Reflections from New Orleans

Ahhh, the Big Easy!

We have come for a visit, Anita and I. It is a mixture of work and fun--isn't that what you are supposed to do when you come to New Orleans? The "work" part involves hearing Savannah Flowers preach at St. Charles Avenue Baptist on Sunday. (OK, the fact that she is our daughter is an added reason--but Woody will be at Clemson to hear Ben Guerry on Sunday--sorta divide and conquer. Being the Senior Pastor I got the good straw! I mean, would you rather eat at the Esso Club or K Paul's?)

The trip is also a way of seeing how the city has recovered--or not. It has been 5 years since Hurricane Katrina ripped through the vicinity, and we discovered how our negligence allowed levees to be ripped open and our willingness not to see torn through the heart of a community. Today we wandered through the Garden District, a gorgeous area which is the home to people such as John Goodman, Anne Rice (we didn't see any vampires) and Sandra Bullock. As you can imagine, you barely see any scars of the storm. Instead, as you ride down the St. Charles Streetcar you can see Mardi Gras beads hanging from the live oaks. There is a sense of joy that just permeates the area!

A few miles away however, that sense just gets ripped away. Last summer Savannah spent a month in the Ninth Ward studying and working with a group from Furman. She took us to see where she had worked.

What you see are missing neighborhoods. What you see are vacant lots where families used to live. What you see are shells of homes that even now bear the marks where rescuers came searching for survivors, victims. What you see is a reminder of how our negligence--both before and after Katrina--have scarred this area.

There are signs of recovery. Some families never left--a sign of resilience and perhaps desperation. Other homes are being rebuilt, new homes built. But still...

It is a vivid reminder of a line from a movie we saw at the Aquarium Imax. We watched Hurricane on the Bayou. (You can get it on Netflix, but unless you have a REALLY big TV it will lose a bit!) While it is not a great movie, it does point out the way in which we have consistently looked for short term profit over long term costs. In order to help agriculture now, in order to help ships get a quicker trip to the gulf we built canals and levees that stopped the Mississippi River from doing what she wants to do. The result is that wetlands are disappearing--the buffer that protects from hurricanes, and that also serves as the incubator for so much life.

And now we have that little spill in the gulf. Offshore drilling provides many jobs, and much of the oil that drives our economy--but at what long term cost?

These aren't easy questions nor answers, so too often we just ignore them. Until it is too late.

And Jesus said, "Count the cost." A great lesson for discipleship. Maybe it is a great lesson for our world as well.