nineleven

7:45am

Five years ago, four airplanes were getting ready to fly. To fly toward unsuspecting targets, filled with unsuspecting passengers not knowing knowing that today they would never reached their planned destinations. Rather they would become icons – icons of heroism, icons of terror, icons of tragedy. Radical Islamofacists, bent on the destruction of the “Great Satan”, took control of these airplanes and kamikazeed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

I remember the day the towers fell – standing there in the office at Grace, watching the surreal images flash across the television screen, seeing people jumping to their deaths in desperation, the smoke, the fire, the shrill screaming of the alarms, dazed expressions, terrified faces. The moment when the first tower began it’s collapse … slowly … clouds of dust billowing through the New York landscape as the building crumbled to the ground like an empty robe. Disbelief, when shortly after the second tower followed. Imagining the shear loss of life, horror struck at the thought of those trapped inside. Many, just beginning their days at work … kissed their families goodbye that morning, stopped at Starbucks for their usual coffee and a bagel … just another day at the office. Many heroes were made that day – and we will never hear their stories for they perished for their acts of bravery. Ordinary people moved to do extraordinary acts – for their brothers and sisters. The tales of those who survived are so powerful, so life giving.

We watched the ABC movie The Path to 9/11, last night and I was struck by the fact that this began long before September 11, 2001. The hatred, the evil, the planning, the scheming, the murder of the terrorists had been going on for many years prior to this day. Their desire was to shake the Great Satan, the nation of infidels, the nation who dared stand with the hated Israel … America. We, who thought ourselves invincible, untouchable, were suddenly vulnerable, our weakness exposed. It was a knife through our soft underbelly piercing our vital organs. It was an exposure of the bureaucracy and ineptness of the government. Good men and women, fighting the war on terror even before it was known as that, who stood, ready to take out Osama, but were not able to because those in power were too worried about political fallout and their own careers and the legacy of the President (who was consumed with Miss Lewinsky at the time).

9/11 shook us up. Somewhat. Five years have passed. The shock has faded. Now, like President Bush asked, we are back to living our lives… obsessing about Paris Hilton, the expanding waistlines of our citizens, and whether we like or dislike Katie Couric as a news anchor. Osama is still at large, and even today, AlQuaeda is issuing videos spelling out our certain doom. The Pentagon is rebuilt, the site of the WTC remains unbuilt and arguments over a suitable structure ensue.

In all of this, I still wonder if we are any more ready now then we were then. For sure we have more security at airports and slightly tighter borders. But how many more sleeper cells reside here now – ready to take action? Another attack will come, it is inevitable. So it just comes down to whether or not we are ready. I don’t speak of gas masks and bomb shelters, but our position with Jesus. The day of shaking is coming… like none we have ever seen before. It will make what happened five years ago pale in comparison. Will we be ready to stand in that day?