Saturday, August 27th, I met with a couple of respected businessmen in my church to get some advice from them – business had more than doubled in a year, I went from having a one-person shop to having to deal with payroll for two designers and learning how to be a boss, a job for which I am not suited. When I started my business, all I wanted was to be left alone. I wanted to not be told to hop the crop-duster special (okay, a 16 seater commuter flight, but with propellers!!) from New Orleans to Little Rock to teach one class to a bunch of surly executives and then home again. To not be handed a book I’d never seen before at 5pm, for a program I’d never used before, and be told to prep to teach an advanced class the next day. To not write another technical or course manual and to not work another help desk. Ever. So my expectations were low, and as the business ramped up it was quite a surprise. I finally got to the point where I realized I needed to either get out or just DO it, really work this business instead of stumbling around in the dark. So I got some good advice, and we made some concrete plans. I knew Katrina was churning around in the Gulf but we hadn’t decided yet to evacuate. We’ve had a lot of “close calls” and after a while you don’t take these things so seriously. I did cancel plans I had with my mother in order to get ready, “just in case.” Sunday morning we bugged out, and did not make it home for weeks – and that was with an advance permit due to my husband’s job.

And he said, This I will do: I will take down my store-houses and make greater ones, and there I will put all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have a great amount of goods in store, enough for a number of years; be at rest, take food and wine and be happy. But God said to him, You foolish one, tonight I will take your soul from you, and who then will be the owner of all the things which you have got together? So that is what comes to the man who gets wealth for himself, and has not wealth in the eyes of God.
(Luke 12:18-21)

I have learned so much since Hurricane Katrina. Life. Just. Stopped. And nothing is the same.

Immediately after the hurricane, while our church was scattered all over the country, I set up and maintained a message board on the church website. It took many hours per day to keep up with it, which angered certain family members in an already tense situation. It was stressful, as our web host was in New Orleans and dealing with trying to get all their clients moved somewhere out of town, which impacted our service. I watched the news to see the neighborhoods where my friends’ homes and my church flooded to the rooftops. I heard the stories about the toxic flood water, murders, rapes and looting. I heard reports of my neighborhood flooding, and that it would be months before we would be permitted to return home. (Thankfully, much of that turned out to be more MSM popcorn – tiny kernels of truth exaggerated into falsehood.) I wanted to curl up in the fetal position and stay there. And then God gave me a George Morrison sermon called Desertion and Drudgery. And I was blessed to see that service does not just cause blessings, although it sometimes does, but it is also a blessing in and of itself.

We got home and found the damage was minimal – under $15,000. There was a time when that would have been a major blow. As we waited for Rita to hit, I wrote, “The mercy of Hurricane Katrina is that we were able to see how frail and temporary things down here really are…. I have stubbed my toe hundreds of times in my life, but I can’t remember the details of even one time. It’s a reminder to build our house upon the rock, a reminder that to have our life we must lose it. Rita is drifting northward and I find I’m really not bothered by it. We’ll evacuate, or not. Get hit, or not. Flood, or not. My God is sovereign and I am in His hands.” And I was blessed to see that the delay or destruction of all my plans to grow my business, achieve certain financial goals including a home renovation, were just… irrelevant. I was free.

When church resumed – we were lucky enough to borrow a building and hold Saturday services – I realized just how much that message board had meant to the other church members. And I was blessed to see that God could use me.

Before the hurricane, I spent hours every day stressing about politics. Thanks to Katrina, I learned what the real war is. It’s not about terror or Islamofascism or what political party has power in any given country. I’m not completely indifferent to politics now, but that particular siren song has lost much of its appeal. I am blessed because since Katrina my perspective is slightly more eternal.

A lot of people stress about the holidays. A word of advice – don’t. It doesn’t matter what your in-laws say behind your back. So what if the turkey burns? Don’t be upset if you can’t get “the” hot toy this season for your kid, or if you get it, and they play with the box all Christmas morning.

But let your chief care be for his kingdom, and these other things will be given to you in addition.
(Luke 12:31)