Never Forget

Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Ten years later, it still seems so unreal to me. Like everyone else, I remember every detail of the day. I was a senior in high school, sitting in Speech and Film class when my sophomore English teacher walked in and without saying anything, walked across the room and turned on the television. After 30 seconds, when we had finally processed that one of the towers of the World Trade Center had been hit, we watched in horror as another plane crashed through the second tower. Our world was never the same.

Of the people I went to high school with, about 1/3 of the students who were within a few years of me went into the military. That's kind of what you get in small town America. But the one beautiful thing that came out of 9/11 was that a day that was meant to tear our country apart, brought us closer together than ever before, and in a way that I've not seen since.

We were all hurt. We were all sad. We were all determined to never let it happened again. We all came together in confusion, in anger, in prayer. We were united.

Since that day 10 years ago, 9/11 has been declared a National Day of Service and Remembrance. I think that's a beautiful response. It is so easy to just get mad about the events of that day and the way they have changed our world. But we don't need to do that. Instead we can choose to remember that day by serving others.

I've been watching footage about 9/11 today and they don't tell stories about how people were seeking revenge on the attackers. They don't tell stories of hate. They tell stories of service. They talk about people who died that day because they chose to serve others rather than serve themselves.

Many people are serving in very official ways this weekend to remember 9/11. But even if you don't serve at a local charity, I encourage you to find a way tomorrow to serve someone else.

Make dinner for that single mom at your church, do yard work for your elderly neighbors, say a prayer for your nation's leaders. (Even if you don't like your leaders. That actually means you should pray for them even harder and more frequently.)

So ask yourself, how will you remember 9/11? Who will you serve? How can you make your world better? How could our world change if we made the decision to serve others for the next 10 years?

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." 1 Peter 4:10