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Lamentations 3:18-30 (CEV)18 I tell myself, “I am finished! I can’t count on the LORD to do anything for me.” 19 Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering makes me miserable. 20 That’s all I ever think about, and I am depressed. 21 Then I remember something that fills me with hope. 22 The LORD’s kindness never. fails! If he had not been merciful, we would have been destroyed. 23 The LORD can always be trusted to show mercy each morning. 24 Deep in my heart I say, “The LORD is all I need; I can depend on him!” 25 The LORD is kind to everyone who trusts and obeys him. 26 It is good to wait patiently for the LORD to save us. 27 When we are young, it is good to struggle hard. 28 and to sit silently alone, if this is what the LORD intends. 29 Being rubbed in the dirt can teach us a lesson; 30 we can also learn from insults and hard knocks.
Some years ago, I entered into a series of Bible studies with a gentleman who moved to Hazard from New York City. At our first Bible study, we had a lengthy discussion about the events of September 11, 2001. He was not yet born into the world, but he told me that his martial arts instructor had been at the Towers early that morning. He had stepped outside and was walking up the street when an explosion rocked the Earth underneath him and he saw damage to the Towers. He was horrified, especially when he later saw the first plane impact the Towers.
Other witnesses testified of the same.
“Barry Jennings, the city’s emergency coordinator, was at the scene before and after the building collapses. Jennings puts it out there plainly: “I know what I heard. I heard explosions.” 6 For my TV show, I interviewed a witness named William Rodriguez, a janitor who happened to have a master key and rescued many people and got honored at the White House as a national hero. He says that shortly before American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower at 8: 46 AM, an explosion simultaneously rocked the building so hard “it pushed us up.” Rodriguez later testified behind closed doors to the 9/ 11 Commission, but his name was never mentioned in the report. Rodriguez also gave the commission and the FBI a list of fourteen people who’d been with him, but not a single one was ever contacted. He produced his boss for us, who looked me right in the eye and in essence told me the same story. What’s happened to Rodriguez today? He’s on the no-fly list. A guy who went back in to save people, with no regard for his own life! When he goes somewhere, he’s pulled out of the line, interrogated, harassed. All because, I guess, he didn’t give the “proper testimony” they wanted.” (Jesse Ventura, American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us, 146 (Kindle Edition): New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing)
I don’t know the full story of what happened on 9-11. Odds are, I may never know.
But I do know what I remember from that day.
The shock when I first heard that our nation was under attack. How could this happen to America? Who could do this to the United States?! How is this possible? Why would someone hurt our country like this? God, please help!
The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I saw the planes collide with the Towers. Could this somehow be an accident? Were there people on those planes? Were they awake and aware of what was happening? Were they dead already before the impact?
The terror at the thought (and then the reality) that other attacks were coming. What if this is just the beginning? What about my parents? Are my brother and sister in law and nephew safe? What if we get nuked next? What if we have already been nuked and we just haven’t been told? What if our country has been invaded by Russia or China? Could there be soldiers parachuting into our cities even now, just like in the movie Red Dawn? Is anywhere safe? Lord, what is happening? Where are You?
The horror as I watched people jumping from the Towers and plummeting to their deaths, rather then being burned alive. How is this happening? This is too awful to watch. Why aren’t the reporters filtering this? What if their families are watching their loved ones die? What would I do if I were them? Should I pray for God to let them die instead of facing that terrible fire? What is happening up there? God, please help them!
The anxiety when I did not hear from our leaders. Where is the President? Are our leaders dead? Were they the first ones to be taken out? Are they on Air Force One because there is a nuclear strike inbound? Why isn’t President Bush saying something? Is he still reading a book to those in front of the cameras and reporters? Isn’t the downfall of our country a more pressing concern? Lord, help him and guide him! Help us! What is going on?!
Where were you when the Towers fell?
Do you still remember the day everything changed in our country?
And in the world?
Are you still haunted by that terrible day?
As awful as 9-11 and the days (weeks, months, years) after were, I was able to find comfort in talking about it with the Lord. Indeed, I am consoled to know that much of the Bible is a historical record of God’s people struggling to understand “why” when horrible things happen.
Sometimes His people are hurt, angry, confused, numb, and don’t know what to do.
Sometimes they express that angst to God.
Sometimes they express it all at God.
