Iowa

It is early morning and I am sitting in the basement of a home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Yesterday afternoon my daughter and I departed from our home en route to the heartland of America.

She begins two weeks of service with Nazarene Disaster Response as a mental health care professional. 24 hours before we arrived we had no idea that this morning we would awaken in another area of the country devastated by flooding.

Although I showed pictures of Cedar Rapids in our Sunday gathering, I did not expect to be sitting here this morning. God works in mysterious ways.

All of my life I have gone places and my family has accompanied me. Yesterday I realized that my daughter was going someplace and I was accompanying her. It made me proud to know that she is following God's grace in her life.

She begins this morning working with "first responders" who are already weary from working long hours and those who have lost everything. She will work long hours counseling and encouraging others.

Why am I here?

Oh, I forgot to mention, the reason I am here is to live in the "unforced rhythms" of His grace while I look for a place to serve.

Today I will go to an area that was inundated by 12 foot of water. It is a community that has suffered great loss of homes and property. I know that I have nothing to give except what He gives me today. I am going there with one simple question in my mind. "What can I do to remind people there that God's grace is "enough" in times like these?

It is funny to think that you don't have to drive halfway across the country to live with that same question.

In a few minutes I will head out the door. Another day...another adventure.

In the early days of television there was a little phrase that the announcer would say as one program ended and another began. In a deep warm voice, he would say, "Stay Tuned"

He is saying that today to me and I'm lovin' it.