It’s been more than a week since Hurricane Harvey slammed into Houston, Texas, and the surrounding communities, bringing about incredible destruction and devastation. In the days that followed, we saw that, despite the toxic state of our country’s government, people could still come together and help those in need.

I couldn’t have been the only one moved by people jumping into their trucks and hauling their boats out to save Houston residents trapped in their homes. There were also plenty of folks who hurried down to Texas to help with the emergency shelters, where those who were in the flood zone were moved so they had a place to sleep.

In the midst of it all, there was a church that stayed closed during the hurricane’s full wrath. Last Tuesday, images started to surface on the internet that the Lakewood Church, led by televangelist Joel Osteen, wasn’t open as a shelter, despite being a former sports stadium. These images were appearing even as the television networks were showing the existing shelters were well over capacity with people in need.

 

It took a couple of days for the padre to respond, but when he did, he said it was because nobody asked him to open the church as a shelter.

 

“The main thing is the city didn’t ask us to become a shelter then,” Osteen said on “The Today Show.”

Interesting. Churches are known for their charity and for giving even when they don’t have someone coming forward and begging for assistance. Maybe our culture is changing.

No, wait. Many of those folks hauling their boats to the flood zone and volunteering in the shelters jumped into action without being asked. You certainly had some jump into action once the requests for help started going out, but most of those occurred well before Osteen finally opened his megachurch’s doors to take in flood victims.

It wasn’t like with Hurricane Katrina, where Louisiana flood victims ran for Houston for shelter. This was happening practically in Osteen’s backyard, and while he was quoted in a Kansas City Star article as saying Lakewood had been a “lighthouse of hope and healing” to Houston for decades.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t lighthouses shine a beacon of light to guide those adrift on stormy seas and guide them to safety on the shores? If Lakewood’s a lighthouse, maybe someone should pay the electric bill with some of the church’s $70 million annual budget.

Fortunately, not all people are like Osteen. Look at the story of Mattress Mack, who opened up the showrooms in his Houston businesses so that victims had a safe place. Now, a petition is circulating to give the business’s owner, Jim McIngvale, his own day.

I guess that’s what happens when you give of yourself without an invitation.

To be able to provide help to people in need means you have a heart. To be able to provide that help without requiring an engraved invitations means you have a soul.