I was in Denver when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. My band was recording an album there, but we joined the rest of the world watching the terrible, unfolding events live on TV. We saw (and felt) fighter jets flying overhead. There was another World Trade Center site in Denver, and nobody knew if it could be another target. By the end of the day, almost 3,000 people had died. We were shocked. Whatever happened next, we knew that September 11, 2001, would profoundly impact our world. And it did.
Twenty years later, I think of the fact that my kids have never known a different world. I think of airport security, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Dept of Homeland Security. I think of phrases like enhanced interrogation, shock and awe, WMD, IED, and PTSD. I think of veterans who served mightly and sacrificed so much. I think of firefighters who suffer from working in the dust of the twin towers. I watched Hollywood wrestle with the meaning of all this on Fox’s 24, American Sniper, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and last week, 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room. So much fear. So much violence. So little resolution. So little peace.
Let’s have a moment of silence. Let’s pause and think about these momentously tragic things. But let us apply the light of God’s Word to our darkness.
Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
If ever we experience days of death and despair again, let us put our hope in God, our refuge and strength. He is over the nations. He is our fortress, our peace, and is the Father of compassion. And one day, Jesus will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away. We pray and work for peace and justice and life in the here and now. But we also wait for that day with eager expectation. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!
