There are days that change our lives: the day we are married, the day a child is born, the day a loved one dies. And there are days that change history.

“Ground Zero” refers to the site where the two tallest towers of New York City’s World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001. I remember vividly my visit to this somber and sobering site some years ago.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, and vice presidential nominee J. D. Vance stood there together as the names of the victims were read. The gathering gave testimony to the deep pain all Americans still share on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history.

“I’m on an airplane that’s been hijacked”

The memory of that tragedy still haunts many of us. The following may be emotionally difficult to read, but Lawrence Wright does an excellent job in The Looming Tower describing what happened that morning in New York City:

The cloudless sky filled with coiling black smoke and a blizzard of paper—memos, photographs, stock transactions, insurance policies—which fluttered for miles on a gentle southeasterly breeze, across the East River into Brooklyn. Debris spewed onto the streets of lower Manhattan, which were already covered with bodies. Some of them had been exploded out of the building when the planes hit. A man walked out of the towers carrying someone else’s leg. Jumpers landed on several firemen, killing them instantly.

The air pulsed with sirens as firehouses and police stations all over the city emptied, sending the rescuers, many of them to their deaths.

A man named Brian Sweeney left this message on his wife’s answering machine:

Jules, this is Brian—listen, I’m on an airplane that’s been hijacked. If things don’t go well, and it’s not looking good, I just want you to know I absolutely love you. I want you to do good, go have good times, same to my parents and everybody, and I just totally love you, and I’ll see you when you get there. Bye, babe. I hope I call you.

The remains of roughly 40 percent of the 9/11 victims have not yet been identified. Over twenty-five thousand people were injured in the aftermath of the attacks, many suffering long-term health consequences from toxic contaminants and personal trauma.

The attacks led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; roughly fifteen thousand US troops and contractors were killed in post-9/11 missions. Estimates project a total combined cost of the wars exceeding $3 trillion, with interest on the debt used to finance operations reaching $6.5 trillion by 2050.

“I have forgotten what happiness is”

If you’re like me, you struggle to know what you can do to respond. You want to make a difference, to serve your nation, to change your world for the better. You want your life to matter when it is over.

However, as 9/11 proved, no one knows when that day will come.

The poet Christopher Morley claimed, “There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.” But you know in your heart that this is not true, that the truest success is to spend your life in the service of a cause greater than yourself. You agree with the late Sen. John McCain: “The richest men and women possess nothing of real value if their lives have no greater object than themselves.”

What should this “greater object” be?

The writer of Lamentations bemoans: “My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is” (3:17). But then he remembers the answer to his despair: “This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lᴏʀᴅ never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (vv. 21–23).

He then testifies:

“’The Lᴏʀᴅ is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him’” (v. 24).

Why should we “hope in him” today?

“Hopeful in the dark hours”

Commenting on Jesus’ parable about the tiny mustard seed that grows into a large tree (Matthew 13:31–32), pastor Paul Powell wrote:

Jesus told this little parable to suggest that there is a silent, unseen power that works in nature that makes a seed grow. You cannot see it, you cannot hear it. But that silent, unseen power begins to work in a seed to make it sprout and grow into a large plant that can produce much fruit.

Operating in the world today is the silent, unseen power of God. And when you go about your work, you must remember always that God is at work at the same time. You need to remember that there are powers in our world that cannot be seen and cannot be heard. We are so awed and impressed by the things we can see that we are apt to forget that there is a greater power that is silent and unseen. . . .

With this understanding of faith and confidence, the Christian can be an optimist even in light of today’s headlines. With this kind of faith a Christian can be hopeful in the dark hours.

Is “this kind of faith” yours today?

Thursday news to know:

• Tropical Storm Francine moves across Mississippi with drenching rains, damaging winds
• 3 massive Los Angeles-area wildfires have scorched more than 100,000 acres in a week
• Polaris Dawn astronauts reach record high orbit above Earth
• US House Republicans’ spending fight delays stopgap funding bill
• On this day in 1940: Lascaux cave paintings discovered

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds.” —Thomas Brooks (1608–80)

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A reflection on the abiding significance of 9/11

Last night’s presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump began with a handshake “but descended into acrimony as the candidates traded barbs,” as the Wall Street Journal reports. In an Instagram post to her 283 million followers after the debate, Taylor Swift endorsed Ms. Harris for president. After the debate, the Democrat’s campaign announced their desire for a second meeting with Mr. Trump.

Whatever your thoughts on the debate in Philadelphia, we can agree that it demonstrated democracy at work. By contrast, the supreme leader of Iran, the “world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” is unaccountable to the nation he supposedly serves. And no such debates occur in Saudi Arabia, where fifteen of the 9/11 terrorists originated.

September 11 is appropriately known as “Patriot Day” in memory of those who were killed on 9/11. Flags will fly at half-staff today at the White House and all US government buildings and establishments throughout the world. We are encouraged to display flags inside and outside our homes today as well. And a moment of silence will be observed beginning at 8:45 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time), the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

On this very somber anniversary, as we remember the 2,977 innocent victims of the deadliest terrorist attack in US history, we are reminded that our nation still faces enemies at war with democracy. From jihadists who would attack us at home and abroad, to cyberterrorists who would imperil our national infrastructures, to autocratic nuclear powers that would threaten our very future, none of us can be certain that there will never be another 9/11.

In this light, I’d like to share some observations from a recent experience that left a deep impression on me.

“Freedom is a fragile thing”

I have visited many veteran memorials over the years. Since my father served in World War II and his father in World War I, such places have always been deeply meaningful to me.

Recently, my wife and I visited the Red River Valley Veterans Memorial Museum in Paris, Texas. Here we encountered a display provided by a family whose ancestors served in the Continental Army that liberated America from England, the Texas Army that liberated our state from Mexico, the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and the Coast Guard during the Korean War.

Beneath their names are emblazoned the words: “Freedom is not inherited. It must be earned one generation at a time.”

Their sentiment echoes that of Ronald Reagan in his inaugural address as governor of California on January 5, 1967:

Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.

Millions of brave men and women are engaged today in defending our freedom at home and abroad. What can you and I do to join them?

“No better than the builders of Babel”

Benjamin Franklin, not typically known for personal piety or orthodox theology, nonetheless issued a memorable spiritual call to the president of the United States on June 28, 1787. He and his colleagues were gathered in Philadelphia to write a new constitution for their infant nation. In this context, he asked that prayers “imploring the assistance of heaven” be held “in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business.”

His reasoning:

I believe that without [God’s] concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel: we shall be divided by our little partial local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future age.

Mr. Franklin’s request was not granted because the convention did not have funds to pay ministers to deliver such invocations. However, his sentiment could not have been more biblical. The Lord warned his people:

Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lᴏʀᴅ. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land (Jeremiah 17:5–6).

By contrast, the Lord continued:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lᴏʀᴅ, whose trust is in the Lᴏʀᴅ. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit (vv. 7–8).

“Those who build it labor in vain”

On this solemn day, let us pray for a spiritual and moral awakening that would make America “a tree planted by water” that “does not fear when heat comes.” And let us remember:

“Unless the Lᴏʀᴅ builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

Who is building your “house” today?

Wednesday news to know:

• Hurricane Francine expected to strengthen to a Category 2
• SpaceX Polaris program launches on historic mission with private crew
• Ukraine targets Moscow in biggest drone attack yet
• Apple’s iPhone 16 faces rising challenges with AI delay and growing Huawei competition
• On this day in 1971: Nikita Khrushchev dies

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“There are two freedoms—the false, where a man is free to do what he likes, and the true, where he is free to do what he ought.” —Charles Kingsley

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