A Day We Would Like to Forget...

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... but we cannot.  The events of September 11, 2001 interrupted our lives so horribly and with so much drama that none of us who were alive to experience it will ever be the same.  

But I propose that it is good we will never be the same.  Oh to be sure, the changes we've had to make with increased security and the war that continues since that time have been awful. But at the same time, how many of us have been forced to face questions about our mortality and God, eternity, and what really matters?  

What were you doing when you got the news of the attacks?  I remember it well.  Shortly before it happened, I had turned off the morning television news and was getting ready to face the day.  The phone rang.  It was my daughter-in-law.  All she said was, "Do you have your TV on?"  I recognized her voice and knew that if she was asking, then I needed to grab the TV remote immediately.  I sat on the edge of my bed trying to understand what I was watching.  We made a few comments back and forth and then concluded with, "I love you" before hanging up.  

The words to a hymn came to my thoughts, "Oh God, our help in ages past; our hope for years to come."  I thought this was "it" -- the end of all I had known to be "normal" up to that place in my life.  I wondered if our nation was being so overrun by an enemy that I would be killed or taken prisoner...  the mind goes in all sorts of directions at a time like that.  

As we think about that day, now we should think about today.  Where are we now, not as a nation, but as individuals?  How has that day changed us?  Do we read our Bibles more and with greater interest and inquiry about what God has to say to us?  Do we spend serious time daily in prayer, speaking to the ONE Who is over all that there is, ever was, and ever will be?  Do we love our family and friends more sincerely and show it more openly?  Do we invest in worthwhile pursuits or try to hide in our hobbies and entertainment?

In the Bible God encouraged His people to remember things -- how He rescued and preserved them for better things.  God takes no pleasure in stepping aside, so to speak, to allow destruction, but sometimes this is the only thing that will get our attention turned to Him.  

Let's not allow the horror of 9/11 to be wasted.  We must listen to what our God is saying to us.  Do your best to not make another 9/11 necessary for you to have a genuine relationship with God.