Page 1 of 2
Reflections on the most significant event of this generation.
I heard a story recently about a young man who was walking around the streets of New York not long after the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center had collapsed. An old woman stopped him and said, “I feel sorry for you.” When he asked why, the old woman said, “Because it is your generation that will have to deal with this.”
And it’s true: Sept. 11, 2001, was a startling reminder of just how suddenly and completely our lives can change—how easy it is on a Tuesday morning, under a brilliantly blue summer sky, for a small group of strangers to alter the course of our stories—and how quickly we can veer from action to reaction, and from unbridled optimism to something else.
A decade later, people all around the world are still living in the shadows of the fallen towers and the smoke rising from the Pentagon and the remains of a plane in a southern Pennsylvania field. Americans of a certain age mark time with it. On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we offer reflections from five writers on what that fateful day meant for them and what they’ve learned since.
—John Pattison
Demanding Justice
by Susan Isaacs
In 2001, I was living in New York and dating a man who thought the God of the Bible was judgmental. I tried to explain God’s judgment wasn’t marred by sin. But it didn’t matter; Jack didn’t like the idea of judgment, period.
Not long afterward, I heard Tim Keller preach that contemporary America didn’t really understand divine judgment because we hadn’t experienced evil. We lived in the comfort and calm of suburbia— why would we need divine judgment if we had no heinous evil to be made right? Keller contrasted that perspective to the experience of theologian Miroslav Volf. Volf was born in Croatia, where people witnessed villages burned to the ground, their daughters raped and their sons’ throats slit. Try telling Croatians not to take revenge.
I thought: If Jack ever experienced evil, he would plead—even demand—that God make things right. Well, on the morning of Sept. 11, Jack was in an elevator, heading to the top floor of the World Trade Center. Jack made it out alive; all of his colleagues perished. He suffered trauma, survivor’s guilt and raged at anyone else who felt angry. Jack was in the building—only he had the right to want justice.
All of America rose up and demanded justice. And we were right to demand it. But how have our actions fared in the ensuing decade? I hear differing opinions on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Were we freeing captives, or securing Iraqi oil fields for Halliburton? When bin Laden was killed, I smiled at a photo of New York firemen shouting in victory. I recoiled at images of drunken college students partying outside the White House. They were 8 years old on 9/11. Now they were using bin Laden’s death as an excuse to throw a kegger?
I went back to Tim Keller’s sermon. He had been citing Dr. Volf ’s book Exclusion and Embrace:
The only means of prohibiting violence by us is to insist violence is only legitimate when it comes from God. … If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make a final end of violence, that God would not be worthy of our worship.
This past decade has made two things very clear: humans need to seek justice, and we are incapable of achieving it. True justice will only come when God finally judges the actions of all. And He is a good God to do so.
Susan Isaacs is a writer, actor and comedienne with many credits in TV, film, stage and radio. Her literary debut, Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir (FaithWords), was named a top-10 religion book by Publisher’s Weekly in 2009.
What Time Is It, Lord?
by Richard Dahlstrom
Sept. 11, 2001, was our scheduled annual meeting at the church I lead in Seattle. We gathered, ditched the agenda and spent most of the evening in prayer. I’ll never forget someone crying out with pathos: “God, you said in Ecclesiastes that there’s a time for everything …” He stopped and the room waited in a pregnant silence for him to continue. In a broken voice he finally cried out: “What time is it, Lord? What. Time. Is. It?”
Ten years later, it’s still a question that needs asking.
Is it time to argue about whether the emergent church is superior to the neo-Calvinist movement, giving voice to the same kind of polarization found in our politics? If the answer is yes, we’ll fill the blogosphere with debates about who’s headed for hell and who’s not, who’s pure and who are sons of Satan. The world will shake their head and say, ironically, “Jesus, save me … from Your followers.” No. It’s not the time for these things.
In a world where dictators and extremists continue to oppress, torture, rape and indiscriminately kill, what time is it? Time to fight? Time for vengeance? Time for moving to the desert? Time for fear and banning mosques? It’s not time for these things either.
In the midst of human trafficking, rising food prices in the poorest parts of the world, homelessness and 25,000 children dying of treatable diseases every day, what time is it? In a world of rising populations and food shortages, peak oil and polluted water, what time is it? In a world where democracy seems immobilized by a lack of political will, while totalitarianism and terror wait for their moment to seize power, what time is it?
The good news is this: God’s given us the answer. “God has shown you what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God.” This is the clarion call ringing out above the white noise that, for many, Christianity has become.
Work at giving a voice to those who don’t have one because they’re stuck in the margins. Pursue healthy relationships, which will include extending forgiveness to those who wrong you and confessing your own wrongs. Walk closely with God as friend, guide, lover, so that little by little you’ll start to look like Jesus.
Nurturing these qualities won’t make headlines, but it will cause the light of Christ to shine with just a little more clarity. Ten years after 9/11, I think we all agree what time it is: It’s time for His light to shine brighter.
Richard Dahlstrom’s most recent book is Colors of Hope (Baker). He is Senior Pastor of Bethany Community Church in Seattle, WA and a Conference and Bible School teacher with Torchbearers Missionary Fellowship. Find Richard at RichardDahlstrom.com.
Cold River of Sorrow
by Karen Spears Zacharias
On Monday, Sept. 10, 2001, my daughters and I sat beneath a banyan tree at Punchbowl National Cemetery in Hawaii and watched an aged vet buried. Gray-haired men with bent backs lifted the flag off the casket.
My daughters, raised in Oregon, and far from military installations, had never seen a military funeral. For me, the daughter of a soldier killed in action, that folded flag was entirely too familiar.
Tuesday we woke early to catch the sunrise over Diamond Head. We were due to fly out that morning. As the girls posed for photos, clusters of people gathered on the jetty.
A big-boned woman sat on the rocks, elbows resting on her knees. We stood near her, unaware that death clouds had exploded over New York City, D.C. and Pennsylvania.
“Have you heard?” the lady asked. She had a Brooklyn accent.
“Heard what?” I asked.
“Somebody bombed the World Trade Center.”
I didn’t flinch. I was a reporter and used to headline news. Besides, the World Trade Center had been bombed before.
“Do they know who did it?” I asked.
“No,” she replied. “But they bombed the Pentagon, too.”
