9/11

This year is the first anniversary since the attacks that I haven’t been home (aka America). And I’m feeling it like never before.  Like everyone else, I remember exactly where I was.

I was in 1st hour Psychology with Mr. Dill at Stilwell High School. I had dropped my pencil. I leaned over to pick it up. As I sat back up, the television came on with footage of the first plane hitting the tower. I remember thinking it was some kind of rerun of a past event. I thought the news anchors were talking about something that happened in the past that I just didn’t know about. Until the second plane hit. Then the reality hit: this was happening now.

I’m not going to say that I was scared. I wasn’t. I’m not going to say that I was sad. I wasn’t. I felt like I was watching a TV show. It felt like entertainment. Now, before you go judging me, please remember that I was 17 years old and I’m the product of a culture that gets its information in 30 second snippets and that I was living in Oklahoma. It took a long time – actually a trip to New York City in 2009 – before the reality of the event started taking hold of me.

I visited the site of the towers.  It was after museum hours so all we could see was Ground Zero through the chain link fence.  It was sobering.

What happened that day was evil, no doubt.  There are plenty of news reports that are 90% about remembering the horror of that day and only 10% about hope (and that’s if you’re lucky).  If you’re looking to hear about how bad that day was, I suggest turning on the news.  But I choose to look forward.

9/11 reminds me that God isn’t finished yet.  9/11 reminds me that I have a great Hope.  9/11 reminds me that the prayer “Even so, come quickly” is the most selfless prayer I can pray.  9/11 reminds me that someday we will see all sad things come untrue.

Killing Osama Bin Laden didn’t undo 9/11.  Our soldiers at home and abroad cannot undo 9/11.  Only God can.  And that is my great Hope.

 

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