Hurricane Katrina: The Wilderness Years
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By Gary D. Myers
God delivered in a mighty way and the people quickly forgot.
That’s the scene in Exodus 16 and that is the scene that plays out in my heart.
After years in slavery, God delivered His people from
captivity in Egypt. With His mighty hand, He parted the waters of the Red Sea
and His people passed to freedom on dry land. They saw a great miracle. No
sooner than their feet hit the shore, they began to grumble.
“They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the
people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and
Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from
the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled
against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to
them, ‘Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt,
when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us
out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’” - Exodus
16:1-3
I shouldn’t be too harsh, the complaining wasn’t immediate.
They waited a month and a half before they started grumbling. How could they
forget so soon?
Just a few days before the 10th anniversary of Hurricane
Katrina’s landfall, I began to see a little bit of me in the story of the
grumbling Israelites. It took me longer than a few months to get there, yet
there I stood with my back to the Red Sea and my face toward the Promised Land complaining.
Complaining about insurance costs. Complaining about tax. Complaining about
potholes and red light cameras. Complaining about house maintenance. Complaining
about the six or seven car windshields I have replaced in the recovery years. Stressing
and straining. Not trusting … at least not fully. Not remembering … at least
not fully.
It was easy at first. It was easy to remember and it was
easy to trust to hand that protected us. God delivered us from the storm for a
purpose and gave us a job. He brought us back to give the city of New Orleans a
gigantic “bear hug” in His name. God brought us back to be the hands and feet
of the gospel and witnesses of grace and forgiveness to our neighbors.
God sent armies of volunteers to work in our city and we
joined them. It is as if the miracle continued for years. We got excited about
our city again. We enjoyed the culture and the food. The Saints even won the
Super Bowl. My family was so committed to the rebuilding efforts that we bought
a house in 2008 (in a city that had flood just three years earlier). I still
found joy in remembering all that God did.
Somewhere along the way – 2010 or 2011 – we stopped talking about
Katrina. We had all moved on. We were over it. But when I stopped talking about Katrina, I lost an opportunity to talk
about the goodness of God. The Katrina experience was not fun, but I have to acknowledge
that God was good to His Church and He has been good to this city.
So I have a confession to make – I have been a grumbling complainer
for the past few years and I want that to end. I thank God for the way He has
cared for me, for my church family and for my seminary during the past 10
years. On this 10th anniversary my face is still set toward the Promised Land,
but the wilderness lies ahead. There will be big insurance bills, unfair
taxation, pot holes, red light tickets, and busted windows. The mundane stuff
of life happens even in New Orleans – the least mundane place I know. Life is tough, but I have
seen a great miracle. I remember His deliverance. I know of His saving love.
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