What can one say about the tragedy of the flash flood in Texas? A caller of ours did better than I ever could. And a volunteer firefighter isn't saying anything, but doing what needs to be done.
Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here.
I want to talk about something horribly difficult to talk about. The Texas flooding tragedy. It was so awful. Honestly, over the weekend, I didn't want to hear about it because it was so sad I couldn't engage. I just saw pictures of missing little girls who went to Camp Mystic. It's this big camp right along the river.
750 girls at this camp. And just thinking about how this happened so early in the morning, no electricity, pitch black, girls swept away. I can't go there. It's so awful. Let me tell you what happened on the radio today.
And hopefully this can be helpful in some way. This guy called in, he's a volunteer firefighter in his town in Texas. It's about two hours away from Kerrville where the worst of this flooding happened. And he was on his way with 15 guys
to go and help the local fire department there in whatever way they could be of assistance. And he was gonna spend the night, or spend the week, the week at a friend's house. All the guys were gonna spend a week at a friend's house. So I think we made appropriate honor given to him,
the 15 guys taking a week out of their lives I think of we made appropriate honor given to him, the 15 guys taking a week out of their lives, away from their families, and then this friend putting up all these guys for a week so they could all help out and search for many of these girls who are still missing. So we took that phone call from that wonderful gentleman.
Then we took a Breitbart reporter from Texas who described the scene and what happened. The background of this is there was this massive thunderstorm, 15 inches of rain in just a few hours, very slow moving. And it just happened to be in this one area where all the water drained into this one river.
And our Breitbart reporter said that if this storm was a mile in a different direction, then the water would have drained into multiple different rivers and it wouldn't have been as dramatic of an effect. And then it happened to be 4th of July.
So there were a lot of people camping along the river. If it happened any other day, there wouldn't have been as many people in there. So we talked to our Breitbart reporter who was there, told the whole backstory. And I made some point, because how do we talk about this and then pivot into any other news story that I did? So I was like, I got to try to make some point here. So the point
I decided to make was if you're 99% in on something, life is really hard. If you're 99% in on something, life is really hard.
If you're 100% in, then life is really easy.
And I use the example of working out. I think that's the clearest example. If you're 99% in on running, that sounds pretty good, right? I'm 99% in, but that 1% of not in is a total drag.
Pulling you down, pulling you back, But that 1% of not in is a total drag.
Pulling you down, pulling you back, whining and complaining all the time. Every morning you wake up, ugh, I don't want, ugh, I hate running, ugh. That 1% is brutal. Being 99% in is not good. And you may go still run, but it's just difficult.
But if you're 100% in, life is simple. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's simple. You wake up, get out of bed, go run. That's it, there's no debate, there's no question, you're not questioning, you just get up and do it. There's no other way.
And that's what that caller was, I believe his name was Clint. And he called in, he's telling him what he's going to go do. And I said, well, why are you doing this? What's in it for you? And he said, well, this is what life is all about. And this is what God teaches us to do.
So he's 100% in. He's a volunteer firefighters. He made that decision to be 100% in a long time ago. So there was no question about what he should do. Like, I don't know, should I go to the Kerrville? It's like two hours away. I don't know, I got a lot of stuff going on this week.
This wasn't really in the plan. I don't know. And I'll kind of just be a bother to people. I better just stay back and not do it. Right, so there you go, it's out. That 1%, if he was 99% in it, that 1% would have won. But it was 100% easy, so it was a simple decision. Should I get up and drive and spend a week
camping at my friend's house? Sure, and not only will I do it, of coursepool up and do it together. Cause he's a hundred percent in. So I shared that thought. And then Lee called in from North Carolina and I want to play her comments in full. And then I'll come back with a biblical point.
She makes many, but I'll come back with my own after Lee's phone call. Let's go to Lee over in North Carolina, who can relate a little bit. Lee, good morning.
Good morning. How are you?
Really good. Tell me your story, Lee.
Well, I run a nonprofit called Patriot Relief that started after Helene hit Western North Carolina. And I'm actually headed to a long-term recovery group meeting this morning because we're still trying to get people back home. And your 99% comment, I just had to call in because after police hit North Carolina
and we are trying desperately to find our people and then to get them in cover, we started building shelters. And there's this fellow named Scott from Tennessee who had lost his wife. And when I put out the call for volunteers to come help build shelters, buddy, he got in his car and drove to North Carolina, slept in his car for three days to help me build shelters.
And he never once just said I shouldn't have been here. He found a way to plug in. And so all I can say is that if anybody's listening to this, and your heart is pulled to Texas, you pray first. You donate whatever you can to local orgs like the Kerrville Foundation.
