Reflections on 9/11

As was my custom, I woke up late, grabbed a hurried coffee and rushed off to class only to find that my prof was sick and had cancelled the early class. I was both mad and happy. Mad because I had to get up and get ready for nothing, but happy because I got to head back to bed.

I laid down and was just about back to sleep when an abrupt knock at the door woke me out of my slumber. As the Resident Assistant at Liberty University, a guy on my hall turned to me for counsel on what he saw on the TV.

"A plane hit the WTC!!"

I was like "not a chance, you had to have  bad dream!"

"No come and see!"

We rushed to the end of the hall where he had his TV tuned in to the News that was keeping a live feed on the tower. We sat there in utter disbelief as we saw the second plane hit.

It was surreal.  America under attack?! Unbelievable and yet undeniable. That’s where I was on September 11, 2001.

I remember the unity and patriotism that followed. I remember the images of the buildings collapsing, the heroic NYPD and NYFD rushing toward the falling buildings. The stories of rescue and loss are as vivid today as they were 12 years ago.

In that time, America had remembered how to put politics aside, how to come together on what we had in common, and unite. This event has forever changed the culture of America. We who once felt invincible and invulnerable were faced with fear. Nothing can be more unsettling then the awareness of fragility.

Prosperity and safety is a distraction from the reality of evil. We hold fast to our finances, our jobs, our cities and look to them for meaning. We become dulled to the inner most cry of our heart that we are in desperate need of more. God “has put eternity into man's heart” and we fill that void with our own wisdom, wealth and thoughts of safety.  But what happens when our false foundation is shaken? Where do we turn?

One of the most profound images that is still burned into my mind is the cross among the rubble of the WTC. In the midst of chaos, destruction and uncertainty was a stark reminder of hope! This life is not the end, just the beginning. God had made provisions for us long before the foundations of this temporary world was established.

Throughout history, as calamity upon calamity happened, God always gave a sign that He was there and He was in control. Turn to Him and find your hope, not just immediately but for all eternity.

I think of the fall of Adam and Eve where God’s sign was the promise of a descendant who would crush the head of the serpent.

I think of the poison in the wilderness, where the people only had to look at the bronze snake on the pole to be saved.

I think of the conquest of Rome and the Son of God lifted up on the cross! Only three days later to conquer sin and death!

It is this truth that brings hope at the image of the cross amongst the rubble. It is in this imagery, that our broken and desperate lives can be healed because of a resurrected Lord!

To honor those fallen 9/11/2001, don’t turn your hope to America, to wealth, or to safety. Turn to Jesus, trust the one who gave it all that we might live. Allow the image of the cross to draw you into a relationship with a loving God who gives signs of who He is and has revealed Himself in the pages of the Bible. This is where true peace, security and hope come from.

As we say weekly in youth group: “Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever!”