“The Psalms also help us explore the unthinkable. How can we voice anger, anxiety, our deepest fears and darkest thoughts to God? Psalms drill down into the marrow, getting to the core issues of life. Through the Psalms, God provides therapy for these intense and sometimes painful issues. They help put us in touch with buried issues. I have discovered that the Psalms often surface enormously significant feelings I did not even know were there. Or even more to the point, the Psalms unearth things we desperately need to face—wounds that will not be healed unless they are surfaced and dealt with carefully. We know they are in there somewhere, but we don’t want to deal with them. They seem too painful or too frightening or too threatening to face. As we move through the Psalms, however, some of them take us into that unthinkable emotional geography we might otherwise avoid. They lead us to process painful feelings we might otherwise stuff down inside. This processing releases healing into our souls….The Psalms give us permission to let God know when we feel abandoned or mistreated. Even Jesus himself gives us permission to pour out our grievances to God, to express negative feelings of being abandoned by God. The cross is not the only place we see Jesus praying lament or protest prayers. When Jesus had come back to Jerusalem during the Passover, he went with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, just across from a city gate. In the garden Jesus pleaded with his Father, “Let this cup pass from me.” He was talking about the cup of suffering on the cross. In essence, he was asking God to find another way. He went through the sense of abandonment one feels when our prayers do not seem to be answered. This becomes crystal clear when Jesus, hanging on the cross in the gathering darkness, cries out with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” At that horrendous moment, Jesus was praying the words from Psalm 22: 1–3…What we are hearing from Jesus is a prayer of deep lament. And in these moments, with these words, Christ did a great service to the world. These words, welling up out of his deepest agony, give us permission to cry out as well. Our “make me happy” culture programs us to avoid painful or negative feelings. But serious downsides come with this kind of avoidance. Mental health professionals have long since discovered that swallowed painful feelings—such as anger, fear, and shame—usually produce even more negative consequences. These feelings frequently come out in some destructive form, such as clinical depression, substance abuse, or sexual acting out. The Psalms are not about stuffing or denying buried issues. Perhaps this is why looking at the Psalms—or any Scripture—from a moralistic or legalistic perspective drains the life and pursuit of God out of those coming from these perspectives. Psalms are not to-do lists or even not-to-do lists for entrance into heaven. Neither are the Psalms pure venting. Venting alone—particularly the kind that diminishes other people or God—can make our problems seem larger than life and spread the stress to others. Rather than stuffing or venting, we’re instructed to pray to God. The Psalms give us a praying voice that is not stuffing, not venting, but something much more. Reading, praying, singing, memorizing, and ministering the Psalms gives us an emotional and spiritual health that helps us deal with the dark side of our hearts. God knew this before the Psalms were ever voiced….Approximately seventy percent of the recorded Psalms in the Old Testament are psalms of complaint, lament, or imprecation, which means vengeance. By praying these Psalms we lay our stuff honestly at God’s feet. God is big enough to let us beat on his chest. We need not pretend we have no negative, angry feelings toward God. In fact, he already knows we have those feelings anyway. Rather, we have both permission and language to open our hearts and show rage, disappointment, and anger at God.” (Lynn Anderson, Talking Back To God: Speaking Your Heart To God Through The Psalms, 65-69 (Kindle Edition); Abilene, TX; Leafwood Publishers)
It is okay to hurt, and to cry out to God. It is okay to doubt, and to feel anger with the Almighty. The Psalms also remind us of another powerful truth: God is with His people and He will bring them through every trial.
Psalm 46:10-11-Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! 11 The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
As we prepare for 9-11:
Let us mourn for those who died on that day, and for those whose loved ones never returned home…
Let us honor the many brave police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, and others who made such a difference with their lives (and sometimes with their heroic deaths)….
Let us remember what we as a nation suffered on that terrible day, and since…
Let us lament and grieve and cry vehemently to God…
Let us ask questions, and learn to be okay with the knowledge that even if we don’t have all the answers, our Father does…
Let us recommit ourselves to our God, remembering that He is with us and that He is for us….
AND IF GOD IS FOR US WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?!?!
Let us loudly and triumphantly rejoice in knowing that our God…HE is the LORD OF HOSTS!!!
Let us boldly proclaim that our God….HE is the GREAT I AM!!!
Let us hold fast to our faith, for we know that one Day, the LION Of THE TRIBE OF JUDAH will roar from the holy realm of Heaven and He will Return for His people!!!
Even so, come Lord Jesus!