On this day twenty years ago, the church I pastored in Dallas held a community service in response to the 9/11 attacks. We invited ministers from across the denominational spectrum to lead in prayer, worship, and proclamation. Our sanctuary, which seats 2,200 people, was filled to overflowing.

There was something in us that knew we needed each other.

Many of the retrospectives I saw on the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 made the same point. One person wrote: “I miss 9/12. I would never want another 9/11, but I miss the America of 9/12. Stores ran out of flags to sell because they were being flown everywhere. People were Americans before they were upper/lower class, Jewish/Christian, Republican/Democrat. . . . On 9/12, what mattered more to us was what united us, not divided us.”

In times of crisis, we discover that we cannot do life on our own. We were made for community. A coal taken out of the fire goes out.

What was true twenty years ago is just as true today.

“A gnawing sense of being unfulfilled”

We find unity when we admit that we are facing challenges greater than our individual capacities and respond by turning to a transforming power we trust and serve together.

Are we facing challenges greater than our capacities today?

People in New York City exposed to toxic pollutants from 9/11 are still getting sick. More than 111,000 people are enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, which gives free medical care to people whose health problems are potentially linked to the dust from the attacks.

More people will die of COVID-19 in the next two days than died on 9/11. Officials in India are racing to contain an outbreak of Nipah virus that is deadlier than COVID-19.

President Biden’s plan requiring vaccinations for up to one hundred million Americans is being embraced by many and opposed by many. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said recently that al-Qaeda may seek a comeback from within Afghanistan.

Some experts are predicting that the next major international terrorist assault on the US is likely to take the form of a cyberattack. New research warns that a solar storm could cause an “Internet apocalypse” that would keep much of society offline for weeks or months at a time.

Unsurprisingly, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the US, affecting forty million adults in our country. In Making All Things New, Henri Nouwen spoke for many of us:

“Beneath our worrying lives . . . something else is going on. While our minds and hearts are filled with many things, we wonder how we can live up to the expectations imposed upon us by ourselves and others. We have a deep sense of unfulfillment. While busy with and worried about many things, we seldom feel truly satisfied, at peace, or at home. A gnawing sense of being unfulfilled underlies our filled lives.”

A chair in the center of the room

Does a transforming power exist we can trust and serve together?

The first-century Roman world was as divided and divisive as our culture is today. Relational walls between Jews and Gentiles, men and women, and slaves and masters dominated their society (cf. Galatians 3:28). The only source of true unity for early Christians was found in their shared commitment to Christ.

This is why we find Paul urging his fellow believers in Corinth: “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10). He made the same appeal in Philippi: “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (Philippians 2:2).

And in Colossae: “Put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:14). And in Ephesus: “Maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). And in Rome: “Live in harmony with one another” (Romans 12:16).

Peter made a similar appeal: “All of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” (1 Peter 3:8).

We find unity when we admit we cannot do life on our own and we turn to the Author of life together. Put a chair in the center of the room and its inhabitants along the walls. The closer they come to the chair, the closer they come to each other.

“Seeing the face of God”

I wish this 9/13 were more like the 9/13 I experienced twenty years ago. But wishing isn’t enough. We must admit that we are not sufficient to meet the challenges we face and seek the help of our Father and our faith family. When we do, we will be catalysts for the spiritual renewal our culture needs so desperately.

Twenty years ago, Jim Jenkins was a Navy chaplain serving with the Coast Guard as part of the Chaplains’ Emergency Response Team. He traveled to Ground Zero days after 9/11. Over the next two weeks, he ministered to rescue and recovery workers as they searched for bodies, comforted those at a makeshift morgue, and accompanied families as they watched remains of loved ones removed from the rubble.

Jenkins learned that he needed help beyond himself. As a result of the two weeks he spent at Ground Zero, he developed a precancerous condition in his sinuses and esophagus due to breathing in toxic chemicals. He was diagnosed with PTSD and has recurring nightmares to this day.

But he has also learned that the One he serves is sufficient for us all. Even in his darkest moments, he feels God’s hand comforting him: “Something happens when you pray, when you cry out to God with groanings too deep for words. Wherever we are, the Lord will meet us right in the midst of our brokenness.”

And Jenkins learned that when we share our hope with others, God uses us to draw them to himself. “I talked a lot about the promises of God and of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,” he reflected. “I really felt that, when I was ministering to people, they weren’t seeing my face. I believe they were seeing the face of God and experiencing his favor.”

Will you ask God to meet you in the midst of your brokenness?

With whom will you share his favor?

Denison Forum

Mark Cuban is known for being many things: billionaire entrepreneur, maverick owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Shark Tank “shark.” Now we can add 9/11 benefactor.

