Never Lost

I was thinking...

How do you remember something you would rather forget? How do you honor something that is not honorable?

These were my thoughts as the 25th anniversary of what we call “9/11” approached. It is painful to remember what happened—the images that appeared across our television screens and the stories reported for days, weeks, and months following the tragedy at the World Trade Center.

At the time, I was the appointed pastor of Cannon United Methodist Church. On that fateful Tuesday morning, I greeted the then-mayor of Snellville as he walked into our church office. He was delivering letterhead stationery from his printing business to our office staff. As we greeted one another, he said, “Did you hear that a plane has flown into the World Trade Center?”

I had not yet heard the news. In my mind, I imagined a small-engine plane that had experienced some kind of mechanical problem and accidentally crashed into the building. I was wrong—very wrong.

As the day unfolded, the horrific events continued to mount, and the weight of grief grew within me. It would take several days for those in the intelligence community to begin clarifying the full scope of the attacks on the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and the plane that crashed into an open field in Pennsylvania.

The memory of those days will remain with everyone alive on September 11, 2001. It is painful to remember, but it is necessary that we never forget. Sometimes, remembering what we would rather forget is an exercise in discipline. One that is critical to the development of our souls. Choosing to remember is also an act of honor toward those whose losses that day are beyond human expression.

I cannot imagine the terror of those who fell hundreds of floors to their deaths. Nor can I imagine the grief experienced by families who continue to carry the pain of losing someone they loved on that terrible day.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus:

“We are called to be an honor to God’s glory because we were the first to hope in Christ…The Holy Spirit is the down payment on our inheritance, which is applied toward our redemption as God’s own people, resulting in honor of God’s glory.”

—Ephesians 1:12, 14, CEB

So, how do we honor that which is not honorable? How do we pay homage to a day that commemorates such horror and suffering? We do so as an expression of our hope in Christ.

When everything around us seems to fall down and come apart, our lives are called to be a living reminder that in Christ, hope is NEVER lost. Even in the midst of broken hearts and tear-stained cheeks, hope is NEVER lost.

The Sunday following September 11, 2001, was September 16. Worship services that morning were standing-room-only experiences. People came from throughout our community to be reminded that hope is never lost, even when it feels as though hope cannot be found.

I am told that this was the experience in churches across the United States. Was it fear that drew us back to God? Maybe it was. Or perhaps, just perhaps, we longed to remember something that no amount of terror could destroy within us. Maybe we wanted the reassurance that the hope found in Christ is real, and that it cannot be reduced to rubble.

How do you remember something you would rather forget? How do you honor something that is not honorable?

We remember because forgetting would dishonor those who were lost.

And we remember because, even in the darkest moments of human brokenness, the hope we have in Christ is NEVER lost.

May that be true for me. And may it be true for you.

Always thinking...