Terribleness gets tiring.

Dear Friends,

You've surely seen the heartbreaking images of devastation this week. For me today was the most dramatic – partly because I lived in central New Jersey and the pictures remind me of places I'd actually been, and partly because no one really saw this coming four days after the hurricane made landfall in Louisiana.

As far as what we can do, Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD) put together this notice (if you're not familiar, ERD is a branch of the Episcopal Church and they do wonderful work all over the world):

Episcopal Relief & Development is working closely with the Diocese of Louisiana and other regional partners in what will be a long-term response. Your generous gift will help alleviate suffering for the most vulnerable residents impacted by Hurricane Ida. Please visit episcopalrelief.org/hurricane-relief to make a gift today.

While money is what's needed now, I hope in time we can find ways to be more directly involved in that long-term response. If you have ideas, or family members in the Louisiana area, I'd love to see if we can find ways to help over the coming months.

And of course we can pray. I imagine that the demands on your prayers are pretty high right now. There are all the tragedies of illness and addiction and broken relationships with which life is always beset, then a whole series of national and international disasters, and all this taking place against the backdrop of pandemic that growing worse, not better.

It can be exhausting emotionally. Terribleness gets tiring.

It is true that we must bear each other's burdens (as Paul says in Romans), but it is also true that we must lay these burdens before the Lord. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." In our hearts and spirits we must give these things to him, so that in our minds and bodies we have continue to have the ability to support and love and care for one another.

I pray this coming Labor Day weekend is a day of rest for you. Make room to rest your spirits too. Let us go to the Lord with all that is wrong in the world.

In Christ,

Fr. Andrew