Seven Years Ago Today

Seven years ago today, we were all waking up to a new world because everything had changed. It was the first day of post-911 America. I left the house for the first time, went to my favorite coffee shop and wrote this email to my friends. It's full of melodrama, emotion, and bombast, but those were the elements of the day. I found it not too long ago and thought it would be a good thing to share today. I'd really love to edit it but I'm just going to leave it be. It's amazing how so many things have changed since that day. It's even more amazing that so many things ended up not changing. 

My dear friends:

I awoke with a start to the phone ringing. 

It was nearly 8 a.m. which, if you know me, is when I’m typically deep into REM sleep. I’ve made it a habit to not answer the phone before 10 because it’s usually solicitors or one of my roommate’s co-workers. Anyone who knows me knows not to call before then--plus my friends are still sleeping as well, so I let the machine get it. I laid there restless for a few minutes before deciding to get online and check out some Ebay auctions I’d been bidding on. I had no idea how useless a 20-year-old Puma t-shirt would be to me in the next ten minutes. 

My cell phone began to ring. “Okay,” I thought springing from my bed, “someone is trying to reach me.” I checked the caller ID and noticed it was another roommate calling from his office. A bit annoyed at whatever could be the reason he’d call me at such an ungodly hour. And it turned out to be an absolutely unGodly hour. 

Trace told me to turn on the TV because there had been some kind of attack at the World Trade Center.  “Whatever, I’m going back to bed,” I told him, as if he was making up the whole thing. “Seriously, go wake up the guys and turn on the TV,” he nearly commanded. I switched on the television and as the picture tube warmed up, I began to see the first images of what I could only describe as completely surreal. 

Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson were obviously as stunned as I was. I ran upstairs and woke my two other roommates and told them to come to the living room. I suppose they saw the alarm in my eyes because they jumped up without question to begin what has now become a 32-hour, commercial-free news bulletin. Peter Jennings has shown the most amazing grace, humanity, and composure I’ve seen in recent years and I have stayed with ABC for the most part with the occasional switch to FOX News, Oral Roberts University’s Chapel broadcast on TBN, and CNN.

I don’t really know why I’m writing all of this, other than I wanted to have some sort of record of what this day was like. I’ve prayed a little, although I must admit having found no comfort in it. I know in the logical sense that God has a plan and that this wasn’t part of it. I also know that He can redeem that which was intended for evil and use it to His glory. We’ve seen some of this in the constant calls to prayer, the staggering outpouring of aid from all over the world, and the hundreds of herculean, heroic acts.  

But something has changed. The thin veil of security, wealth, and liberty that we Americans live behind has been ripped apart and replaced with a black curtain of insecurity, despair, and fear. We have become grossly aware of just how vulnerable we are. We are no longer living on impenetrable soil. The irony is that the liberties and freedoms we enjoy are the same ones that allowed these demonized madmen into the country without suspicion. Now it looks like we inadvertently trained some of these to actually fly the airliners that turned into missiles at their helm. That is the price of an open society.

As a Christian, I have no choice but to look at all of this with my spiritual eyes. What does it mean?  Sen. Joseph Biden from Delaware made a statement that has stuck with me. “These men were able to do something no one in the history of the world has ever been able to do, they have united the entire globe.”  It’s a paraphrase, but a compelling thought to anyone who has studied Biblical escathology. Unexpected countries like Russia and China have rallied around the U.S. and have unilaterally condemned the attack along with all of Europe. I don’t obsess about this at all, nor do I know enough of Biblical end-times theology to state for certain, but I recognize the prophetic importance of a unified world army fighting a common enemy in the Middle East, an enemy that is unified in its hatred of Israel.

In a completely unrelated event, I lost a friend who drowned while diving in Jamaica yesterday.

Friends, I love you all and apologize for this email. It’s nothing you haven’t already heard or felt, but I just wanted to jot down my thoughts--probably for more selfish reasons than anything. I encourage all of you to do the same. Write it down. What are you thinking? What has stuck with you? I hope all of you can take thirty minutes or so and just write. Write for the catharsis, and send your thoughts to me. I’m wanting to compile a record of what my friends were going through and thinking these past two days.  I don’t know why, actually.  I just feel compelled to give you all a voice.

I know I’m being melodramatic, but I we’ve all been witnesses to unthinkable horrors. May God infuse this country with His Spirit and bring us to our knees.

(rw)

Comments

[Laura Anderson]

My daughter had called and told me I had to see what was happening. Reluctantly, I turned on the tv that hadn't been turned on (unless to watch a video- I can't stand tv shows) for 16 years. When I finally accepted that this was really going on, I just sat and cried, prayed and cried, hurt and cried. It was one of those "I remember where I was when President Kennedy was shot" moments. We haven't been the same since, have we?

[carrie]

it is so hard for me to think back to that day. a very good friend of mine lost her husband in the wtc. they had just been married in july...and didn't even have their wedding pictures back. he was in the wtc just for the day at a trade show on the top floor. he called her just after the tower was hit to tell her he didn't think he was going to make it out. i just can't begin to imagine what that felt like for either of them. i sat just staring at the tv in disbelief of the whole event and struggled to grasp the reality of not only how all of our lives were changed in an instant, but how real it was about to become for our close group of friends. my heart was breaking. the burning buildings looked like something in a movie, but knowing that a friend was in there fighting to survive, was just overwhelming.

the memorial service was about a month after the attack. i remember sitting in the airport waiting to board the flight to new york. it was a weird feeling. i was fearful, but at the same time i had a certain peace about it. i had never been to new york before, but it seemed so quiet...stunned. walking into their apartment and seeing his shoes lined by the door and a room full of so many familiar faces was surreal. there was some closure since she had talked to him and knew he was there. so many others had to face assuming, but not truly knowing, the fate of their loved ones. looking back now, the one thing that i am reminded of is how we came together and surrounded cori and loved her as Christ loves us. it is evident that God designed us to live life in authentic relationship with others. after all the pain, suffering, fear and loss of security it is our relationship with Jesus and holding onto those close to us that is essential in getting back to living....not forgetting, but living with faith and trust in Jesus, in a deeper way than ever before.

i continue to pray for those who were touched personally by losing someone they loved as a result of the attacks...as well as those serving in our military and putting their lives on the line every day to help secure our nation.

thanks for sharing! carrie

[Rebecca]

i just want to say when that incident happened 7 years ago i was in 6th grade. my heart just reached out to them. i wasn't a christian at the time but my heart went out to them. it made every classmate in my classroom cry. we were that scared! we said the pledge of allegience just like every other junior high school would do. then we sat in our seats and wrote about what just happened. then we carried on to our other classwork.