Our hearts were torn by the tear-stained faces of families whose worlds crumbled before our very eyes on September 11th. We all remember where we were when we first heard the news. We stared in riveted disbelief at the haunting scenes that were relived on our televisions. We were gripped by the last desperate expressions of love from victims trapped in burning buildings or on doomed planes, and we wept. But we haven't forgotten.
As the process of clean up and recovery goes on, we watch in disbelief as the carnage of terror sweeps across the world -- from the Americas to the Middle East, from Africa to Southeast Asia -- and again we weep. We still search for answers to the avalanche of questions that involuntarily spill from our hearts. The world we once knew -- or thought we knew -- has been shattered. The potential for danger and disaster lurks everywhere. And we struggle to make sense of it.
There are no good answers adequate to alleviate the pain from a tragic loss through a terrorist attack. We cannot understand the cruel and heartless acts of terrorists. They not only steal the lives of their victims, but terrorists also leave a legacy of fear for those of us who are left behind. Terrorism forces us to face the harsh reality of a world that, as often as not, is cruel, unsafe, and unjust.
The comfort God offers to us in the midst of the senselessness of it all is the reassurance of His goodness. It was King David who penned these enduring words of hope during a time of tragedy and despair in his own life, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18).
It is the goodness of God that reassures a Christian that all is not lost even when we cannot make any sense of what is going on around us. The resolute words of the Apostle Paul remind us that God is our hope when we face crises:
We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. (2 Corinthians 1:8-11)
The cruel violence of terrorism forces us individually and collectively to take a painful and unsettling journey through a valley called grief -- a path none of us would willingly choose, but one we must nonetheless walk. Our shared losses bind us together in our shared sorrow. We do not grieve alone.
The path of grief is not short. It takes time to traverse. We must be patient with ourselves and with one another as we talk about, weep over, and move through our shared sorrow at our own individual pace.
And we must weep. Tears are a cleansing gift from God. They express the flood of sorrow from broken hearts. Our Lord wept deeply for the loss of His dear friend Lazarus ( John 11:35 ) even though He knew He would soon raise him from the dead a few minutes later. Paul says that even though we as Christians "do not grieve like the rest of men who have no hope" ( 1 Thessalonians 4:13 ), nevertheless we still do grieve the loss of cherished relationships. The only way to avoid grief is to never love. And that would be the greatest loss of all.
All who have witnessed it have been forever changed by the awful cruelty, haunting images, and excruciating losses of the recent terrorist attacks on America and around the world. Although the pain of these overwhelming losses will never be completely alleviated in this life, God has a way of using time to soothe the wounds of the soul. While the pain will still be present at times, it will erupt less frequently. It is during these times of eruption that God offers His comfort as a merciful and faithful advocate because He too knows what it is like to hurt and to suffer indescribable loss ( Isaiah 53:3 ; Matthew 23:37 ; John 11:33-38 ; Hebrews 2:17 ).
In these days of uncertainty and insecurity, may we individually and corporately turn to our God as our "refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear" ( Psalm 46:1-2 ). Faith is the antidote to fear as we face the future.