The Narrow Gate: Day 4 - The Greatness of Soul

The Narrow Gate

Welcome to the continuation of my blog, post-seminary. Ministry and evangelism have brought me back home to Chattanooga. I welcome your company on my journey.

The original blog, Down In Mississippi, shared stories from 2008 and 2009 of the hope and determination of people in the face of disaster wrought by the hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, of work done primarily by volunteers from churches across America and with financial support of many aid agencies and private donations and the Church. My Mississippi posts really ended with the post of August 16, 2009. Much work, especially for the neediest, remained undone after the denominational church pulled out. Such is the nature of institutions. The world still needs your hands for a hand up. I commend to you my seven stories, Down in Mississippi I -VII, at the bottom of this page and the blog posts. They describe an experience of grace.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Day 4 - The Greatness of Soul

Robert Fagles in a discourse on Sophocles’ Antigone stated, “…in certain heroic natures unmerited suffering and death can be met with greatness of soul which, because it is purely human, brings honor to us all.”

Today, I’ve been assessing the work to do on homes we have received to repair, from Gulfport to Pearlington. I have four or five more I have not yet gotten to, and I know more are coming before I get these done. Some need only a few pieces of drywall and a new door, others far more, new roof, tear down to studs, you name it.

After dinner tonight during the devotional (we have a large repeat group from the Presbytery of Cincinnati and from Colorado) one person remarked that when he faced his first home Monday the question he asked then seems so hollow now, “Why would they want to stay in that house?”

I’ve had people remark a similar question in the past, “Why don’t they just move somewhere else since they know another storm will come?”

This gentleman speaking after dinner said that his group worked hard all week to repair this woman’s home and today they stood beside her as she looked at this work completed by strangers; her gratefulness and her joy, the relief in her eyes that now she has a home for her family that she could not afford to repair herself was the answer to the question.

1 comment:

Pedro said...: Henry, Looks like you're pretty busy. Keep us updated!; April 7, 2008 at 3:05 PM

Gates

The gate pervades the Good News. Peter entered the temple gate after the Jesus’ arrest to deny him. Poor Lazarus lay at the rich man's gate, longing for the crumb's from the table, while dogs licked his sores. The blind, lame and paralyzed lay at the Sheep Gate at the Jerusalem temple waiting at the pool with five porticoes for healing water. Jesus warned of the easy road and wide gate to material ease and spiritual destruction and calls us to the hard road and narrow gate to the waters of life.

necessary disclaimer

This blog is created solely to communicate to my brothers and sisters how one person sees adversity bringing out the greater character of humanity. It's early part relating connection to the volunteer relief effort in Mississippi after Katrina and later work with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program and the Presbyterian Church(USA) is solely through my participation in them; this blog does not carry any sponsorship from these fine organizations or purport to speak for them. All original content is that of the writer who holds the copyright to all original writings and art or other works (See Creative Commons License above). Every effort is made to identify content from other sources which have been obtained from open internet sources. It's more recent content contains sermons and lessons used in preaching and teaching. The url to scripture are obtained via http://bible.oremus.org unless otherwise indicated.

Texts quoted from oremus bible viewer are from "New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved." and "New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved."