God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” So wrote the famous Christian author C.S. Lewis in his book “The Problem of Pain.”
Judging by the stories coming out of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Lewis’ words were prophetic. God did not cause the disaster, but He is using it to speak to the hearts of many.
One Louisiana evacuee living in a home provided by an Alabama Baptist church recently prayed to receive Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. Katrina’s winds and water had stripped away all of the material things that had consumed her life. She had come face to face with death. As a result, there was an openness to God that had not existed before the storm.
This survivor’s story is not unusual. It is being repeated over and over again. People who were too busy for God are now examining their relationship to God.
This openness is not surprising. Studies indicate that people are more open to God in times of crisis than in most other times of life.
One author wrote, “A well-tested principle of church growth is that people are most responsive to a change in lifestyle (becoming a Christian or responsible church member) during periods of transition” like crises. Perhaps it is because crises most clearly demonstrate that one is not in charge of one’s own life. Crisis times bring one face to face with one’s own limits.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, 98 percent of those who experienced the attack needed to talk to someone about what happened, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Many of those conversations dealt with spiritual matters. The study reported that 90 percent of those affected asked, “Where is God in this situation?”
This kind of openness provides a window of opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. But before one can share the gospel, one must listen to the stories of the hurting. A characteristic of people in crisis is the need to tell their stories. Listening to their stories establishes relationships. It demonstrates care. It illustrates credibility.
Listening helps one learn about the individual telling the story and helps the storyteller clarify values and issues raised by the crisis.
The listener is not there to defend God or explain why events happened. Natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina illustrate the mystery that exists in human life. They are beyond explanation.
The listener is there to demonstrate by presence God’s caring love as well as one’s own care and love. As God provides opportunity, one can share the importance of Christ in one’s own life and how faith in Jesus Christ can make a difference in the life of the hurting. Christians are living proof that God can be trusted in times of crisis to meet one’s deepest needs.
Alabama Baptists from at least 20 different associations have served on the front lines of disaster relief in feeding units, chain saw teams, cleanup teams and more along the Gulf Coast. But practically every area of the state is involved in disaster relief as Baptists minister to those who fled from Katrina’s wrath. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Alabama Baptist churches are involved in providing housing, furnishing, clothing, food and other needs to evacuees.
All of this is good. God cares about the physical well-being of His children and so should His church. That is why Alabama Baptists will be caring for people once the camera lights are turned off and the emergency nature of the crisis fades.
But caring for physical needs alone is not enough. God wants all people everywhere to know Him through faith in Jesus Christ. For the moment, there is an openness in Katrina’s victims to consider spiritual issues. They know the tenuousness of life. They recognize the need for God’s grace and forgiveness.
Only Christians, including Alabama Baptists, can respond to this window of opportunity.
As you care for the physical needs of evacuees in your area, become their friends. Listen to their stories. Be prepared to share an appropriate, encouraging Scripture passage. Offer to pray for the evacuees and pray with them.
Then, when God provides the opportunity, share with them about the love of God made known in Jesus Christ. Maybe, like the Louisiana woman mentioned above, another person will accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Experience teaches the window of openness to God will close as people fall back into a lifestyle of busyness and materialism. Before that happens, help those in your community hear God as He calls to them in the midst of their pain.
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