Remembering 9/11

Every year when 9/11 falls on a Wednesday, I have a decision to make. Today is the anniversary of one of the worst days I experienced in my lifetime. And, I must decide whether to write about it in this blog post. Once again, I decided to address 9/11. 

I am always grateful when this day comes and goes without another terrorist attack. Our enemies are drawn to certain memorable dates, like flies are drawn to death. On every 9/11, I expect them to attempt another attack, and every year, I breathe a sigh of relief when the day ends without serious harm to our nation.

Why should 9/11 cause us to worry?

An op-ed by Bruce Riedel for Brookings explained the continued threat to this date each year. Riedel wrote: “Al Qaeda has every reason to be obsessed with 9/11. The plot that toppled the World Trade Center towers and damaged the Pentagon cost al Qaeda less than half a million dollars to pull off, according the 9/11 Commission report. The property damage alone cost about $100 billion, and estimates of the total economic damage inflicted by the attack range up to $2 trillion. The cost of the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that flowed out of the 9/11 tragedy has been estimated recently by Brown University scholars at about $4 trillion. Al Qaeda pulled off the world’s cheapest global game changer ever on Sept. 11, 2001, and we are still living with the consequences and costs.”

The article, written in 2011, identified an unsuccessful terrorist attempt on 9/11 in 2006 and another in 2008. The financial impact he reported would contain significantly higher numbers if written today. Our enemies are still drawn to this date each year, hoping and planning to cause more harm to our nation. Today, because of our nation’s continued commitment to Israel, the open border policies, and those factors becoming election issues, there are reasons to feel threatened.

Americans have a right, even an obligation, to worry about this day each year. Yet, Jesus encouraged his disciples, saying, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1). 

How can we acknowledge the concerns of this life and not allow those concerns to “trouble” our hearts and minds?

What did you worry about when you heard the news that day?

When I watch the video footage from 9/11, my mind is flooded with memories. I was simply catching up on the news and enjoying a second cup of coffee when the morning show went live, and they began reporting the first tower was on fire. I watched the video in real-time as the second plane eerily entered the second tower. That’s when we all knew we were being attacked.

I called Jim and told him to turn on the television. I tried to reach my parents, who were on vacation in Pennsylvania, only miles from the downed plane there. My mom still remembers watching their hotel parking lot fill up with members of the FBI and trucks that were unloading the body bags.

I had two sons in high school and wondered how these events would impact their futures. If our nation went to war, would they enlist or be drafted?

I went to the bank and the grocery store that day. I didn’t know if it mattered, but I wanted to do what I could to protect my family.

I mostly prayed and begged God to forgive our sins and watch over our country. I prayed, not knowing if America was “ one nation under God.” I prayed, knowing our nation had made many choices that didn’t deserve God’s favor.

Do we deserve God’s favor and protection today?

Many politicians continue to end their speeches by saying, “May God bless America.” Have you noticed the many who no longer do? We have passed laws in this country that are fundamentally opposed to the laws of Scripture. In essence, our citizens are being asked to approve ideas and choices that God’s divine character cannot approve of and will not bless. 

The prophets taught the people what God would require of them. The prophets taught the people that God would surely discipline their choices. The prophets warned the people to listen, to think, to change, and to repent. Some did, but most did not.

So, God created a new covenant relationship with people through his Son, Jesus. His blessings were no longer promised to a nation of people. His new covenant was offered to everyone in the world. His new covenant was with “whoever believed” in his provision of salvation through Christ (John 3:16).

In 2030 . . .

The next time 9/11 falls on a Wednesday, it will be 2030 and I’ll be in my seventies. I wonder what I will say on that day. I wonder if I’ll have another 9/11 to talk about. I wonder if I will still be writing this blog post in 2030. 

What I do know is that, given the opportunity, I will still say what I want to say today.

We should be reminded of our highest calling every year on 9/11. A LOT of people died that day. Most people were significantly impacted by that day. Some of the victims went to heaven, while others lost their opportunity forever that day. I’m sure there were Christians who were thankful they had shared their faith with someone who had died. I’m also sure there were Christians who wished they had taken the opportunity to witness but had not.

When 9/11 falls on a Wednesday, I will use this blog post to remind us that there is no higher calling in this life than sharing our faith. We should care about people’s lives, feelings, and happiness, and we need to care even more about their souls.

It isn’t a pleasant thought, but it is necessary: If today is another tragic 9/11 that makes history, would you have regrets? Today is a good day to prayerfully consider that question and ask for God’s perfect answers. Today is a good day to ask God to redeem our nation and forgive our sins.

