In Remembrance

 I wasn't planning on doing a devotional or anything serious on the blog today, but certain reminders have gotten my thoughts flowing and it seemed appropriate to share them with ya'll. 

Nineteen years ago today, it was a Tuesday, and I was getting ready for my college classes that morning. I was standing in my dorm room brushing and fixing my hair for the day when I heard on the radio that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. I thought, "Oh, how tragic!", and immediately prayed for the victims of such a terrible accident. Fifteen minutes later, as I was about to leave my room, the news came: a second plane had crashed into the other Twin Tower, and I immediately said out loud (to my empty room), "That wasn't an accident." That was the moment that I, and probably you, realized that something truly horrific and life-altering had happened to our country.

In the years that followed, our country has stepped up our security regulations, hunted down those responsible for that tragic day, fought a long war in 2 (or 3) different countries, struggled to cope with the loss and trauma caused by those events, and learned to move on from that day, but I think it commendable that, overall, Americans have refused to forget those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. Last night, we as a family watched a National Geographic special on the events of that day with interviews from various survivors, and though our oldest two are only 8 and 5 (the youngest was already in bed), I did not think they were too young to start learning about something so impactful to our recent history. The gruesome details of that day--no, they do not need to know; but the events--the airplanes, the towers collapsing, the Pentagon on fire, the many who died and those that survived--that they could handle and should know. 

Afterward, I showed them the newspaper clippings that I still have about the war in Iraq immediately following, and told them of how our brave soldiers, including their own grandpa, went over there to end the corrupt leadership of the man who had declared himself our enemy and supported those who so ruthlessly attacked us. I showed them, too, my favorite picture from that time, of the temporary memorial set up at Ground Zero before the permanent one was built: two giant spotlights pointed straight up into the sky, creating twin towers of light where the concrete ones had been. I've always felt that it was a beautiful and fitting memorial of the lives lost that day, though I'm sure the permanent one is very nice as well.

Why do I tell you all this? I'm not really sure, honestly, except that it seems like human nature to reminisce about important moments in history and share our own position on the timeline of this or that momentous day. It's our way of relating to the history that has occurred in our own lifetimes, making ourselves a part of it perhaps and marking the change that it brought to our own lives personally, apart from the national scene. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but I bet if you're over the age of 30 and I asked you where you were on 9/11/01, you could tell me, without a great deal of thought or hesitation, your exact whereabouts and activities when you heard the news or responded to the crisis. Like the Kennedy assassination or Pearl Harbor, these moments stick in our brains, frozen in time, even if we were not personally involved in them. They are never forgotten, any less than one's wedding day or the birth of one's first child. 

I suppose next you are wondering why my husband and I shared this with our children. After all, 8 and 5 are not so very old. But if there's one thing I know about evil, it's that it has no scruples at targeting the very young. No, there is much my children don't need to know yet, but they do need to be aware that true evil exists, and that a man can be so deceived and heartless that he shows no pity or compassion for those different from him, regardless of their age or gender. They do not fully understand that yet, but this is a beginning, and "forewarned is forearmed", it is said. I want my children to be prepared and not caught off guard too much (a little is inevitable, I suppose) should they ever come face to face with true evil. And this world is full of it.

The fact is this world and all of its billions of people have a problem, a big problem, and yet most people fail to recognize it. Governments spend millions trying to eradicate crime; armies fight and die for supremacy or freedom or whatever; leaders spout promises of better education, better health benefits, better jobs, better opportunities; treaties are made and broken; yet really, nothing in the human condition has changed since Adam and Eve were first expelled from the Garden. Yes, we are far more technologically advanced than our ancestors, but if we think that our problems or solutions are any different from theirs, we are sadly deluded. Man's problem is sin, and no government institution can change that, no humanitarian program can eradicate that, and no lofty ideal can vanquish that--the problem of our world today and always is SIN.

