God of this City

As probably everyone is aware, major storms ripped through the southeast the last week of April leaving in their wake destruction and devastation unseen in decades. My heart was deeply burdened for all of them most specifically the Tuscaloosa, Alabama area. This is where my school is, where I have friends, where I've spent time. I wanted to drop everything and go there for as long as necessary and to anything that needed to be done, but jobs and responsibilities here would not allow.
Instead, I prayed for everyone there and in surrounding areas that were affected, for the workers going to help, for the crews cleaning up and rebuilding, for everyone. Then during a Wednesday night F.U.E.L. session at church, it hit me. The people in these areas have been forgotten already by the media and countess others, what better to do for them than remind them that God is still the God of their city?! And that's exactly what I did. I collected pictures from various ones of them who have gone to help and compiled a video with Chris Tomlin's version of God of this City.
 I am sharing it here so that we too might be reminded that the people in these and many other areas are still at a complete loss as to where to begin the process of picking up the pieces, and so the people right in the thick of it can be reminded that God is still right there even in the midst of such terrible disaster.

Mercy

Remember as kids when we used to sit around and compare bruises and scars asking how we got them, and we would play games where we locked fingers between people and squeezed until one person was in enough pain to yell out, "mercy"?
It seems to me that lately mercy is something that has become completely foreign to so many people. More often than not I hear of people seeking some way to get even or to balance the score instead of just walking away. Why is this I wonder? I know all the "it's human nature" and "it's just the way things are" phrases so please spare me your rendition. Frankly I don't want to hear any more of them. I would much rather hear people giving mercy to one another than taking their time and wasting mine with more excuses about how they can't possibly grant mercy to this person or that who have so wronged them.
Hear me out, this is not something new nor is this seeking the impossible out of people. Refer to Matthew 18:21 and following. Rather it has become such that every person feels they are entitled to something from everyone around them. My question to that is, "Just who do we think we are?!" No person on this planet owes us anything, and even if they do, in the big scheme of this life, does it really matter? Understand of course that I am a firm believer in repaying a debt owed, or at the very least bartering to repay it, but I do not believe that we have any right to expect things of people any more than we expect of ourselves.
Of late my heart has been conflicted because of this very scenario in more than one arena and it makes me hurt and feel emotions that truly are not healthy. I sit and hear all the bickering around me and can not help but think of all the people that live in places just south of here, or east of here who have been completely uprooted by horrendous storms over the last week. Yes, it's true our basement flooded and I had a good hour of complete mental breakdown, but I also have friends and family who share a mutual love and respect for me and likewise I do for them who came to my rescue and saved me from myself and helped to reroute well over two hundred gallons of water from our basement and then remedy the problem out in the rain digging trenches and ditches to create and alternate path for the water. Yes, I feel extremely blessed to have them around me and know that they will be there if needed. In spite of how my life has been the last week, I ache for the people who now have nothing but the life in them and the clothes on their bruised bodies. A part of me is torn wishing I could be there to help them, especially in Tuscaloosa since it's so much a part of my life (ROLL TIDE), and God willing I'll get down there later when the initial helpers are exhausted and need to return to their lives.
In lieu of all these things, and many more, the old saying rings truer than ever. 'You never know what a person is going through until you walk a mile in their shoes.' How about we all remember to realize this fact and quit being so quick to expect we are owed something? I have a charm on one of my bracelets that simply says, "Get over it" and that nearly sums up everything. There is nothing in this life that we can't get over. Don't go rolling your eyes at me either. If you don't believe me, hear this, you haven't walked a mile in MY shoes any more than I have in yours. If you want to hear some of the hurts and turmoils I've been through in this life, and some of the hell I've come out of and walked through myself and with my friends and family, by all means, ask me. I will be happy to bare myself and my scars for you. Just as we sat around as kids and asked each other about where we got our bruises, cuts, scrapes and scars, we need to do the same as grown-ups.
After all, everyone has a story.