The Removing

Today was the ninth straight day with no rain in Houston since the onslaught of water from Hurricane Harvey. As you might guess, Sunday was an emotional day of worship, at least from my congregation. At our PM service, Patrick led the opening prayer, thanking God for the storm, praising Him for the blessings which arose in the disaster. Patrick and his family lost everything last week in the devastation. What a terrific example of faith to us who were not injured and whose greatest trauma outside of concern for those impacted was inconvenience. We still have WCS faculty and school families who have not seen that return to any measure of normalcy which seems to be one of the first steps on the road back. I have been astounded by what seems to be the randomness of the waters. On one side of Hillcroft, the street on which our school resides, there seems to be almost no damage to the homes in the neighborhood. But on the other side, and I hate to be trite because I've heard this phrase repeatedly, every street looks like a war zone. 

There are three people I rely on in our student population each year. One is my classroom aide- this year it's Cristina. The next is my basketball aide- this year it's Taylore. The third is the hostess for my semester test reviews- this year it's Ally. That last sentence is misleading. It's never been anybody but Ally! Several years ago, I determined I needed someone to run my breakfast-serving test review buffet and Ally jumped at the role. Well, she is the role, as well as playing lead characters in our WCS stage productions. It's been a rough time for Ally. In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday before last, Ally was forced to flee her home in a harrowing escape that could easily have been fatal. That's not what this story is about but you might surmise correctly that the interior of the house was destroyed. Four of us visited Ally's home last Saturday afternoon to check up on her. Ally and her mother, Ann, were home and remarkably composed. I noticed something when we pulled into their driveway on a block where it seems every house was totaled. Their pile of debris was larger than those in front of other homes and it seemed, and this may seem odd, neater. When we got inside, I was amazed at what I saw. The house frame had already been stripped down to the bare essentials. What was damaged was gone and it looked like a team of professionals had invaded...... and my instincts were right. Ally's dad is in construction and had already brought in a crew, gutting what was damaged and leaving what was salvageable. The awesome thing to me was how the sheet rock was cut and removed in perfect lines as well as little evidence there had ever been carpet. I also thought this was interesting; in the living room (or what I assumed was), Ally's class picture from Herod Elementary school was displayed as well as a wall clock. It must be important to have some vestiges of normalcy. 

We are back in school and Ally is back to being Ally, cheerful and bubbly. I was amazed at how quickly our kids seemed to have moved on, maybe in a desire to return to a routine that is safe and comfortable. Many of them have stories that I'm sure will come out in the weeks and months ahead, just like Ally's. My mind keeps going back to that scene in what used to be a beautiful home. Here's the thing- it can be again!! The first step is complete- the removal of what is now waste. You can't rebuild with taking out what has become defiled and polluted which is why Ally's father set the stage for the renovation to come. That's the same for  our lives, isn't it? There are times we need to clean house, so to speak, before we can mature spiritually. Paul wrote this in the fourth chapter of his Ephesians' epistle, verses 31 and 32:
31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Pretty obvious why he puts the teachings in that order! We can't be kind and compassionate without demolishing the bitterness/rage/slander/brawling/malice we are housing in our hearts. If we clean out the filth,  we can restore the love of God and our savior, Jesus Christ. Ally's family would never rebuild that house with the rot left by the storm; neither can we be restored without the stripping away of the hate in our spirits which Paul described. Ally's home can be made new again. The great promise is, so can we. I pray for both to happen quickly and completely.

Applicable quote of the day:
The hurricane flooded me out of a lot of memorabilia, but it can't flood out the memories. 
Tom Dempsey (New Orleans Saints)

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com