The Lost And Found Lounge, Part Deux
March 7th, 2007 at 7:20 am by Dee O'Neil Andrews
The huge sign plywood sign was the most prominent feature of the place. It was painted white with the words "LOST and FOUND LOUNGE" hand lettered with broad strokes of black paint and set out by the four lane roadway outside Waveland, Mississippi, one of the most poor and devastated areas hit by Katrina.
It was a bright Sunday afternoon but the parking lot of the ramshackle place was filled with nondescript vehicles, many of them of the pickup kind. There was no sign of life and one could but wonder what was going on inside there on such a sunny bright Lord's Day. Was Willie Nelson's "Seven Spanish Angels" sung with Ray Charles blaring from the juke box or was it a more maudlin tune about a woman who'd left him for another man.
It was a typical Mississippi juke joint but much more likely filled with redneck type regulars and drop ins than blacks, like those of the Delta up in northwest Mississippi over near the big river by the same name. Such small dilapidated roadhouses litter the southern landscape with a loud afront to the more estheticly minded of the local citizenry.
I still wanted to wander in there to talk to some guys. I doubt that any women were present, or at least not many. These are mostly places for men, although among the real juke joints of the poor in the Delta, women are part of the scene.
I just wondered who these men were and what their lives were like that they had to seek sodden alcoholic solace in the Lost and Found Lounge on such a beautiful Sunday afternoon. How desperate must their lives be.
When my younger son Mark was about 10 he said that when he grew up he wanted to either be a missionary or a bartender and I thought that those two career choices were not quite so opposite as might first appear. After all, do not good bartenders tend to their flocks and listen and minister to their patrons in their own awkward, inept ways?
As we drove on along the ravaged Mississippi coast and saw more and more destruction not much changed from a year and a half ago I kept thinking about that sign and those cars and trucks and the men inside and wondered if I would have anything in common with them.
In some ways I think not, but in others I'm not so sure. What different lies in the hearts of these men that I have not seen in my own life at one time or another? Have I not "been there" in desperation and despair in tragically grim circumstances in my younger adult years? Yes, I was a Christian and I had faith. Always I had faith. But I could not see a way out for me. Not one positive option in my life whatsoever.
Maybe those men in that place felt the same way. I feel sure some of them did and I said a prayer for them.
My life has seen been rescued and redeemed by my Father and I am in a very good, loving, wonderful place right now in my life, but should I not seek out those who are still hurting and minister to them?
We drove for miles and miles Sunday afternoon directly along the Mississippi coast where Katrina hurled in and it was very sad and broken indeed. It makes one hurt to see the heavy losses and the hopelessness that seems to hang over the quiet seascape with a heavy pall.
We drove through Waveland, Long Beach, Gulfport, Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis - it all looked the same. Sad. Very, very sad.
On the way home we decided to take the slow ferry from Pass Christian over to the west to Bay St. Louis. The four lane bridge across St. Louis Bay was totally washed away by Katrina and the new, higher one is still under construction. We were in no hurry, so we parked and waited for the ferry to dock and unload so that we could traverse the mouth of the bay into the gulf.
The afternoon had turned cool, cloudy and windy with a cool front coming through from the west, followed by the sun. We saw rows of curlique clouds bordering the high mass of clouds like a heavenly fringe and it was a sight neither of us had ever seen. Sitting in our car listening to NPR while we crossed the bay we watched the water, the other vehicles and their drivers and the U. S. and Mississippi flags flying in the wind from the top of the ferry boat.
It was a 20 minute ride and very peaceful and lovely in a down to earth sort of way. What better way, I thought, to spend a Sunday afternoon. Much better than sitting in the Lost and Found Lounge, for sure.
Why was I so struck by the sign for the lounge and why have I thought about it so much since? I think because it was a reminder that we are all lost at some time or other in our lives and search very desperately and resolutely to be found. We want to belong somewhere, to fit in, to find community and to be with fellow believers in some cause.
I have found my way, but I need to be mindful of those who haven't. They are all around me everywhere, even along the roadside going into Waveland, Mississippi in a dark, dank, dingy place where the only solace is each other and booze.
Lord, help me to be open to those who are hurting and who seek solace who are all around me but who many times I don't see. Send them my way so that I can share with them my good news and a better way in life. Even beyond this life.
That is my prayer today. And I also pray for those we passed by Sunday in the Lost and Found Lounge that they may find faith and peace in their lives in some better way. We passed a lot of small churches meeting in quonset huts and shelters next to shattered big buildings and we saw lots of workers outside many of them, so I can only hope some of them will reach out to those wandering souls, too.
I think the Lost and Found Lounge is a metaphor for all of our lives. It just depends on the particular circumstances of our lives at the moment which side of the equation we stand on. As for me - I was lost, now I'm found.
Thank God for the victory in Jesus.
Where do you stand today? If you want to share any hurts with us in comment we will all gather round you and pray for you. That is the kind of community of Christian bloggers we are. We've all collectively been in all the kinds of places there can be in this world and understand. We may not have been in the Lost and Found Lounge literally, but metaphorically and it not the best place in the world to be, especially as a Christian, but I have been there myself and I'm sure at least some of you have been, too.
