Ten Years Have Passed
September is a sensitive month. Summer enters decline, children return to school and (for some) ragweed provokes allergic responses.
It began catastrophically and insidiously in 1939, when the Nazis stormed Poland, thereby consigning the world to the 2nd World War. W.H. Auden wrote:
“I sit in one of the dives/On Fifty-Second Street/Uncertain and afraid/As the clever hopes expire /Of a low dishonest decade:/Waves of anger and fear/Circulate over the bright/And darkened lands of the earth,/Obsessing our private lives;/The unmentionable odour of death/Offends the September night.”
Such sentiments resonate today; for us, 70 years later, it is not so much the Nazi Blitzkrieg as it is remembrance of pandemonium in the skies and panic on the ground.
September 11, 2001 was, you may recall, a strikingly beautiful day, with hardly a cloud in the sky and temperatures quite temperate. It felt lovely to be alive … until four planes were hijacked in the sky by a handful of malevolently-minded terrorists.
The World Trade Towers were brought low, the Pentagon was attacked and, but for the bravery of a few hardy souls on board Flight 93, the U.S. Capitol. 3,000 people were slaughtered on what became a dreadful day, a day on which the world forever changed.
The sheer grit of presidential determination and popular resilience came to the forefront of American life. Wars commenced, security procedures were heightened and the gears of intelligence services were ratcheted up. Fires were lit that morn that continue to flame.
Ten years have now passed. Al-Quada is apparently on the run and Osama bin Laden is dead. There has been no major attack on American soil since that day, though American soldiers remain in Iraq and Afghanistan. A precarious peace holds tenuous sway.
It will take more than military power (for which we can and should be grateful) in order for such sway to become settled. It is a frightening world, a world from which those of us living in the northern hemisphere have been, until recently, fairly-well insulated.
Scripture attests to what we need: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Tragedy and trauma of any kind should provoke all of us to reflection, not simply upon what has been done to us, but as to who we are.
The debate concerning what practices are or are not legitimate in our fight against Islamic terror has been laudable, whatever one’s conclusions concerning such things as “water-boarding,” and the like; it speaks, in the very least, to our conscience and identity.
Our world has been horribly aggrieved by the sin of the Islamic terrorists, but much aggravation has been caused by our own sin. Our young are being killed in abortion clinics and on the drug-infested streets of our cities; isn’t the travesty just as real as 9-11?
Remember: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe” (Proverbs 18:10). Abraham Lincoln invoked Divine Righteousness during the Civil War. He deemed it both appropriate and necessary, as much as any battlefield decision.
We all remember the images of New Yorkers running in frantic fear from a cloud of monstrous smoke; ten years later, we would do well to run to Almighty God with reverent fear. He is worthy of our attention; after all, He does love us!
Hear Good News: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should have eternal live” (John 3:16).
It is holy love that we need now need, far more than any government program or self-centered fulfillment. Our governing leaders and soldiers have kept us safe – but for what? Nothing less than Christ’s love is sufficient!
Bradley E. Lacey
September 11, 2011