A Thought

“Thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place with those who have a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones’.”  Isaiah 57:15

This anniversary of a dreadful day we hope and pray will never be repeated is an anniversary that provokes different responses from different people.  Some continue to grieve their losses.  Some allow anger to overwhelm them while others are awash with emotions they find difficult to sort out.  Almost all remember where they were when word of these attacks came.  Working on the operations floor of a trucking company at the time, a place almost always filled with chaos and ringing phones, there was nothing but silence.  Even the phones stopped ringing.  It seemed in those dark moments that the world had stopped spinning on its axis.

Now we are facing an expanded battle with those who would continue to threaten peace.  What tomorrow may bring and what this expanded battle will look like and how many more lives it will cost is impossible to assess.  Yet we of the faith are called to do one thing before anything else: turn toward the One “whose name is Holy”.  Whether we are seeking answers or trying to find justification for our anger or grief, whatever we may be facing, this is an invitation to the people of The Eternal One to turn away from the life we currently face (as The Lord was speaking to His exiled people through the prophet) and seek the “revival of the heart” we are being offered.

What this “revival of the heart” may look like we cannot know (“for My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are My ways your ways).  What we can be sure of is that we will receive whatever it is we need to forge ahead in faithfulness and with the highest of hopes.  The name of Eternity is not ‘misery’; it is “Holy”.  It is complete.  It is perfected.  It is a state of being which recaptures all we were created to be in the very beginning and restores the Image in which we are created.

Rather than allow this anniversary to renew feelings of anguish or grief or hatred, let us allow this to be a day of “revival of the heart”.  Let us approach The Holy One with contrite hearts, humbled by our grief and our anguish and our fear, so we may find what it is The Almighty seeks to give us.  The Scriptures assure us it is much more than we could possibly imagine for ourselves, and that it will be enough.

Blessings,

Michael