I love you all and pray for each of you readers and commenters daily. I consider all of you my friends. People like Karen and Judy and Janice and Royce and Doyce. (They should be twins, shouldn't they? They both asked to be prayed for by name after reading my Lost and Found post Monday and I will honor those requests.)
Cheers & Blessings to you today, dear friends! Dee
Your prayer that God would send people your way has been a prayer that God has been faithful to answer when I’ve prayed it for myself. When Jesus said “Go into all the world and make disciples…,” my understanding is that it should be translated, “As you go your way, make disciples ….” Not only does God send people our way, as we go our way, he will place them in the path. Our role is to keep our eyes open and see through the Spirit of Christ.
On another note (probably a Db), I find it amazing that our government will immediately respond to a natural disaster anywhere in the world with billions of dollars of aid, but Mississippi and Louisianna continue to lie in ruins and the government seems to not care.
I’ll ask for prayers on 2 fronts:
1. First, for my son Steven. Steven is a Junior on our Varsity baseball team who is currently in a slump hitting wise. Please pray that the coach will give him another chance to hit in the lineup.
2. Without going into any details, myself and my fellow elders at our church face a decision that is causing us some stress within our ranks. Pray that we as a church leadership team can come together to make the right decision that would glorify God.
Thanks.
I’d like for prayers that my family and I can find a church home out here, one where we can develop relationships to see us through the rest of the week.
Greg -
Thanks for your comment and your encouraging words for us all! As for the Mississippi and Louisiana ruins, I have to say this. The ruins are way too vast for the government to be able to do anything useful about it to be perfectly honest. The Mississippi gulf coast and lower Louisiana and then New Orleans are completely different stories with different causes, for one thing.
The major reason for all of the damage in the lower parishes of Louisiana and along the gulf coast of Mississippi is because people for years and years have built homes in extremely high risk areas with the certain knowledge that one day nature would take its course and have its way through the powers God set into motion in this world.
Now they are reaping the consequences of a sure thing that was bound to happen sooner or later.
Another thing is that the area devastated is so huge, so colossal, so stupendous as to be beyond any governmental capability for reconstruction, even if it should be deemed the “government’s” responsibility, which I don’t believe it is. The harsh facts are that many, many people who built in places they definitely should not have built and who did not insure themselves to the extent they could and should have to cover those losses now want someone else to be responsible and to pay the gigantic bills. There’s no way anyone can do that or that anyone else should be expected to do that.
That’s my view, for what it’s worth, on the matter. Not to be mean - just stating the facts as I see them. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be helping all those we can. Just that there is just so much that can be accomplished and the tasks ahead are greater than any effort could sustain.
Cecil - You know I have been praying for you and for your eldership and for your church and I will continue to do so. You have consistently been in my prayers and thoughts and I have mentioned parts of the situation to others so that they might pray for you, as well.
Today I pray for peace among the ranks and that you will have peace in your heart.
Karen - We will all certainly pray for you and your family in your church struggles. I already have been since you told me about them in email.
I have been (and sort of am now) in your exact same situation when my children were young and still at home and we lived (here actually) somewhere where the church situation was not good or conducive to a growing family at all. It was awful to go through and ruined my children’s lives in many ways. My two sons have totally left the churches of Christ because of the one here they grew up in. They are both very faithful young men and very spiritual, but have found church homes elsewhere and you may have to do the same.
I will pray for you about it as you visit with different fellowships and try to make the “right” decision for your family. Hopefully it will only be “for a while” and for a short season and then you can either find a good place to be and/or move into a better place as far as churches are concerned.
I would bet you can find a good place where you are with a lot of prayer and seeking some other places out. I know you mentioned Donna in her search for a “better” place and your plight is not uncommon at all, so certainly you don’t have to and shouldn’t feel all alone, because you aren’t!
Anyway - all of us will lift prayers for you, girl!
Cheers & Blessings to you all! Dee
Dee Ann,
I have been busy. I have been going back and forth to Kerrville to physical therapy. God is really working in my life. It was just about 4 or 5 months ago that I was diagnosed and just today at my re-evaluation I was walking again. God does do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine according to the power that is at work within us. My relationship with God over the last five months has gotten stronger than it ever has before. My faith has changed in ways I never thought it would. I give Him all the glory for what He has done in my life. I know He has a purpose for me as a minister, even in a small country church of thirty five members. I am using a cane to walk long distances but the next month the goal is to get me off the cane and walking without it if they can. I am going to try to build up my endurance at home to where I can get out of wheel chair and stand preaching from the pulpit. I still get easily futigued and extremely tired from GBS, so I am doing what I can when I can with the help of God. The church has been extremely understanding and willing give time to heal. I appreciate your e-mails and can you let me know the website of the preacher in California that you have been listening too? Again, God bless you love your blog.
Dee,
I am joining you in prayer for those mentioned–what an awesome ministry! I am praying God’s richest of blessings for you.
Peace and prayers, my friend
Neva
vagaries is a cool word
is the ‘g’ a hard g or a soft ‘g’?