Where were you...?

Where were you?

That question has been asked millions times over the last 15 years on this day.  How can it possibly be 15 years?Anyone that is over the age of 20 can remember that day and the days to come as if it were yesterday, and most of us don't remember what we did last week. It seems like only a year ago but to look at the kids heading off to college I realized they don't know what they were doing that day.  They may remember their families hugging them a little tighter that night but they don't know that for a moment on a fall day the country stopped and prayed.  The country was in grief and the stages were happening all at once.  There was denial, shock, anger, bargaining...but there was not acceptance.

I remember where I was, as I am sure you do too, and I remember the days that followed.  I remember coming out of a meeting and hearing about the first tower.  I remember walking down the stairs in the office and hearing of the second tower...the pentagon, the missing fourth plane.  I remember how quiet the office was as we were trying to understand what was happening.  I remember the silence.

Most of us didn't live through the cold war, and all other acts of war were in someone else's backyard.  We were a big, strong country, we were in control and we were safe. As we watched from halfway across the country that was our family, our sisters, our brothers...our family.  It was so quiet, I guess now you would call it shock but we didn't even have words like that.  Our hearts were breaking as story after story came out.  Stories of the last calls, the desperate attempts to escape, and the hero's that were heading towards the danger as most were trying to get away.

We know where we were, we know how we felt, and we know that many of us prayed.  We know how creepy it was when the planes started flying again and how sad we were as they looked for bodies.  We saw the hurt but honestly we were not even near the real pain.  We were not in the homes that got those last calls and the calls to follow. I am sad every year on this day and Proud to be an American when I see the local Firemen and Police standing on the corners with the trucks and flags. I have lived with grief but I don't even know how they feel, the families, survivors and friends. I can only pray for them.  I did not know any of them personally, I did not have to talk to anyone about how I felt then or how I feel every 9-11  I just have to answer "Where were you"... I was at work like most of them, but I was safe.   I was just and American trying to figure out what I could do.

So what I continue to do pray.  That day I went to a church full of strangers and prayed.  We as a country prayed...I wish that had continued.  We clung to each other, we became a family, we prayed for each other. We said God Bless America, we cried out to God to Bless us and the families...WE all believed in God and there was no holding back.  I remember the media saying it, the politicians saying it, everyone was saying God Bless America!  I believe they know the truth at that moment even those with some fear of shouting out there love of God in public they knew where they needed to go.  They needed to look to God for comfort and hope.

I saw it then but it fades in and out. It seems to take a tragedy for our country to cry out to Jesus.  I was that person that didn't dare show faith in public, I don't even know that I knew God at that time, but I know him now.  I will be praising him, I will not be afraid of being judged as only he can truly judge me and I am following him..

Where was I on that day?  I was being changed.  Our Country was being changed. And I pray that our Country can live by the promise that God will hear us as we call out to him. He is here, he know the plan, and he just wants us to follow him.

I pray for the families on this day that lost loved ones, I pray for our country, and I pray that I can shine the light that points the way to our God.

Isaiah 33:2