One thing for sure

It's a strange time to be alive and Katrina is a very odd name for a hurricane. Our pastor at church yesterday talked a bit about the hurricane and how there are people asking who is to blame -- was it God punishing the sinful city of New Orleans, or was it global warming, or simply a random act of nature? There are certainly plenty who feel like those who were affected got what was coming to them -- the individuals for choosing to live in a port town, New Orleans for its high murder rates, history of voodoo, and Mardi Gras beads, the United States for focusing its energy and money on foreign wars, take your pick.
But there are other people who aren't concerned about any of that. Instead of condemning of blaming (and really, who in the world can you blame for a hurricane? let's be serious!) they are sacrificing and serving.
The Red Cross is the BIG place to donate to, but here are some more individual efforts taking place across the country:
A church in Baton Rouge is housing refugees, trying to understand what their next step should be.
A man travels across the Midwest gathering emergency supplies and heads into an underserved flood zone.
First Book is providing books to children affected by the hurricane.
A Seattle church sends aid to a damaged medical clinic.
In Oregon and all over the country people are donating beds, homes and roofs to those displaced by the storm.
And there are many more. Other people where God was in the hurricane, but that doesn't matter to me. I know for sure he's there in the recovery.

When we see tragedy strike, large or small, we have a tendency to analyze it and try and understand WHY. This can help us to learn from the past and can be a good thing, but sometimes the answers are simply too big to grasp, and we can spiral into despair. A better question, especially when we see others struggling might be: "What can I do now?" or "How can I help?"
It's easy to place blame and I do it all the time -- it seems like I can always find some reason for a problem, even if it's a different reason every day. But it's action out of love that will bring about a change, and turn something tragic into a reason to rejoice.