Get your money as local as you can. But if you show up at the right time, the organizations there will plug you in, and it means everything to the people. I just, I can't stress enough, we understand it in North Carolina in a very visceral way
and there is no reason to stop hoping and to stop working. And so everything you said in that segment and everything Clint said, all I could say over here in Dakar was, amen.
What did Scott want and what did he get for his three days of efforts?
Well, what he wanted was to be helpful, right? And he didn't know what he would be able to contribute, but he drove over because we were on the wing in a prayer trying to figure out how to provide shelter because we were dealing with the lack of response from the state and from the feds. We were dealing with the geographical challenge that Clint wasn't trying to explain that for all these politicized people. Understanding the geography is very challenging.
But when Scott got here, it was how do you use me? And then we didn't even know he was sleeping in his car, Mike. We found that out on about day three when we spotted him in the back of his Suburban. Well, the community college had raised their hand, and their kids were helping us build shelters, too. And Dern is the guy that runs the construction program,
didn't carry Scott home and let him sleep at his house. And they became best buddies because Scott told me at the end of that weekend that he had been looking for purpose after his wife passed and being able to help somebody else helped him get his mind back to a place of good and looking forward.
And he didn't know what he needed, except he knew he had to say yes. And that's what a calling looks like. And he answered it, and he came, and then he winds up with a new best friend, and then he's volunteering with the community college kids.
And I mean, my mother's heart was just exploded to watch all the goodness happen. And there's no way to put a dollar value on that. And I'll tell you that the phrase I was told a long time ago was at a point in your life, you learn, then you earn, and then you return and Scott had found his way to return on behalf of everything he knew for somebody he'd never see again.
Okay, hold on. I'm not going to let that gem go away one more time. What, what are the three say it again first you
learn then you earn then you return what's the return explain the return for me yes okay you have a chance to give back and it's not about being a big philanthropist I think some people think about giving back as, oh, I've got to be Rockefeller kind of money, but you don't. You just have to find a way to be helpful
at some point in some way. And I mean, when I started doing relief work because it's my state, it's my people, I had to put my business on hold to do this. And my poor husband says he's married to a whirlwind and I guess he is, but we have the abilities because we've earned and put back money that we said
you know what now's the time to give back and we'll worry about the finances later and I'm grateful for that hundred percent at mindset and I just think that segment just got to me so hard because When you surrender to the Lord, you wind up in places you didn't expect doing work you didn't ask for and the outcome is bigger than you've ever expected.
Oh, there you go. You hit it right there. I'm on the patriotrelieffund.com website and I'm looking at a picture of you, Lee, and a bunch of people behind you. Who are these people, these young people behind you?
Oh, Lord, I don't know which picture it is, but we've been working with high school groups that helped us with supplies. We had community college kids, church groups, homeschoolers, you name it. We've had people of every age and category that have helped us in Western North Carolina. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, that picture you have was one of our supply drives on about day three of the Helene aftermath when we were having to go around
the FEMA roadblocks to get to people. And there's just a certain moment in your life when you realize you take care of people first and you worry about the rules later. And we did not put anybody's safety at risk, but we weren't willing to let anybody suffer while we had a chance to help.
Sure.
Let me, let me selfishly ask you one more question, Lee. So my TV producer said, Hey Slater, you should do a politics by faith on the flooding. And it might one of my podcasts it's like well geez like I know what to say like what the heck what what honey I can tell you so many miracles
I've watched happen in these mountains oh lord we can talk about that for days
give me give me one send me in a direction what good what good what and what God how about this what God would allow this to happen, Lee?
It's not that God allows it to happen. It happens and God shows us what to do through it. We can't be blaming God for everything but then demand that we have our own agency. I mean, you have to pick a lane. God does not protect us from storms, but He brings us through them. And so you look at what happens on the other side, all right, so get this. We did this program at Christmas called Winter Wonderland. It was the brainchild of my girlfriend, Michelle, and some of her schoolteacher friends.
And they said, we're going to put together Winter Wonderland for children in one of the schools who had a great loss of family members and lost everything. But her brainchild, and she's so smart, Michelle Clark, I just got to give her a shout out, she said the children have received a lot, they need to remember how to give as well. And so she put together this program with gifts for moms and dads and grandparents, and the kids could come to the school, pick out gifts for their loved ones,
instead of just getting Santa for themselves. So she was talking to me in the car, and she said, we don't have enough dad gifts, and we've got a bilingual area, actually it's their Spanish speaking area, because you have a lot of agricultural visa workers
in the mountains during apple season and tree season. So we're riding down the road and I said, well, how many do you need? She said, I need 200. Not two seconds later, my phone rings and it's a lady I've never met. She follows me online. She was out of Georgia and she said, I volunteer with Dr. Stanley's ministry.
