Psalm 103:2-5

"Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."

Sept 11, 2001.  A call comes in from my husband.  "Are you watching the news?"

Normally, I turned the news on as I brushed my teeth...first thing. But, for some reason, on Sept 11, I had been distracted.  "No, why?"

"We are under attack"

"What?"

So I ran to the television just in time to watch the North Tower of the World Trade Center crumble to ashes. I was in shock.My mind went back to a dinner that I attended there just weeks previous.  I was impressed by the sheer mass of the tower. Even the revolving doors were massive, thick, intimidating.  How could something so strong become cinders in the blink of an eye.

Immediately, I knew two things:  One, the end times are here, and I was not ready.  I was far from God, and His plans were moving forward without me.   Two, if that building was ashes, surely the life I had built and put all my stock in was nothing.  The new home we were building, the money in the bank, the "security" I felt I had purchased.

I began to question everything.  I wanted my life to be meaningful.  I didn't want to get up, work every day, and have nothing to show for it but things that burn.  My marriage was good by all outward standards, but we were very busy being busy, and had no time for one another.  I looked at Layne.  I had no idea who he really was.  

It was shortly thereafter that I asked for a divorce.  And Layne replied by asking for a month.  A month?  What good is that?  But, I reasoned, he had been my husband ten years...I owed him a month.

In that month, something happened.  He attended Promisekeepers...there he met Christ.  He began to go in our closet in the morning, and he prayed.  He poured his heart out...and he begged God for his marriage.  He  begged God to make him a better husband, a better father.  He asked nothing of me.  But he began to give.  I would ignore him, and yet, he would give, and give and give.

And he prayed for me, every single day.

And my heart was softened, and he returned me to my Savior...and walked our entire family one by one to the throne.

So while others think of September 11 with defiance, with sadness, I remember it as a turning point.  For me personally, for our family, for our country.

What did we learn on September 11?  Life is short.  God will not be mocked.  Fix relationships, it is all we have.  Love others above yourself as the rescuers did.  Hold one another tight in the darkness, for a new day will dawn.  His timing, and His promise that the unthinkable is thinkable...is real.

What will we do with that knowledge today?