This past Sunday, I attended two services (one of which was in English and the other in Spanish) at my church, Christ Tabernacle. Since it was the ten-year anniversary of September 11th, my pastor decided to have a portion of each of our five weekend services dedicated to the remembrance of our nation’s tragedy. My favorite portion of these times was when we prayed because, although it is good to ponder the injustices committed against our fellow Americans and remember those whose lives have been forever altered, it is even better to do something about it. Although I was sitting in a room with about two hundred people that I know (and five hundred individuals that I have not yet met), we all joined together to ask God to bless, comfort, heal, and protect our nation- from those personally affected by the attacks on September 11th to our current president.
In the English service, one of my pastors mentioned more specific examples of people who had been affected by the tragedy while he was praying. I cannot fathom being one of them- the widow, the orphaned child, the fiance, the girlfriend, the wife, the daughter, et cetera of one who passed away. It boggles my mind and overwhelms my heart.
Additionally, it struck me when our Spanish congregation took time out to sing the national anthem and pray, just as we had done in the English meetings. This past Sunday further reminded me that there is no boundary too difficult to cross to create something beautiful, be it a foreign language or a different upbringing.
In the wake of one of our nation’s most horrific events, we have an enormous opportunity to cross the barriers that have divided us as a people and truly unite like never before.
This is such a beautiful concept. It truly is amazing to see people from all over the place and people who speak different languages come together as one in the same hope–hope for comfort and healing and protection. I was at church on Sunday morning as well, and we viewed a testimony video by a man who made something out of his life because of the tragedy that occurred on September 11th, 2001. He realized that he could have been one of those people who died. He decided that he wasn’t happy with his life, and after years of struggling, he is now a new, better person. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, the main character, Oskar, is sent to a psychologist who asks him if anything good could come from the death of his father on 9/11. Oskar is enraged at this question and doesn’t understand why his psychologist would even say something so evil. The truth is that it is hard to see good in something so evil as the attack on the World Trade Center. We are the United States of America, though, and we are strong. Our country arose from that day with determination, pride, and unity. As he prayed, the pastor of the church also said something striking: we must forgive our enemies. That means that we have to forgive those terrorists. That does not mean we are saying what they did was right in any way, but we must forgive them. We can’t remain hardened and angry. The terrorists cannot have that power over us. These are hard concepts to understand, but I believe that the people of our country are strong enough to achieve it.
During our Wednesday meeting last week, we actually had someone share a similar story. She was newly married at the time of the attacks, and she had been running from her life’s true purpose for about eight years. After walking home from the city with her husband (after an emotional time of searching for each other), she said that they both felt extremely frightened and confused; but, she knew that she would find peace from all of the noise of her restlessness at the church’s service that night. (Our pastor even recounts that she and her husband came into the service with white dust over their faces from the dust in the city). The next week, she started following her purpose again.
Rosie’s statements are incredibly true.
Your final statement (and the events that inevitably occur on the 9/11 anniversary) do give us hope. We have the capacity for hope (and for Art!). Art can be a vehicle for hope and understanding as well.