said. They put them up in hotels and provided counseling and I don’t know what else, then gave each one a monetary gift to assist.

I’m always encouraged when anyone does anything to reach out and bless our ministers. Far, far more than me, however, the Lord Jesus Christ takes it personally. He does. Bless His child, bless His servant, and you bless Him.

Joanne Hilton of New Orleans took USA Today up on their invitation to write her Katrina story. They ran mine a couple of weeks ago. (They’re still asking for them. Send yours to editor@usatoday.com or fax to 703-854-2053.) She writes, “The reconstruction of our residential areas continues, but I hope the phase we are moving into includes something a little more second-nature to us: welcoming our visitors back to have the same experiences they’ve always loved having in New Orleans. Experiences that include: eating in our world-class restaurants, visiting our ever-expanding museums that depict the history, art, and culture of this fascinating place, hanging out in architecturally significant neighborhoods, and enjoying it all in a wonderful climate that always returns in September.” (I’m ready, Joanne!)

Then she said–and this is what I want to call to your attention–“Did you know that there are more small hotels–two to 50 rooms–in New Orleans than any other city in the USA? Being the owner of one, I realize the importance of the return of our guests….”

In a previous blog, I mentioned Dick Cavett’s comment that the absolute worst way to learn to enjoy this city is to stay in a modern high-rise hotel and hang out on Bourbon Street. He recommends the quaint small inns and hotels, the ones Joanne Hilton is calling to our attention.

The cover article for Tuesday’s USA Today revealed the results of a Gallup Poll which was written, overseen, and tabulated by Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion on the view of God held by Americans. Asking 77 questions and giving 400 choices for answers, they came up with four different concepts of the Almighty held by our citizens. The headline read: “View of God can reveal your values and politics.” I’ll bet that’s right.

Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical, and Distant were the four concepts of God. I will not be needing 77 questions and 400 multiple choices to make my decision. “God is great, God is good,” the prayer we learned in preschool, means only “Benevolent” works for me.

The Authoritarian “do this or get out,” the Critical “when are you ever going to measure up,” and the Distant “okay, who exactly are you people now?” just don’t get it.

When the Lord said, “It’s not about you; it’s about Me,” my heart was filled to overflowing with gratitude for a God who is not distant but near, not critical but affirming, not authoritarian but loving.

And contrary to what some critics will say, we did not make this God up. We did not dream Him up from our hopes and wishes. We did not create Him out of our selfishness. We learned about Him through His Self-revelation. He told us Himself Who He is.

That’s what the Bible is all about. From Genesis 1:1 to Exodus 34:6-7 to Psalm 103 and to John 1 and John 14, the message is that this God is the best of all possible Deities.

Had we been making one up, we could not have done better.

I treasure that line from Deuteronomy 4:7, “What nation is there that has a God so near as is the Lord our God whenever we call upon Him?”