Getting What We Want

They say that pictures speak more than a thousand words and the photo on the front page of the paper this morning does just that. At first glance you'd think it was a photo from some poverty-striken village in Uganda, but no....it's a picture from right here in the U.S.; in New Orelans. A woman, either having fainted or died, is being carried away, not on a stretcher, not by paramedics, but hanging in the hands of three regular citizens.

When I read the news reports of tens of thousands of people being trapped without electricity, food or water, in unsanitary conditions, I just want to cry out "How can this happen in America?!!" It's a reaction to my compassion, outrage and sense of justice, I know. It's also a reaction to my idealism, assuming our country, with it's ability to help in so many other areas of the world, and it's affluence, can do just about anything.

And then the reality of this situation sets in...and I see the desparate faces of those on the news or in the papers who are displaced and scrambling for hope. And I think about the scripture in Matthew 18:19 that says "truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." And I feel certain it wouldn't be hard to find just one other person to agree with me that these people need help....and need it now!

And I wonder....how will God do what we agree needs to be done?