September 11 – “On September 11 … I choose”

 

 

I'm always amazed at how many different ways the comic strip writers can come up with to honor days like today.  It's great to have a venue like that to communicate the gratitude and respect we have for the many firefighters and law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line that day ten years ago -  and every day.  And it's important as well to remember the lives of the innocent ones who were killed. 

 

It's one of those things I guess we'll never fully understand – how such evil can enter the hearts of men so that they do unspeakable things.  It's easy to blame God in these situations.  Why didn't he stop it?  If he's so good, why did he allow it to happen?  But he didn't do it.  He weeps with us in our grief.  And I'm sure he swells with pride at the heroic acts of self-sacrifice.  Probably reminds him of the sacrifice he made for us.  I can't understand how difficult it must be for him – to be able to do something about such evil, yet to allow it to happen. 

 

I think at least partly the answer is rooted in the fact that he so wants our love for him to be meaningful, that he takes a huge risk.  He allows us to choose.  I get that.  The whole allure of having someone fall in love with you is that they choose you over everyone else in the world.  Romeo chose Juliet.  Chris chose me.  And in allowing us to choose to love him, he must also allow us to choose not to, or else we would be robots.  And that choosing not to always causes unspeakable pain.  And emotion is always intensified in situations of extreme pain.  We anger quicker.  We sacrifice more readily.  We love deeper. 

 

I still don't understand it.  The evil.  The love.  But I made my choice.  I choose to trust the one I love.  He's big enough to fill in the blanks in my understanding like no one else can. 

 

Romans 15:13 says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

 

Father, thank you for giving me the chance to choose love.  Replace the intense grief and pain and anger of those who remember with an even more intense love.  Amen.