Lessons from Black Beauty

Every night before bed, we read to the kids from a classic children's chapter book. We finished Wind in the Willows sometime back and are looking forward to Swiss Family Robinson but our current volume is none other than Black Beauty. Chapter 16 is entitled "The Fire" and in it, Black Beauty and his cohorts are sleeping peacefully in a barn of an inn. Black Beauty awakes to find that his lungs are choked with smoke. The hostler runs in and begins to frantically untie the horses. He desperately tries to yank, pull and push the horses out of the barn, but to no avail. He gives up and leaves the barn. Black Beauty explains his refusal to go with him,

No doubt we were very foolish, but danger seemed to be all round, and there was nobody we knew to trust in, and all was strange and uncertain.
Anna Sewall

I mentioned a few posts ago that last year we were living in a FEMA trailer. Well, that wasn't exactly accurate. In our neck of the palm trees, the term "FEMA trailer" has come to mean "your place of habitation while your home was being rebuilt" (as when you use the phrase, "I'm going to go get a coke," when what you actually plan to drink is a Pepsi). We had insurance, therefore we did not qualify for government aid and we lived in my parent's camper trailer while repairs were done. All that to say, that my neighbors across the street are still living in a FEMA FEMA trailer. And FEMA is coming to get that trailer on March 24. Seeing as how it will be 18 months since Rita hit us--this is perfectly understandable. But my neighbors have not done ONE SINGLE THING to fix their house! For months she has been telling me what they need to do, what they want to do, what they should do--but they DO nothing. I'm losing sleep at night worrying about them. In a few short weeks they are going to be homeless people. Oh sure, she says they could move in with some of her family for a while, but I'm thinking, "Are these the same people who have not lifted a finger to help you in 18 months?" I want to scream at them or shake them, "It doesn't have to be this way. It's up to YOU to CHANGE YOUR SITUATION!" Over the summer we got them in touch with a Christian ministry that sent teams to gut their house, the master got up on the roof and patched it, we've stored their stuff, and as of last Friday, I contacted every organization I could think of requesting assistance. So I keep coming back to this computer hoping to see a new e-mail and listening for the phone to ring. I know you are probably saying that this is none of my business, but I really do love these people, and they seem so incapable of helping themselves. As I've listened to her stories I can see how poor choices--theirs, their parents, maybe even their grandparents--have wrecked havoc in their life.

They are the horses, caught in a burning barn, and they don't even realize the peril they are in. In the end, Black Beauty is saved. James, his own handler whom he trusts, comes in to the barn and with calm, quiet words leads the animals out. I want to be like the hurried hostler, but I need to be like James.
Lord, Jesus, please help me.