Remembering...

I remember everything about that fateful day 12 years ago...the weather, where I was, what I was doing. I remember not being able to reach my husband who was in New York that day. I remember how I felt, what I thought. I remember the sounds, the smells, but mostly I remember the horror, the disbelief, and the fear. And I knew that life would never be the same. It was one of those events...one of those moments that was a marker moment...measured in life before 9.11 and life after 9.11.

As I reflect on that day, I realized something that began to be stripped away from me in those moments. My hope in some ways had rested in my being an American. Being an American meant, safety, security, freedom. It meant living the American dream far removed from much of the world's conflict. On that day, insecurity touched the shores of America. What we thought could never happen to us, did. And now we just don't know anymore how safe we are...how secure we will ever be?

I need to confess that I had made an idol out of my American heritage. I had looked to my country, to my government to provide for me something that they could never provide. I had looked to them to provide security and safety and protection. That day...God began to strip from me the idolatry that was in my heart...looking to something other than God Himself for my security and safety and freedom.

I am so grateful for the grace of God (usually in retrospect, I admit) that faithfully crushes me over and over again, to remove the idols that I perpetually look to for life...for hope...and for happiness. Because each time one of these idols is destroyed, a new dawning of understanding awakens in my heart that it is in Christ ALONE my hope is found...all other ground is shifting sand.

It is not in government that my hope is found. It is not in my country that my hope is found. It is not in my marriage that my hope is found. It is not in family that my hope is found. It is not in friendships that my hope is found. It is not in my health that my hope is found. It is not in my financial portfolio or my job that my hope is found. It is not in my church or denomination that my hope is found. It is not in world peace that my hope is found. Everyone one of these things is shifting sand. Every single one of these things, at one point in time or another, has been ripped out from underneath me. It is in Christ ALONE that I can find hope. It is in Christ ALONE that I find life.

So in remembering all that happened and all that was lost that day...remember also that God's grace in the midst of suffering and tragedy brings healing to our souls if we look to Christ for life! Put your hope in God!

Now this is eternal life...that we would KNOW the One True God and Jesus Christ, the One that He sent. (paraphrase from John 17)