It was sin that lost us the Garden with its Tree of Life and the close relationship we had with God. It was sin that fomented all the wars and revolutions that have rocked our planet through the centuries, sin that lies at the heart of dictatorships, human trafficking, murders, rioting, and all the other evils of society, and sin that separates us from our fellow man with petty quarrels and disagreements. It was sin
that caused those men to believe that crashing airplanes into buildings and killing innocent people would fast-track them into heaven. (How astonished they must have been to wake up in hell!) 

But sin is such an all-encompassing word, and frankly, it's not a very popular word in today's society; after all, nobody likes to be told that they are in the wrong. "Could you be more specific?" you ask. "What do you mean by sin?" 

Theologically speaking, the definition of sin is anything that falls short of the standard of God's perfection, but practically speaking, the root of all sin (and the most basic sin itself) is pride. Pride says that what I want is more important than what you want, and I'll do anything to get it--hence murder, theft, rape, etc. Pride takes offense when another infringes on what we think is our due or right--this is how quarrels, and eventually, wars are started. Pride convinces us that we know better than God how to run our own lives--in fact, maybe there really isn't even a God, it sometimes suggests--so it's perfectly all right for me to make up my own religion that supports my proud ambitions and soothes my guilty conscience; hence, all the different religions in the world. Pride believes that I am better than everyone else, and so it's okay if I get rid of them--they're not as important as me; this was the basis of the Nazi doctrine that justified the concentration camps and the Holocaust. Pride says, "If you're not with us, you're against us, and so we must get rid of you because you stand in our way"--this is the premise behind Muslim jihad. Pride is something we all struggle with, and I think it's pretty obvious that a little goes a long way.

The problem with our problem of sin is that the way humans try to deal with it is essentially flawed. We are proud, selfish creatures who do not want to admit that the root of all of our problems is our hearts, so we try to externalize the problem. Humanism says, "If you fix the outside, the inside will be fixed as well." Hence the popularity in our society of government programs to better our food, our housing, our jobs, etc, yet nothing is done to amend the wrong attitudes of people--their greed, their selfishness, their laziness, etc.--that cause the poverty, homelessness or crime. Most religions (examples include Buddhism, Islam, and Catholicism) emphasize that if we do the right amount of good works (and what those are is defined by the particular religion), that will be enough to insure us eternal life and an immortal happy-ever-after. This kind of theology makes us feel good about ourselves and superior to the rest of the world, further reinforcing our pride. What it comes down to is that if you want to change the way people act, you must first change the way people think and feel--you must change their heart. Only Jesus Christ can change the heart.

So when I tell my kids about the evil they will potentially face in this world, I always emphasize to them that the problem is sin, that those who do wicked deeds are deceived by Satan and their own evil desires, and that the only solution to that wickedness is Jesus Christ. "Those people need Jesus," I say, and my children nod their heads, eyes wide and serious, because they have already seen for themselves in their sibling rivalries how pride can cause great hurt and dismay. We talk about how we can show love to those who are unkind to us because maybe that person doesn't have a personal relationship with Christ, and we talk about how we can tell those around us that Jesus loves them because He is the only One Who can bring true healing and change to a person's heart. And no, maybe they don't understand it all yet, but one day they will, and when they do, I want them to have the faith and the knowledge needed to combat the world's lies.

Maybe I've gone a little off-target from my original subject today; after all, I titled this blog "In Remembrance", and here I've been talking about the problem of sinful pride! But when I remember the many innocent people who died on Sept. 11, 2001, I can't help but also remember the men who were so deceived by Satan and their own pride that they could justify committing such terrible deeds. It is they whom I truly feel sorry for, for they are the ones who went into eternity with all that blood on their hands, and they who will have to answer to the Almighty Judge for their deeds. I would not want to be in their shoes for anything, and yet, "there but for the grace of God go I." If we are honest with ourselves, all of us are capable of committing such atrocious deeds if we gave full rein to our pride and selfishness; all of us desperately need God's grace and the precious blood of Jesus to save us. No human on this planet is immune to the disease of sin, but thanks be to God, Who has given us His Son as a  "propitiation (substitute sacrifice) for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (I John 2:2). In this sense, Jesus Christ is the answer to 9/11, for Jesus Christ is the solution to sin!