Do you recall where you were when the news first starting coming in about the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001? I do. I was at University United Methodist Church in San Antonio (where I was serving as Senior Pastor). As the news came in, we gathered the staff and anyone else present in the building who wished to join us for a time of prayer in the sanctuary. In the sacred quiet of that sanctuary we laid our fears before the Lord.
In a host of different ways we will remember the events and victims of the 9/11 tragedy. Once again I hope that we will lay our fears and hopes before the Lord. The world needs Christians to show a yet more excellent way (I Corinthians 21:31).
In watching the various TV specials and reports leading up to the 10th anniversary, I find my emotions stirred on a deep level. Anger and hope vie for control; fear and forgiveness wrestle with each other; peace and vengeance stalk the inner corridors of my soul. In the tumult of my emotions, the words of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians come back to me. “Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus: Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider being equal with God something to be exploit. But he emptied himself by taking the form of a salve and by becoming like human beings” (Philippians 2:5-7, CEB).