dev182

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change

    And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;

Psalm 46:2

As I write, it is Monday, September 12, 2011. Yesterday marked the tenth year anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11, and our President Barack Obama read the above verse at the memorial event in New York. It was ten years ago when I was walking to class and overheard the news from a conversation going on behind me; ten years since the image of the towers smoking; ten years since the long lines at the gas station; ten years since the range of emotions that assaulted the hearts of Americans on that day where so much changed.

Historically speaking, the 9/11 attacks are probably the most significant event of my lifetime. The feeling of invincibility felt before that by Americans was shattered on that day. No one had any idea what to expect, as suddenly our world that we had for so long been able to control had now been shaken, even if it was for a short time, into chaos. There was a few brief moments of uncertainty about our own borders, and this insecurity was a novelty. I think this chaos produced different things in different people, and I remember clearly what was happening in my heart.

The evening of September 11, 2001, after a day of watching the news and processing with my University, I took my guitar and walked to the opposite side of campus where I could be alone. I still couldn’t see past the vague clouds that had made the immediate direction of the world unclear, but I had a great peace in the fact that I knew the ultimate direction of history. I knew that the world would continue to produce its madness until the return of the Lord, and while I wanted to avoid any end times conspiracy theories, that day more than any other made me realize that we had all just become one day closer to the return of our Lord. So, for me, despite the menaces that seemed to be threatening life as I had known it, fear was not an emotion that I felt after the 9/11 attacks; it was hope that filled my heart. This hope made me want to sing.

September 11 was once a current event. It is now a piece of history. History is safer. If we don’t like history, we “interpret” it in a different way or simply ignore it to protect ourselves. Current events do not give us that luxury. The sacking of the temple in Jerusalem, fall of Rome, the Civil War, and Pearl Harbor are now but pages in our history books, extremely important in the formation of our culture and largely ignored except by students who complain about the pointlessness of having to study history. Yet, if we would’ve been one who lived through such tragedies, the horrors of reality could not have been snubbed. September 11 was the only time in my life where I felt as if I was living in such a time, even though I was sheltered in a more obscure part of America. Yet, it was then where I think I was able to relate to Jeremiah who proclaimed “Great is Thy faithfulness” as the Jewish people were being exiled from Jerusalem. Augustine’s argument for Christians to be confident in the city of God while Rome, the city of man, was burning had a new meaning for me. I began to understand that the people of God should not fear, though the world change and the mountains be thrown into the sea. History belongs to the Lord, and our present sufferings and the world’s current rebellions are merely the part of history that we are experiencing. While it feels uncontrolled and chaotic, the Christians who have gone through such times have understood that there is one who is Sovereign over the events that take place during our days.

It is in this spirit of hope, therefore, that I still sing.