A Force Worth Awakening

As I reflect upon the few hours our family spent this weekend helping those impacted by the tornadoes that hit our hometown the day after Christmas, I struggle to decide which was more overwhelming: (1) the scope of the destruction, and the sadness and immense need left in its wake, or (2) the immediate  and enormous outpouring of generosity, love, and support from not only our community, but neighboring communities and even total strangers from around the country.

I met a family whose home was destroyed while their children, ages 14 and 9, were home alone.  The look in the little girl’s eyes reminded me of a startled animal.  She had lost all of her toys, but didn’t feel comfortable taking from the donated toys, not quite understanding that this was exactly what they were for.  My heart broke for this little girl who is far too young to have the illusion of safety in her own home permanently shattered.

 Another family was living out of a hotel, compliments of their insurance company, after the top half of their home was ripped away.  They were well insured, but didn’t have a lot of extra cash for unexpected needs.  You could tell they were not used to taking “handouts,” and it took some encouragement before they felt free to partake of the generosity of their neighbors.

Another family lived in a local apartment that was completely destroyed.  They lost everything.  They had no insurance, and no family in town.  The cots in the church gym would be their home for the foreseeable future.

These are just a few of the thousands of stories, many of which are far more tragic.

However, for every impacted person I met, I met 5 more who were giving of their time, energy, and resources to help.  I saw rooms filled from floor to ceiling with supplies, food, clothes, toys, and furniture donated practically overnight.  I saw scores of people volunteering their time to help with the logistics of such a relief effort.  Sure, some of these folks were friends, family, and neighbors of those directly impacted.  But many just heard that help was needed and came.

I met folks from other North Texas towns that had gone through something similar in years past and just wanted to help.  I met a team from Nechama, a Jewish disaster response team, that had flown in to help.  These were folks from New York, Iowa, and Minnesota – all young people with jobs of their own – who were called upon to go and help strangers in need, hundreds of miles away.  They gladly accepted the cot space that was offered just as gladly by a Christian church serving as a relief center.

I spoke with a youth minister who was exhausted from pulling overnight security duty at the church which stayed open 24/7 to help those in need.  He had a chance to chat with a young couple who said they had given up on “church and church folk” up until this disaster.  They went on to share how they have felt more loved in the past few days than they ever have in their life, and it made them want to give church – and God – another shot.

Another church worker shared stories of his childhood in war-torn Lebanon, and how amazed he was at the immediate response of the people, communities, and humanitarian organizations in the U.S. to these sorts of disasters.  He said that this simply was not the case where he came from.  It was every man or immediate family for themselves, and that you could be dying and your next door neighbors would not try to help you.

As I helped tear down and replace a damaged fence on the property line of a rural home that was completely destroyed, a man named Steve came up beside me and started to help.  He and I removed a good 150 yards of fence together.  I asked how he knew the homeowners, and he said he didn’t.  His wife had heard there was a need in the community (she didn’t know the homeowners either) and had suggested he help.  So he did.

When disasters like this strike, many will bow their heads in bewildered grief or lift their faces in accusation and ask the same question: why do bad things happen to good people?  There’s no easy answer to such a question.  But this weekend I began to catch a glimpse of what could be part of the answer, or at the very least, a silver lining.  Perhaps sometimes bad things happen to good people in order to awaken the good that might otherwise lay dormant within so many more.    Now that's a force that is absolutely worth awakening!

For so many of us, what we need most in life is to love others sacrificially.  But it takes a disaster -- a blatant undeniable need for such love and sacrifice -- to shock us out of our self-centered fog.  The very act of helping others to heal begins to heal what's broken inside of us.

 Perhaps sometimes bad things happen to good people in order to awaken the good that might otherwise lay dormant within so many more.

I drive around my hometown and see more destruction than I’ve ever seen before this close to home.  I also see more good being done by more people in my hometown that I have ever seen before.  Love and hope are palpable -- in the very air, it seems -- in ways I've never felt before.
 

May God comfort, restore, and bless all those impacted by these terrible storms, and all those who are giving of themselves to help.  And may the destructive force of a tornado awaken an even greater force of good people committed to serving others, here in my home town and beyond.