Predicaments

Predicament: A situation, especially an unpleasant, troublesome, or trying one, from which extrication is difficult. Her name is November. Her friend brought her to our church building today. November has no transportation, it was washed away in Hurricane Katrina. November also has no home. After the surge destroyed her apartment, she was moved to a makeshift floating city called the Holiday. Those who used to cruise the Holiday celebrated the nights away. Now the inhabitants are grateful for a bed and a roof, but that's about it. That's a predicament. November has a son in elementary school. Our school system has a dress code. The kids have to wear uniforms, even after the storm. November's son had uniforms for each day, but they were soaked in sea water and sewage. The school provided a few shirts and a few pants. That's great. But on the Holiday you get to wash your clothes once a week. So once all of November's sons pants are dirty, he has to wear jeans to school. He's come home crying several times because of the way he was accused of breaking the rules. That's a predicament. According to November, the landlord of her washed out apartment decided to paint over the mold and make everything look new. But she can't live in an apartment where the deadly mold is just covered up. She has multiple lung problems anyway. So she has no where to go, no way to pay. No ability to get her son the school clothes he needs. No way to wash the ones he does have in a timely manner. That's a predicament. As with every story we hear, I wanted to take her right down to Wal-Mart and buy that boy 8 sets of school clothes. But I know that this same story is repeated hundreds of times every day. I also know that once the news gets out that we are buying school uniforms, we will be covered up with requests that we can't possibly meet. That presents a predicament. After November's stories will be more. We hear them every day. They are not just stories, they are pleas for help. Sometimes they are just requests for a listening ear. Sometimes there are obvious ways out of the predicaments, and sometimes not. But what can we do? We'd like to play Superman and fix all of the dilemmas and make all of the endings happy ones. We'd like to say, 'You're going to make it. Don't worry about a thing.' There are no simple answers. There are lots of predicaments. And that in itself is a predicament.