And I said, like the Dr. Stanley, like Charles Stanley, like the king of the pastor, you're gonna watch at home when you have the flu?" And she said, yes. And I said, all right. And so she said, I work in this ministry, we have, get this, 200 Spanish and English Bibles that are solar operated.
They're little recorded Bibles, like a little iPod. And I said, you got how many? And she said 600, and Michelle's sitting over here in the car looking just white as a sheet. She couldn't believe this was happening. So this lady sent them to us, and then we include them for this program.
Well, then another lady reached out and she said, I finally got access to this one trailer park where some Hondurans live, and they had some trust issues, but they needed to be served. And so we gave her a whole pile of those English and Spanish solar power Bibles and tears come running down their face because all they wanted was to hear God's Word in their language and to allow
to be served. And so that's just one example, but it's that perfect provision what you need, when you need it, so that the people can be served. It's amazing.
All right, Leigh, I'm gonna be one more hard question. What is your prayer for the parents and the families of the kids who have been killed by this flooding? What are you praying for for them? Well, I pray that
they will have a hedge of protection against all of the negative and evil faults that they will be encountering because Satan is the master of chaos and the master of division and God is the God of order. And so they need to be protected to have peace, be protected to have comfort. Those that will get their baby girls back need to have protection against survivor guilt because that's a real thing.
And they're going to feel like there's something that they did wrong that they got their baby girls back, even though they're grateful. And so I just, I pray that they are protected. And one of the prayers that we have to always pray is that they are able to continue saying the names of their baby girls, that the ones that have are able to continue saying the names of their baby girls, that the ones that have gone home to be with the Lord, because
they know the Lord takes children home, and that they not be treated like the social media world treats grief. And I think it's a challenge that we have in today's world. Your timeline moves really quickly in social media, but you're sitting over here buried in grief and the rest of the world has moved on. And I watch it in Western North Carolina every day. There's people that are still suffering and they feel forgotten. So we have to make sure those families don't feel forgotten and
they don't stop feeling protection. This is not why you called in, but are you still doing work and Patriot Relief Fund still need money?
Oh, we can't stop and we won't stop.
And in fact, we were having a meeting last week with about four of the non-profits that
sprang up out of this.
And we were just discussing how obviously we weren't the grifters because we're still here. And there were a lot who came in and made money and moved on. But the need for housing is great. Obviously, we weren't the grifters because we're still here and there were a lot who came in and made money and moved home. But the need for housing is great. The need for trauma support is still here.
Because you remember every time it rains, our people feel a sense of panic and they hear the wind and they feel a panic. And the same things will happen in Texas. And so we are still serving. We are still getting people back in houses and still figuring out how to help them put their lives together so that they will not feel forgotten.
And eventually, over the next 12 months, we'll have our structure in place at Patriot Relief to have chapters around the country. So we've already served Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and we're figuring out how to make this thing scale. Because as it turns out, if you are the boots on the ground,
which is what they're discovering in Kerrville right now, there's a power they have that the big organizations have lost touch with. And so that's why I tell people, give as locally as you can to take care of people where their needs are.
Okay, you didn't call for this reason, but I will give it out, Patriotrelieffund.com. Patriotrelieffund.com. Lee, you are wonderful. Thank you for calling in.
Well, thank you for taking my call and thank you for what you're doing. And I'm just so grateful and thank you. You're the best. Thank you, Lee.
How wonderful is all that? So what are we to do in a tragedy like this? I don't think anything I say here would be of any comfort to the families who lost little girls, daughters, and loved ones in this tragedy. I believe you need to know the truth well before tragedy hits in order to be able to weather the unimaginable pain that losing a child like this would bring. A couple of things that are true.
This is a fallen world. God remains sovereign and good. It is also true that the natural state in this fallen world is not to have anything. Not to have a house, not to have clothes, not to have food, not to have beautiful children. The natural state in a fallen world is nothing but suffering and toil and pain. That's the natural state. We are spoiled. We are spoiled. We think, especially pagans, think that the natural
world is health and perfection and wonder all the time. Whatever I want, all the time. That's not it. That's not the natural state. Similar idea, pagans think that people are born good. Same idea. And they believe that the world is good, naturally. But Christians know that human nature is not born good and should also know that the natural state of existence is not roses. We've been spoiled with so many blessings that God has given us. Every second that we have a good thing is a blessing from God. It is also true that suffering is a blessing too. Romans 8 17. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time, the sufferings of this present time, horrible flooding, little girls killed, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. So I read a couple commentaries on this verse that I think are noteworthy. If indeed we suffer with him, we will suffer. If we want the inheritance, we will suffer. We will share in the sufferings that exist in this life before we go to heaven. And we suffer with him. Part of being in error with Christ is suffering with Him,
like He suffered on the earth on the cross. I want to quote at length here Alexander McLaren. He was a Bible, a Scottish minister in the mid-1800s. He wrote a commentary. He said, Brethren, you and I have, each of of us one in one way, one another, all in some way, all in the right way, none in too severe a way, none in too slight a way to tread the path of sorrow. He says, is it not a blessed thing that we go along that dark valley of the shadow of death down into which the sunniest paths
go sometimes, to come amidst the twilight and the gathering clouds. Is it not a blessing to come upon tokens that Jesus has been on the road before us? They tell us that in some trackless lands, when one friend passes through the pathless forests, he breaks a twig ever and anon as he goes, that those who come after may see the traces of his having been there, and may know that they are not out of the road. Oh, when we are journeying through the murky night and the dark woods of
affliction and sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of his foot and the brush of his hand as he passed, and to remember that the path he trod he has hallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrances and hidden strengths in the remembrance of him as in all points tempted like as we are, bearing grief for us, bearing grief with us, bearing grief like us." We are called to suffer with Jesus. He says, trials have no meaning unless they are means to an end.
