Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes, and we reach for the stars.” (The West Wing)
It’s almost as if the morning sunshine knows it has been lighting the way during an important week. A week we should all remember. A few days ago many of us stopped to remember the worst attack on the United States in our history and the thousands of lives which were lost.
I wonder how many this week will continue to pause to remember.
Those recent remembrances of that tragic day on September 11, 2001 seem to be different than those which occurred in the days and early years which followed the attacks of 9/11. News accounts this past week were sparse and lean—unlike the number and content of those delivered nearer in time to that horrific day.
Maybe complacency and apathy have set in to rule the day. And neither of those is worthy of this great nation and the people who have gone before us. In the face of such attitudes, especially amongst our elected and appointed officials, one could logically wonder if they remember the events of that horrible day at all—or that it could happen again.
But that day, fourteen years ago, the evil attacks on our land did, in fact, occur. And they continue to this day. However, the current assault is not only occurring from outside by those intent on hurting us—through the attempts by growing numbers of terrorist cells around the world and crossing within our borders—but it is also occurring from within the walls of our institutions and the very foundations of our Country.
It is occurring from policies—contrary to all that is sacred and true. Policies which cause our safety as a nation to be diminished, alongside apologies given to the world for who we are and have been as a nation, coupled with wholesale attempts to change or destroy the very roots and foundations of our beginnings as a nation. Too many of our elected and appointed officials lessen us with their behavior, lack of leadership and loyalty, and their lack of apparent commitment to this great nation and its Judeo-Christian heritage.
Instead, now, ground swells of ordinary people are again beginning to carry the message of hope in our future forward, through words, actions, town hall meetings and gatherings pointing the way to a better day. As has been the case in the past, in some of our darkest moments, ordinary citizens have lifted high the torch of liberty for others to follow.
We did not seek nor deserve the attacks on our freedoms or way of life on September 11, 2001. And we most assuredly expected—and deserved to expect—leaders who would have the wisdom, courage and loyalty to lead our nation with a sense of duty and honor in these times.
America may have lost something on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, but it will never lose the solid foundation of those who have gone before, our heroic heritage, and the God in whom we have trusted since our inception nearly 240 years ago.
And in moments like today, the true measure of our nation’s strength—and each one of us individually and aggregately—is found and demonstrated in how we rise out of the troubles of the day into all we were meant to be by our Creator.
It’s time to remember and to rise again.
In the midst of all the debate and policies which seek to change who we are as a nation and people—today is a time to remember and to rise again.
In the midst of those who would seek to make more and more of our citizens beholding to some form of government—today is a time to remember and to rise again.
In the midst of a movement seeking to replace a culture of life, where life is viewed as sacred no matter one’s age, with a culture seeking to define life as something less than sacred—today is a time to remember and to rise again.
In the midst of apathetic leaders, we need instead to find those who believe in America and all it was and can be again—today is a time to remember and to rise again.
Today is a time to remember all those who lost their lives that day in a horrific act of cowardice and war, and all those others who gave their lives that day in noble acts of courage when others needed them. And it’s time once again—in their memory and honor, and in memory and honor of others like them throughout our history—for all of us to step up and decide who we are, and what we stand for as a people, and as a nation.
It’s a time to remember and to rise again.
In his remarks at the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance on Friday, September 14, 2001 the Reverend Billy Graham called us forth then, and forever when he said…
“Underneath the debris is a foundation that was not destroyed. Now we have a choice: Whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and a nation, or whether we choose to become stronger through all of this struggle to rebuild on a solid foundation. And I believe that we are in the process of starting to rebuild the foundation. That foundation is our trust in God.”
This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes, and we will reach for the stars, and together—we will touch the face of God.
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2015. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
