Response to Hurricane Katrina

Like many of you, I have been glued to the recent news reports of Hurricane Katrina and all its devastating aftermath. My thoughts have turned many times throughout the day to what I've seen or heard, and there has come quite an emotional response. Last night after watching some news coverage, I commented to my husband that watching those scenes was like watching the wrath of God and mercy of God converge in one place and on one selected group of people. He reminded me that the greatest picture and most moving display of God's wrath and mercy converging was at the cross of Christ. This was a good reminder to me to stir my heart's affections for that amazing display of God's glory, His mercy and grace at the cross of Calvary where my Savior died that I might have my greatest need met.

Providentially, I have been reading through John Piper's Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. This morning I read a chapter entitled The Waves and Wind Still Know His Voice. I wanted to post the whole of its contents here, but I am not technologically savvy enough to figure out how to do that. So, I want to encourage those who have the book to read that chapter and be informed on what a biblical, God glorifying response to our nation's recent tragedy looks like.

Many of you are praying and may find yourselves, like me, perplexed at times on exactly how to pray, what to pray. I am going to simply type out the prayer Piper writes at the end of this chapter for those of you who do not have the book but may wish to pray this prayer for those enduring the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

O Lord, the suffering in the world is so widespread and the pain is so great! Have mercy, and waken the souls of suffering millions to the hope of some relief now and unsurpassed joy in the age to come.
Send your church, O God, with relief and with the word of the Gospel that there is forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ and that no suffering here is worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to the children of God.
Protect your church, Father, from callous thoughts about calamities that leave millions destitute, and protect her also from cowing to the critics, like Job's wife, who cannot trust the wisdom and power and goodness of Christ in the midst of inexplicable misery. Oh, help our unbelief. Incline our hearts to your Word and to its assurances that you "work all things according to the counsel of your will" and that "no purpose of yours can be thwarted" and that you are doing good and acting wisely in ways that we cannot now even dream.
Keep us in peace, O Lord, and forbid that we murmur and complain. Grant us humble and submissive hearts under your mighty hand. Teach us to wait and watch for your final and holy purposes in all things.
Grant that we would "rejoice in hope" even when present circumstances bring us to tears. Open the eyes of our hearts to see the greatness of our inheritance in Christ, and send us with tender hands to touch with mercy the miseries of the world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Finally, let me also include a link to John Piper's website where he spoke to the Tsunami disaster last December. His comments on it, I believe, would apply to the most recent disaster in our Gulf Coast. It is entitled Tsunami, Sovereignty, and Mercy.