Thursday, September 11, 2008
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September 11- A Day I Almost Forgot
by mr pine
I have to admit it. When this week began, today was to me just going to be another Thursday. It completely slipped my mind that on this day, seven years ago, I believed that the way I looked at the world would never be the same. And I suppose in a broader sense, that's true. But this week I was honestly more concerned about the $1000 I found out I would have to pay for new wheels and tires for my car because I ran over a loose trailer hitch on the highway on Sunday night or how my fantasy football team was doing. I was a bit embarrassed that I needed to be reminded what day was approaching.
I remember in the days that followed that infamous Tuesday in 2001, the grief and pain I felt were profound. I didn't know a single soul who was directly affected by the lives lost, but I felt great loss nonetheless. I was angry, puzzled, and a little scared, I have to admit. And I felt a strange kinship knowing that millions of others across this country were feeling the same things.
But over the years something happened. The pain subsided. The anger waned. The questions I had were never answered.
And I forgot.
I didn't forget in the sense of "forgive and forget." I didn't forget because it was just emotionally more beneficial to move on. I just forgot. Life came in and helped wipe the memories away. It also doesn't help that I'm one of the most absentminded people I know... I think.
And I have to admit that I feel a little guilty. I feel that my resolve to hate that murderous injustice has been compromised, because my own little life to me became bigger than I would like to admit. My sense of vengeance became tempered by the rising cost of gasoline or the call of the bushes in front of my house that need weeding.
But I guess it's human nature. Our memories fade with the passing of time. Our thoughts turn to the immediate over the important. Our lives can only deal with so much grief at a time.
Which is one thing that makes God seem so much more of a mystery to me.
God is perfect. He has perfect memory. But when He forgives us of our sins, He forgets them. It's like they never existed and He separates us from our sin "as far as the east is from the west." This doesn't mean that He keeps sin from influencing us... it means that when we are forgiven, He no longer associates our sin with us even remotely.
Is God just so busy that our past sin just slips His mind because other things are more pressing? No, God abhors sin infinitely more than we abhor even the events of that September morning. Does God just block our sin out of His mind by sheer will so that He can get through the day? No, forgetting our sin is not a "coping mechanism."
I believe that God knew that the price for our sin would be His one and only Son... that only the perfect could be of value enough to wipe our slates clean... completely clean.
As angry as you were on that day seven years ago, it can not compare to the anger God has toward sin. The tears you cried is like dew compared to the oceans of sadness God had over our sin. Yet we forget not because we are so gracious but rather because our convictions and feelings wane. God's conviction against sin cannot wane. His feelings of disgust at sin never go away. He forgets because the ransom for us was sufficient. He forgets because it is the only way we can come to Him. He forgets because he is divine.
Today we remember the men and women that lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Our hearts and prayers are with everyone whose life has been irrevocaly changed by 9/11.
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Comments (65)
Beautiful.
I can only imagine what it's like to see God weeping.
I was in Hokkaido, heading up to the church where I was to begin as resident missionary, when the pastor's daughter came out across the street to tell me that the twin towers had been attacked. I thought, "Oh, no, did some bamboozle blow up another parking lot beneath the towers again?" However, when I got to the church, turned on the computer, and saw the devastation, I was in disbelief at first, then shocked, then sick to my stomach. The pastor came out of his office and al but demanded that I call home to see if my famiyl was okay. Everyione was fine, but one of my uncles, who was a businessman, was stranded in Holland. Those burning-then-collapsing towers haunted my mind for weeks. I think I called home every day to see if anything else had happened.
It was a horrible day, and one -- as with the Challenger Explosion -- will rest in my memory `til the day I leave this world....
Thank you.
Well, really, remembering the day itself is kind of arbitrary in and of itself-- I mean, why not stop between 8:46 and 10:28 every day and remember the people who died?
A few dawkins quotes:
"If death is final,
a rational agent can be expected to value his life highly and be
reluctant to risk it. This makes the world a safer place, just as a
plane is safer if its hijacker wants to survive. At the other extreme,
if a significant number of people convince themselves, or are convinced
by their priests, that a martyr's death is equivalent to pressing the
hyperspace button and zooming through a wormhole to another universe,
it can make the world a very dangerous place. Especially if they also
believe that that other universe is a paradisical escape from the
tribulations of the real world. Top it off with sincerely believed, if
ludicrous and degrading to women, sexual promises, and is it any wonder
that naïve and frustrated young men are clamouring to be selected for
suicide missions?"
"My last vestige of
"hands off religion" respect disappeared in the smoke and choking dust
of September 11th 2001, followed by the "National Day of Prayer," when
prelates and pastors did their tremulous Martin Luther King
impersonations and urged people of mutually incompatible faiths to hold
hands, united in homage to the very force that caused the problem in
the first place."
"To fill a world
with ... religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets
with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used."
I know how you feel.
everytime I see the time is 9:11...both am, or pm...I think about it and the people, and say a quick prayer. I noticed one the first anniversary how little people cared about what had happen. Sure, they remembered and dutifully said, "yeah, I remember where I was...it was terrible" but then would go on with their day. The Thursday after the attack, a bunch of the teenagers from my high school (I was a senior) and some of the local youth groups got together at a nearby park and prayed for the survivors and the families of those who died. We had over 50 students present (which was great for only a day's notice of the gathering). The next year, there were only four people there, me, my mom, and two guys from my church...one was working the sound. It was depressing.
