A Year in Full
Canadian poet Bliss Carmen once asked “[w]as it a year or lives ago?” and for me, this how is how I feel about September 11th. How can it be that years have now passed? How can it be? Like most of us I can tell you exactly where I was that morning. I remember the urgent voices “you have to see this. You have to come now.”
I remember gasping and the realization that I was crying. I remember the confusion, and even though what I watched was happening on the other side of the country I remember standing in my tracks unable to move. I remember not knowing how to act or what came next. Should I keep getting ready for work? Should I stay off the roads? Is there someone I should l call? What just happened?
Now here we are, years later and I think a lot of us are still asking that same question “what happened?”
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Years later we know what strength looks like.
Courage has a face, sacrifice is real. Words that had gathered dust over the past years have been polished and returned to a place of honor. A few years later we know that the world may shake but it does not stop. We have lived the words of Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”:
Though much is taken, much abides;
And though we are not now that strength
Which in old days moved earth and heaven
That which we are, we are:
One equal temper of heroic hearts
Made weak by time and fate but strong in will:
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Years later we are shaken, but stronger, wounded but still walking, full of questions but still willing to hope that the answers, in time, may come.
This time a few years ago, people across the country and around the globe were drawn to churches and prayer meetings searching for something higher than themselves, looking for meaning. The book of Psalms, in the Bible, is full of people who looked to God when their world stopped making sense. Psalm 61 verse 2 says “From the end of the earth I will cry to you, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
Over the last few years there have been many times when my faith in God has been the one thing that got me through. Throughout everything that happened, God did not change, and the knowledge that He is alive and active in this world is the basis for the hope I have. As we face the anniversary of one of the most painful days in recent memory, if you find yourself looking for shelter, for peace, for comfort, you can find it. There is safe ground you can run to. You can find peace, even now, a year, a lifetime, later.
The God of the Bible is the only deity who has lost a child. He knows what it feels like to have a loved one taken away. He understands grief and pain and suffering. There is a line in an old hymn that says “Let there be peace in the world and let it begin with me.” It can begin with you right now. John 3:16 tells us that God loves the world so much that He sent Jesus, His only Son, to die for us so that everyone who believes in Him can have everlasting life.
You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:
Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of woman you want me to be.
Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised.
If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest.
