9/11, Five Years Later-The Choices One Makes

Grace Moment by Moment-weekly column
My Personal Recollections
The year 2001 started with the loss of my mom on April 13th. I struggled with the grief and the crippling sense of fear. 'What would I do next?' Any person who has ever given care to another knows the emptiness I felt when mom died. For months I could barely cope with the myriad details of life. It was like I was in a vacuum, unable to see a way out. I grasped at straws looking for some sense of identity separate from the one of caregiver. I spent most of my time occupied with my own needs.
On September 11, 2001 that all changed. I remember sitting down to breakfast, and switching on the remote to NBC afilliate WNDU-Channel 16 to catch the morning news with Katie, Al and Matt. It was 9:00 a.m. The camera focused on the World Trade Center. I remember thinking, 'This picture is wrong. The smoke isn't supposed to be coming out of the top, but from the basement.' For some reason, perhaps my brain's attempt to shield me from the reality, my mind had flashed back instantly to the terrorist bombing in 1993. In the next breath I uttered, "Oh. My. God. No. This is happening right now."
Automatically, I reached for the phone and began calling friends and family. I was on the phone with one of my friends when the north tower fell. My mind latched onto one thought, "Thank God, mom is in Heaven. She would have had a fatal heart attack watching this." The reactions everyone I talked to experienced were mixed, ranging from absolute shock to disbelief to even scorn. Later, most would admit to not knowing how to cope with the fear.
A Glimpse into Evil
Even today, a glimpse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center with smoke billowing from their fractured heights sets my insides to quaking. Instinctively, I want to hide. 'Why?' I wondered. The answer I came up with is simple . . . yet arresting.
The images of the twin towers collapsing, with people screaming as they ran from the debris clouds, hold the same distinction in history now as those of hollow-eyed, emaciated survivors of Hitler's holocaust against Jews, Christians and other oppressed groups. The implied message of these images is chilling; it is one of unadulterated Evil against all that stands for God and good in this world.
No himan being, let alone a single nation, has the strength or courage to confront such a mindset bent on killing. But "if two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" in battle. (Matthew 18:20, NKJV) United in prayer before God's Throne, a world can and will win against Evil.
A Call to Repentance
The decision then is clear, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (II Chronicles 7:14, NKJV)
It's been five years since that tragic day when America lost its innocence; its sense of invulnerability to Evil attacking its own shores. America is very much still a nation at war. We live with the uncertainty every day could be our last. President George W. Bush in his address to the nation Monday, September 11th, the fifth anniversary of the attacks, said, "America is safer but not completely safe." So, the choices one makes in life determine what a person's destiny will be. What will you choose?
If you decide you wish to make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Then pray and ask, "Jesus, forgive my sins. I choose to trust You with my life and my soul. Please come and live within my heart. I give You the right to lead me and guide me in all things, and I ask You to be my Savior. Thank You, in Jesus' Name, Amen."
An Additional Note:
If you are still searching for answers and not sure whether you can trust Christ to be the answer you are seeking. Contact me through the comments section on this website and we will talk. I will be praying for you.

Here is a poem I wrote several years ago, I hope you enjoy it.

Lightning
Lightning forks slash the sky,
splitting wide the veil between God and I.
His face glows with the Love of a Father,
for His adopted sons and daughters.
as the thunder rolls,
the time of reckoning comes for mankind's souls.
We have been presented with a choice
in the quicksilver flash that follows, will we heed God's voice
and turn from our wicked ways,
to follow Him until the end of our days?
Or will we allow the brevity of time to close
the Door between this world's and God's? Yet only He goes
for the chance still remains,
for us to gain
the Promise of Eternal Life,
through the Gift of His son, Jesus Christ!
When we surrender our lives to Him,
He will gladly forgive and cleanse our sin.
A new creation we will be
for all eternity.
And when the portal again opens and Christ returns to stay,
we will sing with the angels on that Day,
"Jesus Christ is Lord of Lords and King of Kings,
now and forever He reigns!
The Peace that passes all understanding rules our hearts,
filling it with the knowledge He will never depart!"

Written by:
Belle Anne Leslie

Written on:
June 2, 1994.

Scripture Reference:
2 Chronicles 7:14 & Matthew 18:20