Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) blogs

Moderator

Subscribe to this blog feed icon

About this blog

Moderator's blog

Recent posts

Categories

Archives


See all PC(USA) Blogs

PC(USA) Home

May 24, 2011

Tornadoes

 

     The devastation caused by flooding and tornadoes over these past weeks – most recently in Joplin – has been unimaginable.  Lives lost, lives changed -- all by forces that are outside our ability to control. 

     Our prayers go out to all who have had their lives unalterably affected.  Prayers are also lifted up to  those who put their own lives in danger to help and serve others, including all those who are responding on behalf of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.

    We know, on an intellectual level, that our lives are transitory -- that we are here but for an instant. To view the devastation in Joplin puts that reality front and center on the most basic emotional gut level.

    I won’t say that I dislike change, but when I admit that I have worked for the same employer for almost 40 years, and have lived in the same house for 25 years, you will know that I don’t seek out change.  I admit that I would be totally, overwhelmingly, daunted if the office, the home, that I have known for all these years would vanish in an instant.

    Tornadoes attack physical structures. What if they attacked organizational structures?

    If a massive tornado bore down upon the Presbyterian Church (USA), tearing it to shreds, leaving shards in its wake, what should we seek to salvage?  What family photos, what memorabilia, what wall art, of the PC (USA) should we grasp and take to shelter so that it can be saved as the winds come roaring in?

    And isn’t that – the essentials, the things we would take with us to whatever seems to be the safest haven in the face of the storm --  what we should be focusing on as we seek to be the PC (USA)?