The disappointment of 9-11

I got to the office late on the morning of September 11, 2001.  It was around 10 am when I saw Pete Wood at the main office computer(the only one with internet).  He asked me, “Did you here?  It’s like World War 3.  Bombs going off at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.”  We were without a secretary that day so I manned the phones as people called with all sorts of questions.  The internet was down so I rolled a TV into the office to watch the coverage and try to figure out what was going on.  Pete, Fred Andrews, and I were all in a state of shock.  When the first tower collapsed my only response was to yell, “Holy Crap!”  I remember our youth meeting the next night and Austin Rampey praying earnestly for the salvation of those responsible.  At that point, Osama Bin Laden was a name new to most of us.  The congress sang God Bless America on the steps of the capitol.  Churches were open everywhere for people to pray.  Many people turned to God for answers, guidance, and peace.  For a brief time the partisan bickering in Washington stopped.  I wrote song about that day.  I wish the chorus hadn’t been so prophetic:

Will this be different, will it be the same

When this is over will we all forget Your name

We will seek You and we will find

But when this is over will we all change our minds.

Here we are, 7 years later, and the feeling of unity brought on by the tragedy of 9-11 is long gone.  I find that the divisions in Washington aren’t representative of most American communities.  Most of us are struggling to make ends meet, build a life for our familes, and get along with our neighbors no matter our differences.  You would never know that from watching any of the nightly news shows.  From them, you would think we are rioting and fighting everyone around us.  None of us appears to be overly happy with either of our presidential choices or with the performance of our elected representatives.  But, none of us has the will, money, or connections to declare our candidacy to replace those who are fighting, but have forgotten who and what they’re fighting for.  And therein lies the problem.  The system is broken.  We are promised Universal Health Care so that we would over look this.  We are offered tax cuts, lower gas prices, green jobs, a secure border, and a thousand other things we will never see all to make us forget how angry we were at the system when we woke up this morning.  Let me let you in on a little secret.  The system isn’t the problem.  The system is broken because we are broken.  We are bent to preserving our self-interests.  The anger we feel is really anger towards ourselves because we haven’t allowed our lives to be transformed by the power of God.  The system doesn’t need to be changed, it needs to be transformed by people who are tapped into the transforming power of God.  It all starts with me and you.  What am I going to do today to help bring hope from the ashes of disaster?  How will I allow God to transform me, my church, my community, my nation, and my world?  Personally, I’d like to see the church put the government out of business.  What I mean is for the church to take the lead in feeding, educating, training, and transforming people’s lives so the government can fix our roads, protect our nation, and make sure the mail, trains, and planes arrive on time.  Now, that’s putting country first and change we can believe in.