Liz is one of those friends in particular. While she lives in Texas, and we've never met face to face, she's a true friend who I've emailed on occasion sharing prayer requests, life frustrations with, and answered prayers.
She keeps a blog, which is how I 'discovered' her so many years ago. Recently, she shared this devotional on her blog and I loved it so much that I thought I wanted to share it here, on my blog.
I didn't forget 9/11.
On Sunday, I remembered where I was on the morning of 9/11 like so many of you did. Our pastor's sermon began with remembering the day, telling us where he was when he heard the news. We talked about it with our kids like we always do. We watched videos on youtube about the planes crashing into the Pentagon & World Trade Center towers. I paused to think about the awesome stories of heroism in the biography I read a few years ago "Let's Roll!" by Lisa Beamer, whose husband was on the ill fated Flight 93 that crashed into an open field.
But something struck me part way through the day.
I am, by no means, diminishing the power & importance of September 11, 2001. I will never forget the horror of that day. But it hit me like a ton of bricks that so many of us have our own 9/11s in life. We measure life that way, creating a roadmap of our life based on what happened before or after our 9/11. Those milestone dates will never be erased from our memory. Without thinking at all, I bet you can tell me exactly where you were when you got the news about 9/11. You can tell me how old your kids were. You can tell me what you did the rest of the day. And maybe even the day after. You can remember vividly who told you what was happening or whom you were with when you found out. And most of all, you can remember the terror that filled your heart. The questions that spewed from your mind. The fears that we all felt.
Maybe your 9/11 was the day you found out you had cancer. Or the day your child died. Or the moment that your spouse came to you & said that he/she wanted a divorce. Your 9/11 might be when the doctor walked in & told you that your dad was dead or that your friend would never walk again after the accident. Maybe it was the day that you lay in a hospital bed & handed your child over to his adoptive parents. It is different for all of us.
Life is like that. Horrible, awful things happen. We think we are safe, protected, secure....and then something slams into our life that reminds us we are just humans and that we're as fragile & weak as the rest of the world.
Today might be someone else's 9/11. Keep that in mind when you face the world today.
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