Remembering 9/11, 5th Anniversary

This entry is not going to be a long and winded recap or search for deep meaning of the 9/11 tragedy. There is one important message that I care to share plus I would like to make a simple kind gesture for those that suffered great loss from the event.

The Morning of: When news broke of the first tower being struck by an airplane I was at work and on the phone with my boss. Like probably most of us, my gut feeling was that this was no accident. After the second tower was struck I called my Grandma who lived in Queens at the time and told her to turn on the news. Her response was, "oh, that crazy city." She did not realize the impact of what was so obvious to me and I could not convince her to stay in the apartment for the day. My grandmother was born shortly after WWI and had seen a lot of terror and violence in her day, but this was new and extreme for me.

Aftermath: During the next several months my heart remained heavy and I couldn’t help but think that this was a wake-up call for the American people. In fact, I recall Alan Keyes suggesting it was God’s response to our widespread abortion tendencies as a nation. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. We can all search for meaning and question God’s reasoning for allowing such an act to occur, but the simplicity of it is this…

America today is a land of fornication.

In the Old Testament there are seemingly endless accounts of Israel, God’s chosen people, falling in and out of grace with God. During the times when Israel did fall, devastating things occurred both naturally and from surrounding peoples.

Things are no different today and I am grateful that I now see and understand this. I do not just mean that I logically understand what is in the Bible and recognize that history repeats itself. What I mean is that by God’s grace I can now see His hand in our lives.

For me, this is what 9/11 is about. It is about God carrying out His will on this earth which He created. It is about recognizing our sin and depravity and accepting God into our lives so that He can restore our faith in Him through Christ.

Please read the following Prayer of St. Francis, which I feel compliments the tragic necessity of 9/11.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.


In closing I leave you with the following Scripture verse from Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

May God Almighty bless you and those who perished, and those who suffered great loss as a result of 9/11.

In Peace, Ryan G