“My City of Ruins”

Through tear stained eyes I write this post after seeing the latest from the brave if battered, the wounded but not beaten – people of New Orleans.

If nothing else “The Boss” knows how to pray. Sing along as you follow the links:

Now the sweet bells of mercy
Drift through the evening trees
Young men on the corner like scattered leaves,
The boarded up windows,
The empty streets.
While my brother’s down on his knees.
My City of Ruins
My City of Ruins

Now with these hands
With these hands, with these hands
With these hands, I pray Lord
With these hands, with these hands
I pray for the strength Lord!
With these hands, with these hands
I pray for the faith Lord!
With these hands, with these hands
I pray for Your love Lord!
With these hands, with these hands
I pray for the strength Lord!
With these hands, with these hands
I pray for Your love Lord!
With these hands, with these hands
I pray for Your faith Lord!
With these hands, with these hands
I pray for the strength Lord!
With these hands, with these hands

Come on, rise up, COME ON, RISE UP
Come on, rise up, COME ON, RISE UP
Come on, rise up, COME ON, RISE UP
Come on, rise up, COME ON, RISE UP
Come on, rise up, COME ON, RISE UP

God save the people of New Orleans. God save the people of the Gulf Coast. Lord, we plead, we beg You now to place Your comforting arms around our brothers and sisters in New Orleans and all of the Gulf Coast that Katrina the Cruel was so merciless to. We know we choose to toil in this land and give up Your gift of Eden, but save us now from our sorrow, from our grief, from our pain and deliver us from the evil of this place of our choosing. Deliver us Oh Lord, to a place where grief is no more and You wipe away every tear. We ask these things for our suffering brothers and sisters in the loving name of Your Son, the Christ Jesus, Amen.