day 727: 9/12

"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"

It's now been over 10 years since 9/11 and we awoke this morning on 9/12 and we are going about our business and life just like we did on Friday, or yesterday. Yet, yesterday on the news, in church, in conversations, in the press, all over, we reflected back on how different it was on 9/12 ten years ago than it is today. Ten years ago today, we didn't have any clear understanding of how many people had died in the terror attacks, we weren't sure who to blame, and we weren't sure of what would happen next, or what we could expect going forward, but we were different than how we were on 9/11. On 9/12 we woke up and even though we were scared, anxious, grounded in a city far from home, separated from loved ones, and yes, a little bit angry, we started treating each other differently. We waved at people we didn't know. We let the little irritants go and we smiled instead of how we might normally react. We called and emailed people we hadn't talked to forever just to see how they were. We gave of ourselves to causes and people who needed us. We became tolerant and civil with people we disagreed. We bonded and came together as people who cared for each other. Ten years ago, we were different on 9/12 than who we were on 9/11. On 9/12 we all looked a lot more like the place and living that God laid out for us in His Word.

Today, we as believers, we should hold ourselves accountable to returning to our 9/12/01 ways. We have been given God's promises and the hope that is God's. Paul says it all in Roman's 15:13, quoted above. Have we been living to God's promise of hope, peace, trust so that we can let that overflow out of us to others with power? Let's today see if we can embody that hope and also carry ourselves back to 9/12/01 and remember who we were on that day!

Reference: Romans 15:13

day 722: Message Readiness

"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."

As we near the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I am reminded of how many companies who didn't have in place at that time a company-wide communication and message plan but now have them established and ready to go at all times. As I sat on the tarmac in Indianapolis on that fateful morning, after having flown out of JFK heading to SFO, there I was trying to coordinate a communication plan with the company from a low-battery Blackberry. Fortunately, we were not one of the companies that suffered the loss of employees in 9/11 and we were able to account for everyone, but we were unprepared to be able to communicate directly with our employees in a coordinated manner. We were not alone. Today, most companies and organizations have planned, reviewed, and practiced what it would take to get a message out and received. Being ready with a message, for whatever purpose, is good business practice.

When Paul wrote about message readiness, he was also coming from a place of distress. Paul didn't have an easy life. He lived most of his Christian life under persecution. Yet, regardless of the situation, he was ready with the message of the gospel. He taught that to his disciples and to the churches that he mentored. He was also teaching it to us. We are being told that we should always have our message ready as well. When asked, or given the opportunity, are we ready to fearlessly speak the gospel? Each day at work, we are provided with such opportunities, if we are listening and ready for them. In the next days and weeks there will be lots of water-cooler talk about 9/11 and where were, what it meant, how it happened, etc. Much of this conversation will come from a place of personal reflection and maybe some questioning about life and why? Let's be attuned for the opportunity to provide our story of why there is true hope and life to be had. Let's have our message ready.

Reference: Ephesians 6:19-20

day 239: Ground Zero

Eight years ago today on this day, I know exactly where I was. At 8:15AM I boarded a United flight at JFK to fly home to San Francisco. A little over an hour later I was in Indianapolis trying to make sense of the news that the pilot was giving us while we sat on the tarmac. Something about planes having crashed into the World Trade Center. When I reached my wife on the phone, she was hysterical as the prior 45 minutes she did not know if the plane I was on was one of the planes that had been hijacked or not. Needless to say, it was an emotional moment for us. Throughout that fateful week as I stayed with a college friend and his family in Indianapolis, who took me in like the stranded traveler that I was, we learned much about what had happened on Tuesday 9/11. I also learned that the flight that I had checked the night before with my assistant, and had talked about changing to to fly home, flight #93 out of Newark completed its journey in the fields of Pennsylvania. As we say sometimes way too glibly, "there but by the grace of God...". It was on this day that we began to use the phrase "Ground Zero". It now means only one thing to an American. On 9/11/2001 too many people never came home from a normal day at work in the World Trade Center Towers. It was also on that day that many people, because of the loss that they felt around them; loss of the lives of people they knew or didn't but who they identified with, or loss of stability and security, looked to God for a foundation where they could find firm footing. It is in the time of loss, insecurity and desperation that many times we turn back to the only one who can give us the firm foundation that we need. As we read in Luke 6:48, we need to build our lives on a foundation of rock. "It is like the person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock". In times of trouble, in times of loss, in times of unforeseen calamity, it is Jesus who is our foundation. It is Jesus who we must return to as the true "ground zero" in our lives.

May today we remember those who were just going to work on Tuesday September 11th, 2001 and didn't come home. May we pray right now for their families and loved ones who still feel that loss and that they may they find the true ground zero in their lives.

Reference: Luke 6:48