Thank you for the perspective on God's forgiveness and forgetfulness...it was a new light to look at it, and therefore refreshing. Always a pleasure to read your entries. :)
Great post... thanks
Dear Mr. Pine,
I cannot honestly say that I have ever forgotten 9/11/01. I don't forget 12/7/41 either, and I wasn't even alive back then. Certain dates ingrain themselves in my psyche, never to be repudiated by the power of the events which happened.
That said, what an excellent way to begin your witness. God does direct His wrath toward sin, but thankfully He gave mankind Jesus, with His message of forgiveness, so that He never will direct His wrath toward mankind again.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
hE fORGETS BECAUSE HIS lOVE FOR US... Great Post.
Wow. Thanks for reminding me as well. Whats worst is last night, i abrubtly woke up at 3am, and looked at my television on TBN to see firefighters from New york talking about the traumatic experiences they went through finding their partners in the Twin tower rubble, and how one day, they found a cross in one building standing up in the midst of all the rubble which now they call the building God's House, where people find hope, peace, Jesus, and God's refuge by going there till this day. AND I STill WOKE UP, AND FORGOT! Maybe God's waking me to watch it so I won't forget, like many of us do. Not being insensitive, because it is Very important and serious. I was a juinor in high school when it happened, and all day during school, and meeting at my best friends house, we cried all day watching the coverage. I cried for a week, and it totally changed my life seeing that traumatic experience that I had never seen before. We just have to think outside of ourselves for a minute to see the bigger scheme of things. My Prayers still go out to the loved ones, and courageous men who helped.
It's ok, 9/11 snuck up on me too. I was at the bank a couple days ago filling out a deposit slip and when I wrote 9/9/08 as the date I was thought, 'Wow.. 9/11 is in a couple days and I didn't even realize it.'
Wow, I like the comparison to God's love for us. I didn't even think of it that way but it rings true. Thank you God for his loving mercy and grace. It is the only way we are here today. I am amazed at his love and for forgiving our sins because I know how hard it is to do that myself with other people...and God does it perfectly. He is an amazing God and I'm glad I get to serve Him and be His daughter, a child of God.
Yes, it's hard to forget 9-11...like one of the other posts. I think of it even when I see it's 9:11 am or pm. Even the other night I saw it was 9:11 pm and I instantly thought of today. It's like it's ingrained in my mind and I probably will never forget it even with the passing of time.
@xapatotheworld - I feel the same way....the other day it was 9:11 pm and I thought of 9-11. It's just weird how I make the connection now subconsciously like it's ingrained even 7 years later it's like it was yesterday and I can't really forget that it happened.
@memo2662 - Interesting. I couldn't sleep at all last night. Even now I tried to get sleep and like a few hours later for some reason I am up. I don't know if that's because of 9-11 and all the thoughts swimming around in my mind...but it is a day that I remember..maybe not all the details, but I definitely never forgot the feelings I had and still hold to this day about it. RIP to those who were lost on that fateful day.
I've nearly forgotten it before, but this year for some reason I thought about it a lot in the days leading up to today. I was in the 7th grade when it happened, and I was really clueless as to the significance of the attack on those towers. Now I understand better, so I feel more affected by the anniversary. It's sad that some people have completely forgotten it, or just don't care anymore. (I don't mean you when I say that)
I think the memorial lights is such an awesome idea. I didn't even know those were there until reading all these blog posts today... yeah, I'm still kinda out ouf touch *~* But that is cool, and such a powerful symbol even now.
Leave it to Dawkins to spoil the moment... and to conveniently forget to explain how the originators of suicide bombing were the Japanese Kamikaze pilots in WWII, who followed the Shinto faith, which doesn't come from Abraham and doesn't even believe in an afterlife.
awsome post, you said it all and then some for me.
I'm normally not a very religious person, but I loved this post! It made me realize that there are other people out in the world that have so much more problems than the average person. It's nice to see that you're one of the people who care.
crazy day that was! and still today they are finding stuff from it @ ground zero! 911 dudes!
i remember i was just a little kid when it happened and i was so confused. It was kind of the opposite for me. Instead of life coming in and wiping the memories away, it came in and showed me the heart-wrenching truth that so many lives came to such a bitter end in 1 day. And afterward too, lives were affected, not just those who lost loved ones, but people who still suffer today because of the pain and injuries and health issues that day caused for them. Even if people survived this terrible incident, some of them truly lost their lives anyway.
Come check out my blog. Life through the eyes of a smart mind trapped in an almost-teenagers body.
JustMe1417
How can you forget? Any military spouse, parent, brother, sister, or brat, knows that they can NEVER forget! This wasn't an event that happened seven years ago. It's happening now. It is WHY our husbands, wives, mother, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters and sons are leaving us EVERY day1 They go over to fight the injustices that are still happening every day. They love their country and it's people enough to leave their homes and thier love ones so that you can be "absent minded" and forget.
September 11th didn't happen seven years ago. It happens every day in the heart of the loved ones who are fighting, or who have fought, and who are courently leaving to go fight. To fight again, and again, and again if thats what it takes.
wow...
It totally slipped my mind until now. as in when i saw your post being featured. I asked my roommate if she realized today was september 11th..and she was like "So?"
"september 11..as in 9-11"
"....wow...it slipped my mind too"
and we're from new york. just left this year for college in Pennsylvania. I'm stunned I forgot, I thought this day would stick with me forever. It does, I'll never forget it, but it's in the back of my mind now. I remember wondering a few weeks after the incident if the next generation would even remember the date of this event that had such a large impact in mine...or if it would just be another date they feel like they need to memorize for the next test...