Buying the House on Flood Street

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina swallowed the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans whole. When the waters finally receded, Robert Green came back to find his mother's house — the house where she had died in the storm — reduced to a concrete slab and splintered wood. Neighbors left. Block after block emptied out. City planners openly debated whether the neighborhood should be bulldozed entirely and converted to green space.

But Robert planted a garden on his mother's lot. Then he rebuilt. While officials argued that the Lower Ninth Ward was finished, Robert hammered nails and hung drywall. Neighbors thought he was throwing money away. Investing in a place everyone else had abandoned seemed like madness.

It was exactly what Jeremiah did.

Jerusalem was surrounded by Babylonian siege works. The prophet sat in a prison courtyard. Everyone knew the city would fall. And in that impossible moment, God told Jeremiah to buy a field — to sign the deed, seal the documents, and call in witnesses. It looked foolish. It was faith.