Encouraging Words

The loss of nearly everything reveals the true value of what you have left. Fifteen years ago, the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina took away homes, family photos, and heirlooms, along with the necessities of everyday life—furniture, dishes, towels, sheets, electronics, toys—gone in an instant. When New Orleans Seminary families dressed in hazmat suits to salvage […]

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2) With these words, Paul starts a section of his letter to the church at […]

Never in my life had I felt so overwhelmed. Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans in August 2005, creating the greatest natural disaster in the history of the United States. The levees protecting the city were breached, and 70% of the city, including the campus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, went underwater for […]

Our local cases of COVID seem to be going up when all of us want them to be going down. So, the CDC continues to encourage social distancing, mask wearing in public, and hand washing. We have gotten used to hearing this familiar refrain from those who want us to be safe. But it seems […]

The most important lesson I learned after Hurricane Katrina, one I cherish to this day, is profoundly simple: Do not be afraid! Never in my wildest imaginations could I conceive of an event as dreadful as the storm. The death, the destruction, the loss, the pain, the despair: emotions that I had never experienced to […]