Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?

I had just picked up my transcription work in Wilmore and was heading home. I stopped to fill up at a Shell station not far from my house. The usual country music wasn't playing over the loudspeakers and I soon realized a plane had struck one of the World Trade Center towers. I hurried home, trying to call my hubby on his cell, realizing almost immediately I wouldn't reach him as he was in class.

Reaching home, I turned on the TV and saw behind Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer the burning tower. I called the next person I turn to in a crisis, my Mom. As we were talking, we watched as a plane plunged into the second tower. There could be no doubt now. This wasn't an accident. This was war. My country was being attacked.

Will any of us ever forget that sickening realization? I can still see the people running from the building and the soot covering them. I remember crying, "No!" as the first tower fell. I remember the shock and devastation on the faces of the New Yorkers flashing across my screen.

Then the personalization began. What would I be feeling if Bobby were in one of those buildings? DId I kiss him goodbye this morning? Did I tell him I love him? Does he know how much? I called Mom and Dad again.

The Pentagon was hit. Then Flight 93. I ran out of tears as the magnitude of the events settled in like a heavy blanket over me.

In the following days, emotions came over me in waves. I was proud as my president put his arm around a construction worker as he spoke at Ground Zero. I was angry as politicians tried to distance Islam from terrorism. I was incredulous as analysts siad they hadn't developed a scenario where an airliner flew into a building - Tom Clancy had years before in his book Debt of Honor!

I was mostly concerned for my country. If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it? (Amos 3:6). Our nation wanted God out of our public discourse, out of our public schools, out of our public policy and now, when He removed His hand of protection from us, we wondered why. Scripture says the Old Testament events were written as examples for us. Israel rebelled, God sent oppression until they repented.

We still murder babies by the thouands and call it a woman's choice. We still sanction perversity and call it an alternative lifestyle. Our leaders equate a god of violence and murder and a religion of death with the Almighty God of the Bible. I fear our oppression is far from over.