Laugh or Cry

Dealing with disaster with firmness of faith

06/02/2019

Luke 24:46-53 Jesus said to his disciples: "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.

In the face of terrible natural disasters, like the historic flooding in Fort Smith, people react in different ways. Some people jokingly say: “either laugh or cry.” Here are some ways people have laughed about the flooding, then I’ll mention some ways we’ve cried.

Janice Keating, whose home has four feet of water in it, said, “So, I got in my car to drive to work – put on the easy listening channel to help me relax. What was playing? Frank Sinatra singing, ‘Cry me a river’.” She added: “I burst out laughing.” Philip Stevens, who lives two doors down from Janice also with a flooded home, remarked: “I wonder if my property value will go up, since I now own riverfront property.” He meant his front yard. Mike Charlton sent me a picture of Jim Gaston sitting in his living room couch with two feet of water in the room, pointing his remote toward his television, and the caption read: “I can’t seem to get my remote to work.” It’s always the remote’s fault. Ron Dee and Katie Wright can now stand in their swimming pool and at the same time fish in the Arkansas River because the river now comes up to the edge of their swimming pool. That’s how some people are laughing about this disaster to soften some of the shock.

The laughter doesn’t last long, however, before the tears come trickling back. People experience great grief when they have suffered great loss. But the loss is not only material and monetary; it’s not just physical and financial. There is also an emotional toll this tragedy has taken, as well as a spiritual one. Let me say five things about the emotional and spiritual cost of this flood.

First, a person’s home is more than merely a shelter from the elements; it is a projection of one’s personality. It says something about who you are, just like your clothes say something about you. As you get older, a home almost begins to feel like an extension of your body. That’s why it’s so hard for my elderly parents to leave their home and consider assisted living. To them, leaving their home would feel like amputating a part of their body. So, when someone loses their home the pain is piercing like the cut of a sharp knife. Carl Geffken, Fort Smith City Administrator, said that 640 homes and 324 businesses had been directly affected by the flooding. Those who lost their homes have lost a precious part of their personality, a deep emotional pain.

A second aspect of the anguish people feel is a disconnect between those directly affected by the flooding and those untouched by the flood waters. As you know, I live next to the church and the rectory (my home) is far from the river, so I can go on with life as usual. I can almost forget about the flooding. But for those who lived along the river, life will never be business as usual. I heard one person say cavalierly and uncaringly: “Well, it was their own fault for buying property so close to the river. They should have known it might flood.” Be aware how much our brothers and sisters are hurting, and don’t forget about the flood. That forgetfulness may hurt as much as the flood itself.

A third side of the sorrow is not knowing how long the flooding will persist and the recovery will take. Governor Asa Hutchinson surveyed the Arkansas River from a helicopter last week and remarked: “We’ve never seen this before. We’ve never had to deal with this before, so there are a lot of unknowns.” It is said the stock market hates uncertainty and reacts negatively when things are unknown. It goes down. Human beings hate uncertainty, too, and we hit the panic button when the future is fuzzy. For the Fort Smithians looking for a place to live, the future feels very uncertain. This flood feels like the stock market crash of 1930.

Fourth, however you may feel, remember this three-step coping technique I find useful: “name it, claim it, and tame it.” That is, first put a name on your feelings: angry, anxious, sad, confused, hurt, alone or even numb. Then, second, accept and embrace the feeling instead of trying to deny it or pretend you feel fine. And then third, you’ll slowly move beyond the feelings and begin to sense some peace and purpose. I ran into Philip Stevens getting out of his boat near his flooded house and I stuck out my hand for a handshake. He brushed my hand aside and said, “I need a hug.” That’s a man who has named it, claimed it, and is starting to tame it.

Fifth, let me say a word about our faith as we face this flood. I am praying that this traumatic experience will deepen our faith, but I am not so naïve to think it might not also weaken our faith. Crises make some people run to spirituality, but it makes other people run to the saloon. It can be hard to believe that God is still in charge and that nothing happens outside of his control or without his consent. It’s easy to believe that God is good when all goes well. But it becomes a lot harder when all goes south. That requires believing in God’s goodness even when you cannot see God’s goodness. And Christians have one word for that: they call it “faith.” Faith is believing in God’s goodness without seeing God’s goodness.

The Flood of 2019 may make some of us laugh and may make others cry. But whatever you feel, don’t let your feelings frustrate your faith. Let me leave you with the inspired text of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, the glorious 8th chapter. He asks: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?” Then the great Apostle, who by the way had also endured “dangers from rivers” (2 Corinthians 11:26), answered his own question: “No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That unflinching faith is what we need to face this flood.

Praised be Jesus Christ!