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Most of us just experienced Hurricane Irene’s wetting power. With the already soaked soil and heavy downpours, my house was one of her victims around the area – we were having water problem in our basement. We had to relocate our stuff in the basement and swept out water on last Sunday. Initially I thought the problem was from my window wells being over flown by rain. Later I realize that water was coming from soaked ground soil, compounded with neighbor’s rushed-out water from his swimming pool, sipping under our baseboards. It is the first time we had such a scope of wet condition after so many years at this house. My neighbors have had problems too. One of them had their swimming pool water over flown into their house and the other had creek water entered their garage by a few inches. We are so grateful to have a few families in Christ came to aid us in cleaning up. It is great to have a family of brothers and sisters in need.

There are a few things I have learned from this wetting experience. Firstly, the mistake I made is I was overly confident in assuming my house would not run into problems. So, I didn’t check around my house condition thoroughly. This reminds me of our recent study from 1 Thessalonians.

While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly人正說平安穩妥的時候、災禍忽然臨到他們 (1 Thessalonians 5:3a)

It is a gentle reminder to me….

Then, I find that it is easier for people to chat with each other if they are under the same situation. Under current society, it is not easy to bump into neighbors due to each other’s busy schedules. Not even mention to make friends with them. I don’t know about you, I seldom have an opportunity to talk to my neighbor. This time, to my surprise, my neighbor came to our house voluntarily to ask our condition and to brief their situation – creek water entering their garage. Sometimes, I was wondering how to practice “to love our neighbors as ourselves” commanded by our Lord. From this experience, I discover that it is the feeling of empathy that I need first in order to raise my awareness of my neighbor’s need. Then I would show my love to them if I could follow it with an action of kindness. Sadly to say, I was busying in cleaning up my own house and I didn’t have a chance to help them.  Finally, I was touched by our brothers and sisters came to rescue us. They spend numerous hours in helping us. We thank our Lord for their act of love.

My dear brothers and sisters, this wetting experience lets me think again of my attitude toward my neighbors and brothers and sisters in Christ – I need to improve!