Will you take that time with God now and allow his Spirit’s voice to direct your life? Today is 9/11 and God still wants to redeem this date for his glory. How will he use your life to make a difference because you have prayed?

May God bless this day, and may God bless our nation.

Turning your thoughts to praise

Last week I wrote about the scientific discovery that the brain cannot focus on worry and praise/gratitude at the same time. Therefore, the answers to our worries are the answers God has taught, now revealed in Scripture. 

I love that science continues to prove God’s perfection!

It occurred to me that I had blogged about the need to praise but had not included some of the concrete examples from Scripture about moving our thoughts in that direction. I thought I would do that in this blog.  

Here are some concrete ways to turn your thoughts from worry to praise. 

We need to examine what we trust

I actually just finished writing a Wisdom Matters entry from Jeremiah 17:7. (If you want that content, just click the link and scroll down a bit.) God told the prophet Jeremiah, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lᴏʀᴅ, whose trust is the Lᴏʀᴅ” (Jeremiah 17:7). 

I thought a while about that verse and it occurred to me that a lot of us tend to trust in the Lord as one of our options. God repeated himself to Jeremiah with the clarification “whose trust is the Lᴏʀᴅ.”  

We have worked hard to build our lives, save our money, take care of our health, and establish our lives so that we don’t have as much to worry about each day. We find our trust for the future in a lot of different places as a result. Trusting those places causes us to put our hope in the next bank statement we receive, the next president elected to the Oval Office, or the next prescription medication to come out. We build bank accounts, investment funds, and plans for retirement, trusting that our plans will be enough. Those are good things—unless we trust them instead of God.  

God made it clear to the prophet that we need to trust in the Lord because the Lord is always the One we are able to trust. Consider the people in Ukraine. Three years ago, they trusted in a lot of the same things we trust today. 

If we want to replace our worry for the future with trust in God, we should say with the psalmist, “Praise the Lᴏʀᴅ! Oh give thanks to the Lᴏʀᴅ, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 106:1). 

The reason our trust is the Lord is because the Lord is the only One we are able to trust completely. We don’t just praise God for all he has done, we praise God for all that he is. He is “good” and his love for us has no end; it “endures forever.” God loves us now with a perfect, enduring love. It is the same love he will show us in heaven. If you are worried about your future, remember that our trust is God. His love and our future in heaven are guaranteed. 

Aging is our blessing 

I have a big birthday this year. I’m not sure how I got to be almost sixty-five, but it happened! For the first time there are things like roller coasters and long, uphill hikes that I really can’t do anymore. I walk into my closet for a reason but only remember that reason some of the time. Aging doesn’t always feel like a blessing, but aging is our great blessing. 

After Adam and Eve sinned God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever—” (Genesis 3:22). By the way, here is a little fun Bible trivia. Notice the use of the word us in that verse. It is an early reference to the Holy Trinity.  

We often think of the ejection of Adam and Eve from the Garden as a punishment for their sin when, in truth, it was a provision for their eternal lives. Sin had entered the world, and God didn’t want the world to be everyone’s eternal future. Aging, and dying are our blessing. God provided a way for us to live with him again in a perfect heavenly home, the new Garden.  

We can praise God with King Solomon who wrote to encourage all believers to “remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity” (Ecclesiastes 11:10). We shouldn’t be at odds with our aging bodies. Put away the fears, pains, and anxieties that can shadow the older years because the true value of our lives is that they are eternal. I know that because Job wrote, “Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days” (Job 12:12).  

Joy is knowing God better now than ever before. Knowing God enables us to trust him completely. 

The Lord’s lesson to Mary and Martha (and Mike and Marvin as well) 

One of the biggest problems I have with Luke 10:41–42 is that it is so often applied to only the lives of women. It’s hard to attend a Women’s Conference that doesn’t speak to this passage at some point. The truth of the Lord’s words to Mary and Martha is God’s truth for every Christian. 

For those of you who watched The Brady Bunch in the day, the Lord said, “Martha, Martha, [Martha], you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41–42). 

If we want to turn our thoughts to praise, we have to turn our thoughts away from worry, away from stress, and away from the normal, day-to-day concerns of living. Mary knew how to choose the best use of her time; Martha was still choosing her daily chores. And, for the men who read this blog post, remember that we all have Mary-and-Martha moments. We aren’t one or the other; we are both. 

I’ve often wished I could take back my Martha moments and have a do-over with them. It takes time to move our thoughts from worry to praise. It takes time to think through our wrong priorities so we can right them. It takes time at the feet of Jesus if we want to hear him speak.

