Prayers needed

I have a favor to ask.

Take a few minutes today and quietly pray for family members, friends and people you don’t even know who were hit hard by flooding around Lake D’Arbonne and our whole region. It’s been seven weeks since our lake crested just shy of 89 feet, the second highest level on record.

The shock of the flood is slowly fading. But people still can’t believe how fast it came. What it left behind.  The awesome task ahead for so many people is daunting.

A quick ride around hard hit areas on the lake Saturday afternoon brought that reality front and center. It’s bad. The usual hustle and bustle of what turned out to be a pretty nice spring evening on the lake was eerily missing. The parties on the boat docks, families fishing on the piers, boats racing to hit one more spot before time to go home. . . not there. “For Sale” signs sit on properties you thought people would never leave.

You see it almost everywhere you go. Muddy yards that haven’t dried out yet because of continuing record rainfall. Watermarks two, three…five, six feet high on houses. Boats sitting on trailers covered in mud in yards. Empty boat houses. Piers and decks sitting cock-eyed where the water’s force floated them out of place.  Even folks in Walmart shopping for summer clothes because as it turns hot, they realize all their cool stuff is in a pile somewhere in the yard, or the dump. You see it in people’s eyes, too.

“We’re okay,” they say. But they are not really. They are just being strong. Still.  But they are still hurting. Bad.

There are places where homes are already being razed down to the foundation. Others sit empty, with the guts sitting in piles in the driveway. The lights are on, but nobody’s home. Even the ones that didn’t flood, have a roof half blown off or trees blown down, they are feeling it, too. Even if it’s just sympathy pain for others.

The can-do spirit that got people through the flood, through the gutting of their homes, the hardship of hauling saved possessions to storage buildings or storage trailers or shops on high ground…it’s still there. But it’s worn thin, stretched even thinner waiting for insurance approvals, or checks, or at least some direction. And there’s the ever-present question, “What are we going to do next?”

Pray for these folks today. Please.

Share this message and reminder with others as you see fit so they will pray, too. And those who are the object of your prayers — they will appreciate it. Yes, they will know. Continue to drop by to say hello, do something nice for them, take them to supper. Call them on the phone and encourage them. Or just listen. Yes, they still need it. Bad.

It won’t fix any sheetrock. It won’t unload any trailers, It won’t get the mud off that boat, but it will make these people and you feel better. That would be good.

* * * * * * * * * *

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  — Jesus’ words in Matthew 11: 28-30