gone to see mom...

My wife decided earlier this summer that she would take this week to go and visit her 93 year old mother in Baton Rouge. Thankfully mom is not sick. My wife said she wanted to visit her when she was well. Her last three trips home have been due to her mother's illness.

Though mom is well.....the storm came in. They are all at my brother-in- laws house hunkered down best they can. My wife keeps texting me. "Winds are 90 miles an hour. It is frightening. A big tree just snapped in half across the street while I was watching."

Storms rarely come at convienent times. Ask the Republicans. They have switched to thier compassionate gear hoping not to repeat the idiotic mistakes they made with Katrina. Thier convention will be as watered down as some of the neighborhoods in the path of Gustav.

It is tempting to say something stupid like our television evangelists are so prone to do. I remember one saying that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishiment on New Orleans. Yet, Bourbon Street survived! I suppose this line of thinking could lead to Hurricane Gustav being God's punishment on the Republicans for 8 years of.....

Of course I don't believe that God works in this way. God understands that the consequence of our own sin and stupidity is often enough punishment. Storms or storms, that's that. Storms are unpredictable, that's all. Storms destroy and re-arrange our lives. So be it. There's just not much we can do about it.

I pray today for those whose homes are being damaged. I pray for those who have barely if at all recovered from Katrina only to face yet another storm. Peace to all.