Hurricane Harvey: A Wake Up Call for a Divided Nation

Hurricane Harvey is a national tragedy. 

If you're like me, you've watched the footage through tears - footage of ravaged homes, destroyed landscapes and lost lives. Raising four children of my own, I struggled to watch an interview with the mom who lost four children in Harvey. My heart breaks for her and so many others.

Yet I had a thought while watching the many Texans that stepped up to the call to help their fellow Texans during the storm and in its aftermath...

Hurricane Harvey might be a wake up call.

I believe Hurricane Harvey, and tragedies like it, could be a wake up call for a nation that's becoming more and more polarized. You see this polarization everywhere...

CNN, Fox and MSNBC news. Our Twitter feeds. And should I even mention the vicious comments and fights on Facebook these days?

Just name the topic, and folks are fighting over it - Black Lives Matter, Civil War monuments, immigration, Alt-right marches and demonstrations, and on and on...

Gone are the days when we can discuss, even debate, an issue and say, "You know I totally hear you. But let's just agree to disagree."

People are no longer agreeing to disagree.

People are no longer agreeing about anything, it seems.

Everywhere we look - especially if we look to social media with any regularity - someone is drawing a line in the sand. Standing back, crossing their arms and saying, "Okay so... which side do YOU choose? You are either for me or against me."

I often wonder, why can't we walk together, live together, worship together when we have differing political and social views? Why do we have step on, stomp on others, when their views are different from ours?

Yesterday I read these words from rapper Lecrae in Relevant Magazine, discussing the opposition he faced from brothers and sisters in Christ who disagreed with his position on various social justice issues...

"Why can't I talk about what it's like to be a black man in America? 

Because people say, 'Oh, no! That's too black.' 

If you suffocate my blackness, you've got to realize that's supremacy. ... But because of the tension within American history with blacks and whites, you talk about blackness too much and in some people's minds, it means you're anti-white or if you talk about police brutality, you're all of a sudden anti-police. We don't do well with complexity." 

Amen Brother.

Our country is more complex than ever. And yes, "we don't do well with complexity".

...Until a catastrophic event unleashes on a city, state or nation - a catastrophic event like Hurricane Harvey.

When floods rise and winds tear through brick walls and people fear for their lives, it no longer matters whether the person clinging to life beside you is black or white. Rich or poor. Democrat or Republican. Documented or undocumented.

All that matters is that I am a human soul that wants to live, to thrive. And when I see you next to me, clinging to your life as well, I want you to live, to thrive. I want to do everything I can to help you live and thrive. I am willing to sacrifice my own life to protect you, to lift you up.

It no longer matters how we are different. It no longer matters what opposing views we hold. It no longer matters what side of the line in the sand you stand on.

In tragedies like Hurricane Harvey, people of all colors, cultures and political camps, come together for one purpose, one goal. For the sake of survival, for the preservation of the human soul, all kinds of people walk across the line in the sand and choose to stand together, hand in hand.

Imagine if we, the Church, chose to walk across that sand every day of our lives.

We can learn a lot from Hurricane Harvey.