The end is the inheritance and sorrows here, as well as the spirits work here, are the earnest is the inheritance. And sorrows here, as well as the spirit's work here, are the earnest of the inheritance. Measure the greatness of the glory by what has preceded it." Ooh, check this out. God takes all these years of life and all the sore trials and afflictions that belong inevitably to an earthly career and work them, into the blessedness that shall come. If a fair measure of the greatness of any result of productive power be the length of time that is taken for getting it ready, we can dimly conceive what that joy must be,
for which seventy years of strife and pain and sorrow are but a momentary preparation, and what must be the weight of that glory which is the counterpoise and consequence to the afflictions of this lower world." I think the point here is that the struggles we go through in our life, it's just a down payment on the inheritance of the glory that is to come. And every year of hardship that we live through on earth,
it's just, it's preparation. Like if you judge the value of something by how long it took to prepare, I mean, you've lived a whole life with so much suffering in it, but what does that mean for the joy that is to come? And this isn't some like self-help,
mamsy-pamsy, this is Romans 8 we're talking about here. This mid-1800s Scottish preacher goes on, the further the pendulum swings on the one side, the further it goes up on the other. The deeper God plunges the comet into the darkness out yonder, the closer does it come to the sun at its nearest distance, and the longer does it stand basking and glowing in the full blaze of the glory from the central orb.
So in our revolution, the measure of the distance from the farthest point of our darkest earthly sorrow to the throne may help us to measure of the closeness of the bright, perfect, perpetual glory above when we are on the throne. For if so be that we are sons, we must suffer with him. If so be that we suffer, we must be glorified together." Joseph Benson wrote a commentary, like 1810 or so, he said of this scripture that we may be also glorified together.
He said, "...with him, which we cannot be in any other way than by suffering with him. He was glorified in this way. And so must we be. Well, how about that? If Jesus is glorified through suffering, then we must as well. Here, the apostle passes to a new proposition on which he enlarges in the
following verses, opening a source of consolation to the children of God in every age, that's what we need, by drinking at which they may not only refresh themselves under the severe sufferings, but derive new strength to bear them with fortitude. This promise is what we're drinking to refresh ourselves from these severe sufferings. But not only that, but also to get new strength so we can bear it with fortitude. Amazing. And here's the encouragement. It comes from Peter, 1 Peter
4 to 13. To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exaltation. What kind of suffering? All the kinds. Disease, death, natural disasters, losing a child, any hardship that may destroy your faith and lead you away from God, that's suffering. But don't let it lead you away from God. Let it bring you closer to him.
If or when something like this happens to me, I'm going to be an absolute mess. And I would have to remind myself over and over, over and over constantly,
every second of the day, the truth of the Bible about the suffering of this world,
about how children go to heaven and the promise of seeing them again.
I had to remind myself of things that are true that still be a mess. All of this is so easy to say, so easy to even know, not easy to live. I want the confidence of Lee, and I wanna be 100% in like Clint from Texas. All I can suggest is whatever suffering you're going through
is to keep going. There's a famous story that was first told by John Newton, early 1700s. He said, suppose a man was going to New York to take possession of a large estate. John Newton was in England.
So New York was very far away in the 1700s. So very long journey. So you're going to, it's a huge journey to go to New York and you're gonna get this huge estate, it's gonna be amazing. Just imagine giant house, swimming pool, the whole thing that works. And his carriage should break down a mile before he got to the city.
Oh, and it obliged him to walk the rest of the way. What a fool we should think him. If we saw him wringing his hands, blubbering out all the remaining mile, my carriage is broken. My carriage is broken. You're one mile away from the estate. You are so close to heaven.
Keep going.
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