Moore, OK Chapel Message

Below is a message I gave at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital Chapel Service.

OHH Chapel

May 25, 2013

Chaplain Steve Gillihan

We know that the whole of creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ~Romans 8:22

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ~2 Corinthians 12:9

For the past week I have been struggling with what to say this Sunday.

We have seen the pictures of the monstrous, powerful, awesome tornado that went through Moore, ripping a path of terrifying destruction two miles wide and seventeen miles long, with a wind force of such magnitude that possessions have been found as far away as Arkansas.

All I know is that when Humanity fell in the Garden of Eden, Creation fell with us. Rather than there just being life in this world, from then on life and death has existed side by side. And not just for humans, but for nature as well. Beauty and ugliness. Good and evil.

Friday at Mercy’s Medical Tent, I spoke with a volunteer who has been working in the heart of the devastation. He was suffering from shellshock. Eventually the magnitude of the destruction had taken a toll on him emotionally. That night as I was working my shift at OU Med, I was listening to the chaplains there tell the horrific stories of working in the ER and Trauma units that night.

But on the other hand, back at Mercy’s Medical tent on 4^th street, I was also overwhelmed by the magnitude of love and compassion that I was seeing all around me. At the church grounds we were stationed at, I saw mountains of clothes that were being brought in for the victims. I smelled the grilled chicken sandwiches that were being cooked and handed out non-stop. Every church seemed had been turned into a relief center. I saw tent after tent lining SW 4^th street with mountains of bottled water, clothing, even places where families could recharge their cell phones. I spoke to one woman who had significant damage to her home. She was pushing a shopping cart full of clothing. I asked her if she had enough food and she laughed and said, “Oh, chaplain, we have more food than we can eat!” I met and talked with volunteers from Utah, Arkansas, and Wisconsin who came not with church or relief groups, but just on their own, because they wanted to help.

Standing at the back parking lot of the church property, I looked across the field at the devastation of the tornado. Homes ripped apart. The land marred with debris. Then I turned around and saw I don’t know how many people, donating clothing, passing out hot meals, free medical attention being provided, volunteers walking past me to head across the field to help with the clean up. I was standing between such ugly destruction on the one side, and the beauty of loving compassion on the other.

This is the world we live in. Human beings are capable of such ugliness and cruelty, yet also of such compassion and beauty. Nature is the same way. It’s like this created world reflects its inhabitants.

I moved here from Denver. I clearly remember the awesome beauty of the snowcapped Rocky Mountains, and how they filled me with awe. I also remember seeing rescue helicopters flying over my head, on the way to Long’s Peak, to rescue hikers who have been injured by the treacherous nature of such beauty. I remember sitting in a lawn chair at sunrise, surrounded by a small herd of elk—such majestic creatures—grazing all around me. And incredible experience.  I also remember seeing a bull elk chasing tourists, those huge, dangerous antlers pointed right at them, ready to wreck havoc because they dared to get too close during mating season when these majestic animals can be particularly dangerous.

Nature is filled with such awesome beauty, and such awesome danger. Just like we can be.

As a trauma chaplain, I’ve seen patients brought in with ugly wounds inflicted upon them by another human being. Stabbings. Gun shot wounds. Beatings with a baseball bat. And then this week I’ve seen so many people rushing to Moore, Oklahoma with overwhelming love and compassion that is just awe-inspiring and deeply moving.

Not just as people, but also with nature, we live with the duality of the fall from Eden, where life is filled with love and hate, beauty and ugliness, compassion and violence, awesome beauty and awesome destruction, good and evil, life and death. As it is the way of Humanity, so it is the way of Nature that fell with us.

And in this, God promises us that His grace is sufficient. And His grace more often than not comes to us through others, the ones He sends to us to give us a bottle of water, a hot meal, clothing, medical treatment, shelter, even a shoulder to cry on, a person who will pray with and for us. This is when we, the Created, best reflect our Creator. It is when we best reflect the love of God.

People experience the love of God

by being loved

by people who love God.

I don’t know how this week has been for you, how this devastating tornado effected you or yours. I just want to remind you that God’s grace is sufficient in this world of beauty and danger.