sondancing 1.6

Hope High School

   

  Like many of you, the home page on my laptop includes news feeds from various sources. It's handy because I can peruse the headlines from time to time, and read more if the Spirit leads. While spending an unexpected three hour delay in the Salt Lake City airport on a recent trip to Kansas City, I noticed an article from the New York Times feed on tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri, entitled "When Everything Is Gone, Including A Sense Of Direction."  The article was a primer on what happens when the Normalcy Bias I wrote about last month is shattered in an instant.

     Context is important for what happened next. I was stuck in Salt Lake, missing a meeting in KC, because of human error. So I was taking advantage of a great opportunity to (1) forgive (in the fullest biblical sense) those who made the mistake; (2) actively love those I was interacting with at the airport (as opposed to yelling at them); and (3) put into practice what I have been learning (with much help from Terri) about being fully present with the presence of Jesus always. While having lunch in the airport I noticed the article, read it, and then heard God clearly tell me to go to Joplin (2-1/2 hours south of KC) to pray and experience it first-person.  If “human” error doesn’t stick me in Salt Lake for three hours, I don’t look at my computer until later that night, and I likely don’t see the Times feed. And if I am reacting in anger to my situation, I likely don’t hear the Holy Spirit’s instruction, and I don’t end up at Hope High School.

     In terms of destruction, Joplin was worse than I expected. Around 500 commercial buildings and 8,000 residences were damaged or destroyed. From what I could see, a good number of the residences were not damaged or destroyed, but obliterated, with nothing left but a small pile of rubble and trees with most of their branches and bark stripped off. Neighborhood landmarks that provide a sense of direction were for the most part gone. As I wept and drove through the tornado pathway, the first thing that came to my mind was, “how did only 160 people die in this?” While midwesterners are used to, and prepared for, tornados, there must have been something else going on. And there was.

     One of the most powerful images tattooed in my mind from Joplin is the high school. Because it is a brick and steel structure, it fared somewhat better than most buildings in the area, although it is hard to see how it could ever be used again. The 200+ mph winds of the tornado had sucked the letters J, L, I and N off the school sign, but as you can see, somebody had used duct tape to add an H and E. Why would somebody name a severely damaged high school in the middle of a devastated community Hope High School?

     That question can only be answered by the person who did the tape work. But for me, it was a graphic illustration that in the midst of calamity, God is always present and at work. The prophet Habakkuk spoke about this. Immediately after describing the devastating implications of an immanent Babylonian invasion, he proclaimed a message of hope:

     “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights” (Hab. 3:17-19)

     The author of Lamentations had a similar message regarding the same invasion and accompanying destruction of Jerusalem, although this time the message was delivered after the invasion had occurred:

     “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. “

     While only in Joplin for a short hour, I saw tangible evidences of God at work through His people, and I have heard many stories since then of messengers of hope serving in the midst of disaster. Weeks later, Hope High School remains, for me, a prophetic sign of the hope that can (and will!) emerge in the emerging generations of youth that I have given my life to reach and disciple. Joplin strongly shook my Normalcy Bias, and I think there is more shaking to come for many of us in the weeks and months to come. But it is not shaking without purpose! He shakes “so that what cannot be shaken may remain.” (Heb. 12:27) What cannot be shaken are faith, hope and love - which must be seen in our lives as we incarnate a new, spiritual “normalcy:” “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. “ (Col. 3:1-3)