Look UP!

It's rained now for 5 days. Sandy has moved on, but her aftermath is still upon us. Unbelievable wind and rain. Trees down. Crops laid flat. Mud everywhere. We've managed well by the light of the kerosene lamp for most of our journey. My boy keeps asking, "Do you think the Sun will come out today, Daddy?" He needs just a sliver of hope. My girl is fidgety and is making funny faces. Every night she wants 'family game night'. My wife has come to me and whispered on occasion, out of reach of little ears, "I need the rain to stop," or, "this is messing with me." I am tired of wet things. Sandy took care of my good camera. With the highest winds and rain, at the peak of the storm, there was this sort of mist that sprayed in the house. Some came from the surf of the ocean waves that reached our back steps, and some was from a horizontal gale that drove the rain through every tiny opening of the house. When I reached for my camera yesterday to photograph a great cargo boat that had been cast upon the shoreline, I found that my trusty tool had been compromised. No more pictures...grrrrrrrrr. Then as the rains still pound at the dawn, we read this passage, and I find it worth it to use the last of my battery power to pass on to you, Reader...

'If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like–minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.' (Phil 2)


What leaps out to me are the 'if's' and the 'any's'. I want to rewrite it the way I feel it.

'If there's a sliver of encouragement or any puff of wind in your sail, if there's a dash of comfort or any dry clothes to put on, if you've got a drop of tenderness or even a hint of compassion because you know that as bad as you've got it, you're neighbor has it much, much worse....then chin up! On your feet! Snap to! Wake up...and Look UP! Knock off your squabbling and give the Devil a good kick in the rear! Send him packing. Get along and sing! There's work to be done, and while you're doing it, give it a little whistle! Sing because you're happy!'

Time to go get out the guitar....

 

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