Wow! What an amazing two weeks we’ve had in Wilson County, Tennessee! The devastation of a tornado and now the threat of the Coronavirus have stressed many of us in ways we would have never imagined a few days ago.
With any crisis, there is an initial response, assessment of needs, and then mobilization of resources to meet the needs and work toward recovery.
We often think in terms of getting things back they way they were. We gravitate to the familiar, but what if God has given us a moment to build something better? We live in an amazing community and it has shined brightly during these dark days, but what if this is our time to re-create rather than to simply recover?
So let’s consider at least three ways we can rebuild something better than ever.
Keep caring about the same things.
Did you notice how polarized we can be until a tornado or a virus comes through town? Not only do tornados not care who we vote for, the army of volunteers who cut limbs off our fence and packed up our personal items don’t care either. And tehe healthcare professionals who work to keep us safe don’t ask our political affiliation before serving and sacrificing for us.
Crises have a way of reminding us that although everyone in our community does not think the same way about religion and politics, for example, we all still care about the same things. We all care about helping people who are hurting. We all care about kids being well fed. We all care about people ravaged by addiction. We all care about our schools. Perhaps these days of crisis will help us rally more often around the things we care about and show more grace and kindness where we differ.
Keep giving until everyone flourishes.
Our community is full of incredibly generous people. Even before this last series of challenges, we’ve seen individuals and churches live with open hands and serve one another well. But particularly following the tornado, we’ve seen churches, businesses, and government entities sacrifice to put other people first.
Perhaps from this tragedy, we can see a new posture of generosity emerge. We know that well-intentioned help can sometimes result in doing more harm than good, but what would it look like if we reordered our lives in such a way that gave every single person in our community the extra help they need to flourish?
What could happen among the 180 foster kids that need a home or among the almost 600 homeless students in our county if we slowed down, created a little more margin in our lives, and invested in these precious souls? What kind of mentoring programs and foster and adoptive programs can we step into during this next season? Maybe from this rubble, we will see single moms and elderly folks in a new way and help them rise up stronger than ever before.
Keep cooperating so that we serve our neighbors better for longer.
I’ve heard several reports from disaster relief professionals about the high level of cooperation that exists between the various sectors of our community. Silos between churches, businesses, schools, non-profits, and government are almost non-existent. We all understand that we are in this together.
What could we do now to build upon that high level of cooperation? How can we develop this network of cooperation so that we consistently learn from each other and work together on things that matter? What can we do to share resources and wisdom with one another so that everyone in our community has the opportunity to live the life God intended for them to live?
Maybe recovery is too small of a goal for Wilson County, Tennessee. Maybe returning back to wholeness isn’t the finish line after all. Maybe from these difficulties God is calling us to greater things. I, for one, am counting on it.
Photo by Jens Behrmann on Unsplash.