I Have Overcome...

The next several posts are articles that I wrote to be printed in the bulletin at the Palisades church in Brimingham. These were written over a period of 10 weeks or so and are short in thought due to the limited space. But hopefully there is a message for you, wherever you are.

I was sitting in an 8^th grade classroom at Challenger Middle school on this day (Sept 11) 10 years ago. We had an announcement come over the speakers calling for everyone to go to their homeroom classes and wait for further instruction. So everyone anxiously rushed to their respective classes for we had not yet been told what was taking place and we thought maybe a surprise assembly or some special treat. We were sadly mistaken. My teacher turned on the tv and we all sat and watched live as the horror and destruction was very quickly overcoming New York City. To be completely honest I remember not being really sure what to think. I knew this was a very bad thing, a scary thing, but it never really hit me that day. Maybe because of my age at the time and all of the action movies that were always on tv I was desensitized to the massacre taking place. Maybe because it was on the other side of the country I had no immediate fight or flight reaction or emotion. I didn’t realize the implications of what had happened right away. I hadn’t let the gravity of that moment sink in until much time had passed. But here we stand 10 years to the day, roughly 8 years into war, just months into long sought after justice, and only hours into reliving that day all over again. Sadly, for many, their hearts can still feel the sting from 0-hour. Families, friends, and those directly affected tragically suffered losses beyond a magnitude that many will never quite comprehend. These men, women, and children weren’t equipped with rifles, helmets, or combat training, rather with innocence, pride, and freedom. Then at the hand of terror they were blindsided and in half a day; gone. “…God, where are you…?”

 Jesus, to his disciples:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you….When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. ²⁷ And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you…I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹ A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²² So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. ²³ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name…“But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. ³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 15 and 16

In times of terror He has promised us peace, in times of pain He has promised us compassion, and in times of death He has promised us life.