“How helpful it was for the church to be ‘theologically prepared’ for suffering. Scripture presents to us a God who is sovereign over every detail of his creation, including the catastrophes, and that God is working all things for his glory and our good. One of the most encouraging things that I observed as a pastor was that in the midst of our people losing homes, businesses, and having to relocate, they weren’t walking around asking, ‘Why, God?’”
“In the day of a catastrophe the old familiar script just won’t work and there aren’t any good books that will have all the answers, but if your ear is tuned to God, he will lead you through the rubble!” -Pastor Collins
Collins’s final thoughts about what he learned through Katrina are worth remembering: “What informs our present thoughts about how we would face such a disaster again is what we experienced about how God is in the midst of disasters. He opens doors of favor, he provides in ways you didn’t script, he brings wisdom that you don’t have.” “What becomes clear,” Collins says, “is that God already has a plan in place for the day of those events. So, if I could encourage any form of preparation before such a disaster, it would be to learn to live your life and to lead your church in the regular habit of ‘God dependence.’
“Don’t grow dependent on your familiar and traditional ways of doing church to the neglect of receiving from the Holy Spirit,” Collins says. “In the day of a catastrophe the old familiar script just won’t work and there aren’t any good books that will have all the answers, but if your ear is tuned to God, he will lead you through the rubble!”