Local disasters grab our attention and bring disruption. To survive and help, we wake up, pull together, pray, and rearrange our priorities. But once the recovery is in sight, it’s back to “normal.” But our normal is disasterous too, doomed to perpetuate itself. Too often our normal means accepting that millions who lack quality opportunities never graduate from high school. Too often it means accepting that millions of needy people end up in prison and too often it means accepting that millions suffer alone.
| About a week ago, I met a commercial fisherman in his sixties from Bayou La Batre. His father and his sons were fisheman too. He said, “Before this happened [the Deepwater Horizons oil catastrophe], I never realized how important and worthwhile the gulf is. I just took it for granted.” This fisherman’s honesty helped me see that we need a different kind of normal that is not blind-sided by disasters. We need a new normal where our priorities for people and nature are always ready and alert for disasters. Simply put, we belong to those who need us and we need to live fully and alertly for others. The call of Jesus still rings out, “Be awake!” |