You remember where you were when it all came down. And what you were doing, and how you felt when you first saw the surreal images that caused so many of us to say “This can’t be happening.” Nothing in modern American history matches September 11, 2001, so today we remember, honoring the victims, praising the heroes, and asking ourselves what we learned from that horror.
I still remember how my wife and I clung to each other. We’d been married 14 years by then; our youngest son still in elementary school; our oldest still at home. We didn’t allow tv in the morning, so we stayed clueless of the disaster until a friend called to see how we were handling it all. I snapped the television set on, then we knew what “it all” was, and we gasped, grabbed each other and stared mutely at the screen. And that led to my first takeaway lesson: We’re more vulnerable than we realize. Outside forces hate us, so we’d best close ranks and strive to get, then stay, united.
As a nation there’s little hope for us if we’re not united in purpose and values. Ditto for us as the Church, and at a more intimate level, as families and friends. And strong unity is born of, among other things, a strong sense of need. I usually hold my wife with affection, but that morning I clutched her with something like desperation, because I was facing something that left me feeling helpless and downright needy. And good grief, I wasn’t even there! So I won’t try imagining what people at ground zero went through, nor their loved ones who watched and couldn’t intervene. I’ve got no words for that.
But I will remember the wake-up call that morning brought, which was that we’d better stay tight as believers, family members and citizens, because we never knew what we’ll be called on to face. For example, I remember, our marriage was doing fine at the time, but I can think of other times in our history when communication hadn’t been as good; closeness not so well protected. Every couple, like every country, needs to invest in itself, securing what’s good and correcting what isn’t. Because if 9/11 taught us anything, it’s that we’ve no clue what we may be called on to face and endure. Relational bonds, like national borders and treasures, call for vigilance, the high price of freedom and the requirement for safety. Plenty of forces out there don’t want your relationship with God, family and others to thrive, and they’ll be only too happy to invade and destroy. Note to self: Never let them catch you sleeping.
Which leads to a second take-away lesson: Evil is relentless. It churned for years before it finally struck us that day, but we knew it existed. We even knew the name of the group involved and that of its leader, so it’s not that we were clueless about enemy forces. But just because we knew we were hated by someone who could attack us didn’t mean we fully believed that they would. It’s one thing to know you have enemies; it’s another to recognize they’re committed, focused, relentless.
Peter also said we have an enemy, the Devil, who prowls around seeking out who he can devour. (I Peter 5:8) And if it’s true that Satan hates you, let’s not underestimate his hatred for all that’s good in your life: family, friendships, ministry, and everything else bringing you joy. For you and your loved ones to live in harmony means you are stewards of something noble, something sacred. I’ve no doubt Satan loathed the fact that the One he hated so much had lavished such love on these creatures Adam and Eve, placing them in a paradise and commissioning them to live fruitfully and thereby glorify The Enemy. No wonder his strategy was to first come between man and wife, then strike. And he’s been striking at us, our relationships, and all we’re stewards over, ever since.
All the more reason to honor the fallen of 9/11 by treating what God has blessed you with – your body, relations, gifts and calling – as things that are not only precious, but relentlessly loathed by a third party who’ll use any device in his arsenal to strike. Evil, whether that of Al Qaeda or Lucifer, takes no breaks, knows no rest. No need to live in fear of it, but neither is there any excuse to be unprepared for it. That horrible morning I learned, and am learning, to pray daily for His protection over all He’s commissioned to me, and for a healthy eternal perspective including, but certainly not limited to, an awareness of our adversary and his ruthlessness.
This is a day for recalling, respecting, praying and pondering. Grief over the event we remember is ongoing and I guess it won’t stop, nor should it. Too many lives lost; too much devastation. But what lessons can be learned from 9/11, however small, are marked victories in the face of something unimaginable. And, praise God, it’s something we can rise from, as a nation, as families, as individuals. So I’m determined to honor the thousands we lost in many ways, one of which will be to learn what can be learned from it all, apply the lesson, and rise.
God bless the memories of 9/11’s heroes, its victims and their families as well. And may the evil that created it soon be, like death itself, swallowed in victory.
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