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Not Just Another Tuesday
By Cara Baker
September 17, 2001
Today I woke up with images
of the smoky billows over the New York City skyline and the smoldering Trade
Center Towers crumbling over and over to the ground. It was 4 a.m. I was only
semi-conscious, just awakening from a dream. Or should I say nightmare.
A fast montage continued
with smoke, fire, and debris serving as the backdrop to blood and dust-covered
people wandering aimlessly or running chaotically. I thought I was still
dreaming.
I woke up enough to glance
at my clock. I realized my dreams were real scenes burned in my mind from the
previous day. The strangely familiar sick feeling in the pit of my stomach
returned. It had settled there less
than 24 hours earlier when driving to work and hearing the initial report of the
plane crash. Who could have ever fathomed three more were on the way?
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto
good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive" (Genesis
50:20).
As was the case all over
the country on September 11, 2001, I walked into my office building and joined
my coworkers around the television in the conference room. We stood and gasped
as each new horror unfolded throughout that morning. This was unlike scenes our
generation experienced from the Challenger explosion, the Gulf War, or even the
current fighting, bombs, and destruction among the Palestinians and the
Israelis.
Yet, sadly, this was not
unlike many movies we've seen over the years, centered around plots filled with
violence and terrorists acts. One of America's favorite pastimes, form of
diversion, and entertainment has come to life in our own home.
Reporters, analysts, and
experts repeated over and over how these terrorist attacks have changed life as
we know it in the United States. Our country, our mindset, and our freedom is
forever affected. We're entering a new and unknown era, they say. I woke up and
felt that the morning after. I'm walking around a bit slower because of it and
talking to God a bit more often.
"He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed,
trusting in the LORD" (Psalm 112:7).
Close friends and family
phoned on and off all day Tuesday, offering words of encouragement. I skipped my
photography class after work. I just wanted to get home to be with my family. On
my way there, I saw gas stations that looked like parking lots, with six or
seven cars waiting in line for each pump. Our church, like many others, called a
special prayer meeting. Mom and I prayed at home. We had no desire to leave the
house.
I had difficulty finding
words to even pray. It wasn't so much because of the grief I felt for humanity,
but because I felt distant from God and a sense of being unprepared for what
lies ahead. For the first time in my life, the feeling of safety and confidence
I've depended on in this country is disrupted. And I'm learning that safety and
confidence was grossly misplaced.
"The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my
strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and
my high tower" (Psalm 18:2).
These events are no doubt
just the beginning of war and more persecution. Our responsibility as the Church
now is not a physical response, but a spiritual one. In a speech in Grand
Rapids, Michigan, in 1999, the Rev. Billy Graham said: "Who knows what
events await us in the new century¾both
for good and for evil? That's why I believe that the greatest challenge of the
next century will not be technological, economic, social, or political. The
greatest challenge, instead, will be spiritual, for unless we tame the human
heart, the twenty first century could become the most destructive and
cataclysmic in human history."
We might just be in the
most destructive and cataclysmic century this world has ever seen. Because of
that, the church will be engaged in heightened spiritual warfare. We can no
longer practice the mediocre brand of Christianity Americans (and yes,
Apostolics) have come to embrace. In this fight, only the strong will survive
and endure until the end.
ninetyandnine.com
ă
2001, Cara Baker
--------
Cara Baker is Associate Editor of ninetyandnine.com.
--
"For we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places"
(Ephesians 6:12).
--
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