Like me, I'm sure you've been touched by all the scenes coming out of Texas.  Sure, the water levels and devastation are mind blowing but they're not nearly as impressive as the human scenes.  People helping people.  Providing for their neighbors.  Saving strangers.  Working for the good of others.  All races.  All ages.  Beautiful, heroic acts.  One after another after another.

I saw a clip of a lady walking through water up to her neck to get to a stranger in a slowly sinking car.  A group of people forming a human chain to rescue an elderly man from his truck.  Miles and miles of boat owners caravanning from Louisiana and Mississippi, and who knows where else, to see if they could help. None of those people wore a uniform or a badge or held any sort of position which obligated them to put themselves in harm's way for the sake of a stranger.  They didn't care if the people who needed help were black, white, or green.  Democrat or Republican.  Liberal or conservative.  They were just going to help their fellow man survive.    

I can't help but think about the difference between last week and this week.  If you watched the news, last week, you'd have thought that our country was so divided that it was on the verge of collapse.  You got the idea that America was so full of hate and bigotry that we were in for some major racial explosion.  You may have even wondered if there was any place you could go in this great country to find peace between liberal and conservative viewpoints.  But, after watching a week's worth of stories that illustrate quite the opposite, it's funny how your whole attitude and outlook can change.  Just from the pictures and stories we're fed constantly through TV, newspaper, social media, radio.  All day.  Every day.  Good or bad.  They affects us.

I guess we can choose to use all of our energy to destroy inanimate objects in the name of unity.  We can cheer and chant for ourselves when they come down like we've accomplished something big and made the world a better place.  We can use our megaphones and signs to scream about unity.  We can get in the faces of those we disagree with and drown out their voices with all of our yelling about what we see as the problem.  We can use our words and platforms to magnify where we differ instead of where we're unified.  We can even sit on the sidelines and talk about someone's shoes while they're engaged in a gesture of unity and pick apart their every single word or movement. 

Or, we can just live out unity.  Wherever we are.      

Like the people in Texas are doing so beautifully. 

I don't know about where you live but it seems like, no matter where I go, these days, people, black and white, are making an extra effort to make eye contact, smile, hold the door a little longer, and just greet each other....not that it's such an unusual occurrence down here or anything.  Regardless of what's said about us, Mississippi is pretty good at that.  It's just the way we are in general, but it seems especially so now.  It's almost like, without using words, we're all just saying to each other, "Hey, I know you've seen some pretty hateful stuff on TV, lately, but that's not me and I know what I've seen probably isn't you either." 

I'm praying that God will give the storm victims all the strength, protection, provision, and patience they need until things are normal for them again.  And praying that the stories and heroic acts that the rest of us are seeing will give us hope and encouragement that we're still one nation. Under God.  Who help each other.  And do the right thing in time of crisis. 

Indivisible.

No matter what the news tries to tell us.



God bless America.  And God bless the people of Texas.