This Cannot Be Shaken

September 11, 2001 started out to be a stellar day. Once I got Madison off to Kindergarten, Matthew and I headed to a local coffee shop to meet a friend and her preschool-aged daughter for breakfast. It was a beautiful cool and crisp morning. Fall was definitely in the air but the forecast was for a sunny, warm afternoon- the sort of afternoon where all is right with the world.

But as we finished breakfast and just before I darted off to work, someone told us that an airplane had hit one of the World Trade Center Towers in NYC. We couldn’t really know what that meant at the time, but it was obviously alarming and questioning. 

My office, home to a marketing conglomerate of radio stations and print publications, was just a few minutes down the road. I had no more than walked in the door when one of the guys from the newsroom frantically yelled something about a second plane. The entire building full of us scrambled for the conference room. There, standing in awe at the television, we watched in disbelief as Matt Lauer and Katie Couric tried to make sense of what was happening.

And here we are, 18 years later, in many ways still trying to make sense of the darkest day in our nation’s history that I have ever witnessed. It is one of those rare moments in history that if you lived through it, you remember where you were and how you felt. You remember it turning our entire world on its head, robbing us of all sense of security and our belief in the goodness of mankind. 

On this anniversary, we remember the more than 3,000 lives lost that fateful day. We pray for the families they left behind and the pain that 9/11 will always hold for them. And if we are honest, we probably still wonder why. Why God, did you allow, in your sovereignty, something so horrific to happen?

There is no easy answer to the why question, whether it’s the suffering of 9/11, the suffering in our son’s cancer, or your suffering in whatever trial is before you. As Pastor Tim Keller explained, addressing an audience at the White House on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, “We don't know the reason that God allows evil and suffering to continue. But we know what the reason isn ́t. We know what the reason can ́t be. It can't be that he doesn't love us. It can't be that he doesn't care."

Keller’s insight reminds me of when Matthew received his cancer diagnosis. We quickly realized that focusing on the WHY wasn’t nearly as helpful as focusing on the WHO. We could spend fruitless time and energy getting angry developing hypotheses about the why or we could spend productive time focusing on what we knew - that God’s love for us hadn’t changed, even though our circumstances had. 

September 11 changed our world forever. But what it didn’t change is the steadfast, unrelenting love of our God who himself is intimate with suffering - even suffering death on a cross. Let today remind us that no matter what our circumstances bring, His Word and the promises of His love can’t be undone.

“I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.” Romans 8:38