It came upon us suddenly

It was a crisp blue day, the trees just beginning to change.  Our girls had left for school.  I had a thousand items on my agenda to get done before they came drifting back.

And I snatched a moment to run.  I couldn't help but go.  It was the most beautiful of mornings.  I prayed and praised God as I ran.  That He was sustaining us through a tough year.  That He was....well, that He is God.

I returned and set down to work while still in my running clothes, refreshed and strengthened.  The phone rang.  And with that sound, so many things in our lives would change.

It was my mom -- little that I would know one of the last times she was fully coherent -- her voice desperate. She did not say hello.  "Where's Bill?" she asked.

"He's at work in Des Moines," I replied.  "Why?"

"You obviously have no idea what's going on," she nearly shouted in the phone.  "Turn on your tv."  And then, she hung up the phone.

I wandered downstairs into the gloom of the basement where our only tv occupied a place on a cabinet.  I turned the knob on.  The picture came on the screen.  A newscaster was walking onto the set with what looked like gravel on his head.  The towers had fallen.

Everything changed.

And yet, nothing has changed.

We live in a fallen world.  That much is obvious.

And God is still here to sustain us.

That should impact everything we do and say today.
That should make us different
             in how we respond,
      even in how we think.

O LORD,
not that we would be cognizant of You today
                    but attentive to You.
Not just aware of Your Presence,
          but changed by it.

The people who walked in darkness
      have seen a great light,
those who dwelt
            in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shined.

                           Isaiah 9. 2

That is why Jesus came.
The hope He offers is not wishful thinking
          but a reality
          on which you can stake your life.

"Let not your heart be troubled;
believe in God,
believe also in Me."

                        John 14. 1

When I noticed it was September 11 this morning, it stopped me for a moment.  What a pivotal time in our lives, I thought.  And then, I remembered what I had read that morning in Oswald Chamber's book My Utmost for His Highest:

If we do not do the running steadily in the little ways, we shall do nothing in the crisis.

The turning point in my life is not based on big events,
         but in faithfully following God
 in the everydays
and in the every ways.

But I will trust in You.

               Psalm 55. 23

Even now.
Even in this.

T