Paul’s path to praise

Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians while he was sitting in Rome under house arrest. He closed his letter to that church by telling them what to think about instead of worrying about him. He wrote, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8–9). 

Paul could have told them to meet together and devise a plan for his escape or his time before the Roman court. He could have expressed worry about the future for his ministry. Instead, he told them to think about the things that are the opposite of worry. Take time to read and reread those verses again. When you have worries or anxiety, God, through Paul, has told you what to think about instead. 

Final verses that will turn your hearts and minds to praise 

God told Isaiah, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). God created the world with that righteous right hand! What then should we ever worry about? 

King Solomon, known for his wisdom, was at the end of his life when he wrote, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). 

I spend a lot of time with my mom at her assisted living center. I am BLESSED by the smiles of those who are writing the final chapter of their stories. My time there could cause me to worry about my older years. Or I can watch them and know God has made everything beautiful in its time.  

Each time we worry, praise thoughts should be our next thoughts. The dark stuff of this life is just waiting for God’s touch to either expel it from our thoughts or turn it into something beautiful.  

Fear not. 

God has us in the palm of his righteous right hand.  

The Bible is an answer to Jesus’ Prayer

I had to replace the batteries in the remote again and thought, “They don’t make batteries like they used to.” Then I realized it wasn’t the batteries.

I used to put on my favorite news station and watch the whole program. Now, I switch from station to station trying to find truth among the opinions. I think I need to buy stock in one of the battery companies. Truthfully, the off button on my remote will probably be the first to wear out. 

Should we wear masks if we are vaccinated? Where are all those families crossing the border going to live, work, and care for their children? Are there a lot of bad people crossing or mostly just families looking for work? And when it comes to politicians making news, what are the political maneuvers and what is the truth? 

It’s hard to do the right thing when it’s hard to know what is right. 

Times like these make me appreciate the pages of my Bible even more. 

Psalm 119 

When the world goes wonky I like to park myself in Psalm 119. That psalm grounds my thoughts and pushes me back to a peaceful place. Here are some “fun facts” about Psalm 119: 

  • It’s the longest chapter in our Bibles, with 176 verses.
  • It is arranged according to the Hebrew alphabet; some think King David wrote it as lessons for his children’s education.
  • The theme is God’s word, and it was used in worship to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

If it has been a while since you felt fascinated or awed by the word of God, read Psalm 119 from start to finish.

If you want to spend some time listening to the truth, Psalm 119 is my recommendation. I think of those verses as the Lord leaning out of heaven and saying, “Relax, I’ve got this!” 

One of the verses in my favorite psalm says, “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever” (Psalm 119:160). No television network could make that claim. It’s time to filter the world’s news through God’s perfect word. 

If the world seems a bit wonky these days, settle into the righteous truth of Psalm 119. God has this wonky world in the palm of his hand!

The Bible is an answer to Jesus’ prayer

I had a new thought this week I wanted to share. When Jesus was in the garden waiting for the soldiers to arrive and arrest him, he spent a lot of that time praying for himself and for all who would be his disciples.  

One of Jesus’ prayers to his Father was, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). Jesus was asking God to use his word to make us holy. Why does God’s word make us holy? Because it is the truth. The next time you pick up the Bible, consider it an answer to the prayer Jesus prayed for you. 

When our thoughts and actions line up with God’s word, we can trust that our life is serving God. That seems a simple thought, but it is actually like finding a favorite and valued possession you thought you had lost. Even more, it is like holding in your hand a gift Jesus asked his Father to give you. 

A short blog that will take you a while to finish

I’m a teacher as well as a student of God’s word. So, this blog post has a homework assignment! 

I’m giving you the link to Psalm 119 and all 176 verses are assigned, required reading. (Wow . . . it’s been a lot of years since I passed out homework.) 

Those of you who complete the homework will be blessed. I’d like to suggest that God will give everyone who completes their homework an “A” for the day. 

As you read Psalm 119, remember that it is truth and it always has been. Consider those words an answer to the prayer Jesus prayed in the Garden before he allowed himself to become the ultimate sacrifice for our eternal lives.  

I am praying that Psalm 119 will bring us to a place of understanding the truth of this world compared to the truth of God.  

The Lord’s truth lasts forever and serves to sanctify us now, until that day we become holy forever. I hope when you finish your homework, having reached verse 176, you will hear the Lord lean out of heaven and say, “Don’t worry. I’ve got this!” Here is Psalm 119. I hope it makes your day what Jesus prayed it would be.