Recently I have been thinking about 9/11. I remember that morning. I had taken our 6 month old daughter and our 19 month old son to Centennial Park in Nashville. The pictures are one of the reasons that day is so vivid to me–I took a lot that morning. It was truly a beautiful day and, and ironically enough, a peaceful one. The kids ran in the big open spaces, feeding the ducks, throwing rocks in the ponds and generally being mesmerized by the cascading water fountains.
I’ve often heard my parents’ generation talk about “where they were when JFK was assassinated”. For my generation we will always remember where we were the day the twin towers fell. Much has been said about how that day changed our nation for the worse. But we also came together as a nation. We were more prayerful. We attended church more frequently and we began to take the time to speak to one another with more care.
Tragic events like 9/11 make us face the hard reality that we don’t have as much control over our lives as we believe. In the end, that’s not a bad place to be. It’s a place where we realize that life is a gift and as such, it should be nurtured and treasured. And just maybe in the process, we too are more willing to share our lives with our fellow man who have been created in the image and likeness of God.
At the conclusion of another national crisis, one of our greatest presidents had these words to say, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”
One of the good things that can come out of 9/11 is the same thing that Abraham Lincoln came to understand so many years ago–the realization that our wisdom and understanding alone are “insufficient for that day”.
May God help us to be faithful, to realize the insufficiency of our own strength.
