Between Heaven and Ground Zero by Leslie haskin
If you have been to my blog and read my salvation testimony, 9/11 has played a BIG part in my struggles with faith and ultimately with my reconciliation with God. I pretty much turned my back on it all during that time and really haven't ever been able to put into words what I felt until reading the words of someone else.
As for me, I struggled with my faith. I wondered about the compassion of a Father who did not step in. I questioned the validity of a heaven that seemed so unattainable. I doubted the value of a God I could not touch, until He touched me. He gave me peace but left this thorn: that I never shared the gospel with my friends. I never loved it enough.
And even that doesn't scratch the surface of what an emotional and spiritual dark time that was for me.
If you have never been to the World Trade Center, then you've been cheated. If you have, then you're most likely still there. Unmistakably built to captivate and maintained to seduce.
I have been there and a part of me will forever be there. In 1997, my friend, Amy and I visited New York City through the generosity of friends who worked for Eurobrokers in the WTC. We had the most amazing time and one of the highlights of that trip was visiting those friends in their office of the WTC. I remember being mesmerized by the whole place. I worked in downtown Birmingham at the time but oh how those buildings look like mobile homes in comparison to anything in NYC, let alone the WTC. I remember being so in awe that I simply HAD to call my boss from the trading floor of Eurobrokers and brag about where I was! lol (I worked in Investments at the time)
I think back on that day and it's hard to believe that the very place I stood and sat is gone. Completely gone. Not only that but the people I looked around at while chatting aimlessly, some I knew, others I didn't are either gone or forever changed. It's definitely enough to make you realize your own mortality.
And don't think that it hasn't crossed my mind that it could have just as easily been THAT day that Al Queda chose to attack and then what? I wonder just how many people were merely visiting the WTC 9/11 /01 just as I had been in June 1997. I could have widowed my husband and orphaned my two children and my third child would never have been born. But wait--so many DID leave behind widows and orphans and to finally read a very vivid, personal and graphic account of what went on inside those buildings that day just leaves me at a complete loss for words but a deeper love and compassion for those who experienced it on any level.
As for the "whys", I'm not sure there is a simple answer. I had to ultimately accept that there is sometimes no explanation for the tragedies we see in this fallen world. A good SS teacher once explained that life is like an iceberg. We are on the boat and the part the we see above the water is just the tip of it. The iceberg itself is actually much bigger underneath and only God can see that part. Sometimes the whys just have to wait and be explained to us in Heaven.
We can run around blaming Islam, Clinton, Bush, or lack of security in airports, debate the balance between safety and liberty and none of it really matters.
September 11 found many of us in complacency. As Christian believers, we were off the mark and simply existing from day to day. We were lukewarm in our faith, self-centered in our desires, carnal in nature, and caught up in a search for the latest and greatest addiction to make us feel alive.
As a church body, we compromised the Word of God for an affinity with the world and holiness for the modern tactics of reaching the unchurched. Our congregations were indistinguishable from those outside the church and our families were without godly example.
The corporate "we" sacrificed godliness and the anointing, placed our own desires ahead of God's will, and closed our eyes to the certainty of a dying generation.
And yet, here we are again, nearly nine years later and once again complacent. Like Leslie said, there is nothing wrong with being back to the business of living. The Lord's voice speaks restoration into our souls.
But we never know when one day, WE may be the one left standing ina crowd of hundreds taking their last breath. Our words may be the last that someone will ever hear. Yes, life can make such demands.
One day, searching eyes may be searching you looking for answers and wanting to know "why?" Accountability comes with truth.
One day, we may have to hold on to a vast burden of secrets in order that others might be spared--kept from breaking down. Real love comes with responsibility.
Our lives do not belong to us so don't hold your breath--let your words exhale life and breathe through Him.
Yesterday, during church, Pastor Chris led the final session in a series of Q&A in which he answered various questions posed by many. One of those questions was, "what about people of other faiths?" I thought his answer was beautiful. Christianity is the ONLY faith that solved the problem of humanity being separated by God through sin. There is no 51% Heaven. You can't simply do more good than harm and get in. Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life. NO ONE can come to the Father except through ME." His perfect life, sacrificial death as payment for the debts WE owed and resurrection is what reconciled us to our Heavenly Father. Buddha, Mohammed, Ghandi, your ancestors, the sun and the planets or Tom Cruise did not do this for you. Jesus did.
I realize it's not a popular, politically correct view. It sounds exclusive and to some even cruel. But here's the inclusive part: That FREE GIFT of salvation is available to us all. Our good works do not save us. Our rituals and ceremonies do not save us--not even Baptism! We are saved by grace through faith. That's it and that's all.
This Memorial Day, when you remember our fallen heroes, also appreciate the meaning of life and appreciate its uniqueness and its frailty.
Sacrifice: to destroy, surrender, or suffer to be lost, for the sake of obtaining something; to give up in favor of a higher or more imperative object or duty; to devote, with loss or suffering.
Never forget that we CAN put compassion over power. Love can transform pain into healing, hate into tolerance, anger into compassion and fear into peace.
Retrieve our heritage from basements and attics and hang it boldly in your windows. Don't be afraid or insulted by the notion of a living GOD and look for Him!
Never surrender to an enemy in any form. Hope, believe and have faith in each other.
Never forget that amazingly, after all had been said and done, after the buildings fell and all the dust settled, the only thing left standing was an old piece of Tower One, scarred and stained and twisted into the shape of an old rusted cross...that cross still stands.
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