Another reason why

The high today was 72 and the sky was bluebird blue. Thursday and Friday, more of the same!

Christians behaving badly

Yesterday, Saturday, was the first day of the big Mardi Gras weekend. Here in the Quarter, the craziness only grows from now until Tuesday night. In other parts of the city, families along the parade routes are having barbeque, crawfish boil, and King Cakes on the neutral ground with their neighbors and little kids are catching more beads that their mothers will have room to store. On Bourbon Street, young women will take their shirts off to catch beads. They do not live here. All locals know that EVERBODY get beads no matter what, more beads than you will ever want or need. But young, drunk female tourists are not the only people misbehaving. Christians from other towns and states arrive and start preaching. The only problem is that most of them are not “speaking the truth in love”! Yesterday Mike heard a preacher with a bullhorn say to a man, "so you're a Catholic, are you also a child molester?" Tell me, how can people think this kind of behavior is going to advance the cause of Christ? They have no idea the damage they do with this behavior. They will return to their hometowns feeling that they have been persecuted for preaching the gospel. Yet we remain, picking away at the walls raised in relationships by their faulty representation of the Lord, trying daily to live out God's love to the people who live and work in the French Quarter. One the bright side, Mike talked to some Christians from Texas holding a sign that says, “Despite what they say, Jesus loves you.” He was impressed with their kindness.

A quaint drinking town with a hurricane problem

I kept waiting for a time when I could list all the reasons of why we continue to live here despite the crime, crumbling infrastructure, corrupt politicians etc. Well, that perfect time never seems to arrive so I will list them one at a time if necessary. Aside from the obvious, because God wants us here, duh, there is the weather. It is warm here. The sun shines almost every day. There is color all year round. Since Thanksgiving I have had pansies, snapdragons, and hibiscus blooming in my courtyard. Yes, we do have suffocating humidity in the summer and fall, and that hurricane/flooding issue to contend with, but every place has their own natural disasters to handle. I prefer to face ours with the perks that living here provide. More about those on another day.