The Evil That Men Do...Remembering 911

 

911

  Sometimes I do forget things.  However I have not forgotten that day seven years ago.  I had been working the late the night before, and as was my custom I fell asleep that morning with the television on.  I thought I was dreaming at first when the first reports came in of a plane flying into the side of one of the Twin Towers.  Unfortunately it became clear to me that it was no dream as that second plane hit.

  I was numb as I sat there, taking in all of the sheer damage, witnessing the hopelessness of people desperately trying to save their lives and leaping from the building to avoid the fire.  I had spent 10 years in the military...but this was the worst I had ever seen...because it was pointless destruction.

  My eyes were opened a lot wider from that day on.  Not in the fearful way that most people have responded to 911, but they were open in such a way that I am constantly aware of the finality of life...that life really is short, and that at any moment it can be over.  My eyes were also opened to the reality of eternity, and that most of us take it for granted, we put all of our stock in the hope that there really isn't an eternity, we blindly walk around as if today's conditions and circumstances will always be that way.  We put off for tomorrow the things we really should be doing today, we will live better tomorrow, we will clean things up tomorrow, we will make better decisions tomorrow, we will make plans for eternity tomorrow.

 911 reminded me that sometimes there are people who have no plans for tomorrow and they have no problem with hindering you from reaching your plans for tomorrow.  911 reminded me that at any moment you world could come crashing to a halt.  I thought of myself in that situation, and the questions began flooding in...am I ready to go?  Have I completed the assignment I was put here to do?  What legacy if any have I left for my children?  Did people get to know the real me?  Did the people I loved know that I loved them?

 Seven years later, and I still haven't forgotten.  Seven years later and I still ask myself those same questions.  Seven years later and it still is a reality that at any moment it could be over...at least one thing I am sure of I am ready to face eternity...are you?