Remember?

It's 9/11...do you remember? Do you remember the day that America tasted evil, fear, death and destruction? Do you remember the people who died that day? They aren't issues, they aren't causes, they aren't political tools...they're people. Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, friends, siblings and workmates...gone in minutes. Do you remember? Do you remember the people who stood, frozen in shock as they watched people fall from the sky? Do you remember the sounds of destruction and the sight of the sun being cloaked in ash and debris?

I remember standing in front of a tiny television in the kitchen of strangers...strangers who were family to me through Christ. I was in Stevens Point, WI, getting up in the home of people I had met just the night before as I stood on the doorstep of their farm with my suitcase in hand. I was scheduled to speak to a group of women on the morning of 9/11/01 about Jesus Christ and the life, hope and forgiveness I had found in Him. That morning, three of us stood in that little farmhouse kitchen and stared, perplexed, at the images on the tv screen, with no real understanding of what was happening. It was as if none of us could speak, could ask, "What are we seeing?" As if saying it out loud made it real. And it slowly sank in that this was very, very real. I reached for the phone and called my family...fearful for their safety, even though none of them were anywhere near New York City. I remember the stunned disbelief in their voices and the relief I felt at just hearing them. I remember standing in a little restaurant hall out in the middle of corn fields with a shaking woman standing in front of me asking if I thought we should make mention of the disaster in New York as we began our program that day. My answer, of course, was "Yes. It's real, it's happening and we need to pray."

Do you remember 9/11? Thousands of people are gone because of the events of that day...children are growing up without any knowledge of parents because of that day. Families around the world still grieve because of that day. Horror breached this nation that day and it mustn't be forgotten because it's still real, it's still happening in it's effects on this world and on each of us, and we still need to pray.
Remember!