9/11

NYFD Deputy Chief Joseph Curry at Ground Zero Three Days After the Terrorist Attack, Photo by Navy Officer 1st Class Preston Keres, Source http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=1466

The events of 9/11 were seared into the national consciousness. Ordinary people impacted by extraordinary evil; senseless tragedy on a monumental scale.

Yet the days, weeks, and months which followed demonstrated that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary good. The darkness that seemed to reign for a moment could not overshadow the countless of acts of courage and compassion.

We will, each of us, experience evil in some form during our lives. Grief and loss need not be inflicted by terrorists to tear at our confidence, undermine our faith.

It is in the furnace of such trials that faith is forged. It is from the ashes of such trials that heroism emerges. The circumstances may not be of our making. The choice of how to respond is ours.

“Elijah was afraid and ran for his life…” (1 Kings 19: 3).

Lord God, faced with the enormity of evil, with unrelenting pain or sorrow, we come at times to the end of our strength. Like Your great prophet Elijah, we run in fear from – rather than toward – You.

Restore our confidence, Father. Help us to recognize such painful situations as opportunities to trust. Help us to surrender our lives to Your will, as Your Son did.

Amen