Its hard to imagine that seven years ago today at just about this exact moment (as I write) our world was changing. It would never be the same, for any of us.
For the thousands who lost their loved ones it will never be the same. The love, the loss, the pain, the fear, the anguish, the loneliness, the struggle, it all leaves a person changed.
After a couple of anxious phone calls that morning it became clear that what was happening was bigger than any of us knew. From our office we all drove around the block to my house so we could watch the live coverage. I will never forget seeing the tower begin its collapse behind Peter Jennings. He was focused on the camera and the report he was giving and for a couple of seconds we were seeing something that he wasn’t. It was one of the most horrible sights I have ever seen. Everyone in the room was devastated. The whole nation was thrust into mourning for months.
For a few weeks we all took things a little differently. Like Alan Jackson’s song says we hugged more and loved more and prayed more and appreciated more.
The tragedy is that here we are seven years later and for most of us it is completely forgotten. If you rarely or never fly then you don’t realize the extra security measures that are taken. For the vast majority of us it is business and politics as usual.
September Eleventh is a date and a number and synonym for tragedy. But what we have forgotten is that what made that day what it was, was people. It was people who flew the planes. It was people that died in the towers and in the Pentagon and in the field in Pennsylvania. We were shocked and horrified and tormented because of the loss of people.
However, the second tragedy of 9/11 is echoed every time we forget that the only thing in this world that really matters is people. We forget that the only thing that matters is people when we terrorize other people by driving recklessly and with rage. When we blow our horns and scream profanities at people who we perceive as being in our way!
We terrorize our families when we are unkind and ungrateful. When we criticize and accuse and mistreat them as if they were our debtors. We are nothing less than terrorists when our attitudes are self-serving and hateful and calloused.
Jesus taught us that if anger and hatred are in our hearts…it is as if our hands were already bloody!
Remember 9/11. Mourn the dead, remember the suffering, have a moment of silence. Then decide that you will make sure there is one less terrorist in the world. One less person driven by anger and animosity and rage. One less person who sees every other person as something in their way of self-importance. Let’s make sure that there is one less person in this world who is jealous and ungrateful and resentful. One less person like the hijackers and one more person who is more like Jesus!
May God bless the people in our country and our world.