Cuban recently purchased what Axios describes as a “stunning set of drawings of the World Trade Center.” They were made in 1963, ten years before the buildings’ 1973 dedication, and they capture the majestic and monumental nature of those iconic structures. Cuban is not keeping the drawings in Dallas, however—he is donating them to the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City. He made his gift ahead of Saturday’s 9/11 anniversary.

Cuban explained that the tragedy “strikes an emotional chord with every American” and added, “I wanted the actual drawings to be where any American can see them, and the Smithsonian was the right home.”

Where were you on 9/11?

Any American old enough to remember September 11, 2001, is grieving its upcoming twenty-year anniversary.

We are remembering where we were on that Tuesday morning as we watched the news: airplanes flying through a cloudless sky into skyscrapers, the fire and billowing smoke, the collapse of the twin towers into rubble. Images of people jumping to their deaths rather than burning to death are especially imprinted on our minds and hearts.

Twenty years later, we can find retrospectives on nearly every dimension of the tragedy: its impact on our culture, our unity, our politics, our military, our economy, and our spiritual lives. No aspect of American life has been untouched.

9/11 truly “strikes an emotional chord with every American.”

When horrific events happen to us, it’s human nature to seek ways to make good from bad. We don’t want to feel that our suffering is wasted, that our pain has no purpose.

This desire reflects our Creator’s heart.

From the prison to the palace

All through Scripture and human history, we find God using evil for good and problems for his purposes. Joseph’s prison led to Pharaoh’s palace; Moses’ exile led to the Exodus; the threat of Goliath led to the enthronement of David; the persecution of the early church led to the spread of the gospel (cf. Acts 8:1).

I often state that God redeems all he allows. People sometimes respond by asking if this is true even for 9/11, or the Holocaust, or other horrifying tragedies. I believe that it is. And I believe that God wants to redeem even this heartbreaking anniversary for his glory and our good.

We are focusing this week on Jesus’ invitation to “take my yoke upon you” (Matthew 11:29) by submitting our lives to his leadership, purpose, and power. We have learned that our omniscient Master sees a future better than we can possibly imagine and will guide all who will follow. His Spirit will speak to us in the present and empower us to impact our culture where we live today.

Today, let’s claim the fact that he knows our past better than any historian and is working to redeem even our greatest tragedies for his eternal purposes.

Should we fear radical Islam?

You have gifts, abilities, and experiences which are uniquely yours and which God wants to use for his purposes today. You have also experienced pain and disappointment that God wants to use in making you a “wounded healer” for others.

If you will submit to Jesus’ “yoke” today, asking his Spirit to empower, control, and use your life, he will answer your prayer (Ephesians 5:18). And you will prove the axiom that changed people change the world.

This fact relates to issues raised by 9/11 that continue to affect us today. Denison Forum writer Mark Legg has produced an outstanding article explaining the need and opportunity for Christians to engage the Muslim world. Mark has also written an article documenting miraculous ways God is reaching Muslims today and calling us to join him at work.

What about terrorists like those who attacked us on 9/11? Ryan Denison has written an excellent overview of contemporary radical groups such as ISIS, al Qaeda, and the Taliban; he also identifies practical ways we can join God in reaching even them with the gospel.

God wants to use our past, both good and bad, as he equips and leads us to engage Muslims where we live and around the world. And he wants to use the grief we feel over 9/11 as motivation to reach as many people as we can in the knowledge that tomorrow is promised to none.

“He didn’t hesitate a single second”

Dr. W. L. Steiger was on a World War II ship in a submarine zone. Their ship was carrying ten thousand soldiers. One morning, he and the captain were looking at the sunrise through their binoculars. Here is what he says happened next:

“Suddenly each of us saw the white wake of a torpedo headed straight for our ship. . . . We could not dodge it; we had no room or time to move our ship out of its path. The captain turned to me, thinking of those boys still asleep in the ship, and said, ‘This is it!’

“There was no way out—this was the end. Then suddenly something happened which none on our ship had considered. There was a destroyer riding to our port, battling the waves. Suddenly, the skipper of that small ship saw the same thing that we saw from our bridge—that torpedo headed straight for our midships. That young skipper shouted down the tube to his engine room, ‘All engines ahead flank!’ and headed his destroyer straight into the path of that torpedo.

“She took its full impact and sank in ten minutes with most of her officers and crew. He was my best friend, that young skipper. He knew when he gave that order that he and his crew would be lost, but he didn’t hesitate a single second.”

Dr. Steiger never forgot that sacrifice. He told the story everywhere he could, to everyone he could—the story of the man who died for him.

Like W. L. Steiger, you have a story to tell of the Man who died for you. His crucified past is the pathway to our glorious future.

Who will hear his story from you today?

Denison Forum