The other day I met yet another displaced Louisianian.  I have met so many over the past few years who were compelled from Louisiana to Texas because of Hurricane Katrina.  From what I understand, Louisiana and particularly ground zero were one of the most poverty stricken areas in our nation.  Although I definitely don’t believe that “God caused Hurricane Rita”, (as I once discussed in an article of the same name)–Isn’t it breathtaking how God can make beauty from ashes?!

Let me explain.  In the poverty debate one of the things that is often come back to is the potential abundance that we are open to here on American soil.  We see this when a foreigner comes to this country and before long their family owns all of the gas stations or nail salons in the area.  Even if when they first arrive they have to live in a poverty stricken neighborhood, not long thereafter they are well off, or better.  There is little doubt opportunities abound.  So a kid who lives in the hood never learns the joy of reading, even though there is a library in his neighborhood.  Or even worse, he fails to dream because he won’t watch PBS! (as a recent PBS commercial showed us)  Why?  Because of “stinking thinking”!  His make up is is shifted towards negativity. His whole outworking is digressive.  This is why you even see men who make the millions still end up shooting each other to death, like Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.  They made it out of the hood…or so they thought.

What does it take for a person to open their eyes to the possibilites of the world around them?  What does it take for the kid in the projects to realize that, although he may have to work a little harder than the kid across the tracks, not only does he have the same opportunities, but our system is set up so that when one kid from the tough neighborhood works hard, all of the forces of our nation are leveraged in his favor.  In other words, he can go to college for close to, if not absolutely, free and qualify for opportunites and incentives that the kid across the block would have to be inherently genious to even be considered for. So again I ask, what does it take for a person in the hood to open their eyes to the possibilities of the world around them?

Love like a hurricane! Whether they realize it or not, what the enemy has meant for evil God is using for good!  So many needed to be transplanted to see the opportunites God has provided. They needed to be taken out of the pit of darkness and placed in a place like Texas (or any where else for that matter).  Now they can start over!  Now they can begin to define life free from the stipulations and accusations and assumptions of a society, which tells you you are poor and expects that you will always be poor. Oh how He loves us!

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…