Seven years ago today, our country faced perhaps its most difficult day. I remember that day very vividly. I remember watching live, in disbelief, the World Trade Center towers failing like a house of cards in a cloud of dust.
I love New York. It is my favorite place in the world. In 2004, while in NYC, we visited the spot where those buildings once stood. About a block from that gaping hole, is St. Paul’s Chapel. In the days after the attacks, St. Paul’s became a hub for rescue workers. Inside that small chapel are reminders of that day. It is full of pictures, cards, and banners. All a memorial to those who paid the ultimate price. As I walked through St. Paul’s I came to something that had nothing to do with 9/11.
In that chapel is an old wooden bench. The very bench at which our first President, George Washington, knelt to pray after his first inauguration. There in the midst of all these reminders of a tragedy created by men who felt they were living out there “religious duty”, is the bench where a true leader knelt before God to ask for the wisdom and guidance to lead an infant country. Among all these images of the pain and desperation of that day, was a wooden reminder of how we can overcome. As long as there are leaders who are willing to seek the greater good and the true character of God, we can rise above any attack.
It’s hard to understand how men could convince themselves that flying planes into buildings and taking lives would actually gain them favor in the eyes of their god. September 11, 2001 was the best example of misguided passion. I hear people say men these days aren’t passionate or aren’t committed. It’s not that there’s a lack of passion, there’s just a lack of passion for the right things. There’s a lack of passion for TRUE things of God.
