Encouragement

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday September 5, 2005

I am still in a mild state of shock at the fury and horrific aftermath of Katrina. I find little or no comfort in the repeated phrase that about 4 billion of the world's people exist in conditions similar to those now faced by the citizens of the Gulf Coast area.

Several folks from the church I pastor are now in the Gulf area serving in the Guard and Sheriff's department and the reports they are sending back is macabre to the max. One of the young women has the job of tagging and attempting to identify the bodies. She has been married for one month.

I suppose politicians will be blaming each other for the next century about who could have done a better job. When you factor in that nothing of this magnitude has ever happened to our country it really is hard to place blame. I can think of a few people who really should be investigated for dereliction of duty, but that is for others to rant about.

I am encouraged, even at this early stage of recovery at the grit of the men and women who are referred to as the 'victims of Katrina.' Certainly Katrina is a woman of Shakespearian fury; I hope we never meet her sister.

One of my Gulf Coast sources told me of an older black man who when questioned about how he, a victim of Katrina, planned to make a comeback replied in his colloquial way:

"Let me tell you, I be no victim, through Jesus I be victorious!"

For years I have practiced and preached that you cannot have the mind set of a victim and be victorious. This man could be a poster child for this attitude of the overcomer.

Most of the people in the world in which Jesus preached and the Apostles conducted their ministry lived in circumstances similar to the now devastated Coast. Yet they proclaimed victory. A person becomes paralyzed mentally and spiritually when they see themselves as victims.

Please get me right, I and most everyone I know are doing everything we possibly can to help the survivors, to alleviate their enormous material and emotional pain. Have you ever been truly thirsty? What is the longest period of time you have went without eating. Have you waded through raw sewage to take care of basic bodily functions? Have you watched helplessly as a loved child or aged parent died from dehydration before your eyes?

Much is written about the brutal thugs who have robbed, raped and murdered during this calamity. Most people have not done this. Why? Because in times of great crisis people revert to type, what you really are will surface. We have and will see and hear of stories of great courage and beyond the call sacrifice during this time, because as the old gentleman said:

"Let me tell you, I be no victim, through Jesus I be victorious!"

He speaks for all who will trust Jesus and rise above the current trial in our great country.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2005 Use with credit.

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