Dear Ones:
Well, 9/11/10 came and passed with many folks remembering where they were and what they were doing on 09/11/01, and anticipating what 09/11/10 could bring if a misguided soul sparked a radical Muslin reaction to his burning 200 Korans: a negative recollection and an even worse negative anticipation.
I remember where I was on that first 9/11/01: I was scheduled to begin my first chemo therapy for mutiple myeloma, but was waved off by the last minute discovery that I had pneumonia (of which I was completely ignorant). I was thereupon ushered into the hospital for ten days of intense antibiotic therapy. Our youngest daughter accompanied me, and after getting "hooked up," I sat there in the bed with nothing to do, having exhausted every topic of conversation. "Shall we watch a game show?" she asked. "Sure, I shrugged. And all we saw on every channel were images of the collapsing towers. At first, I thought it was a moderization of the "War of the Worlds." It took a while for reality to sink in. And for the ten days I was in hospital, that's all there was to watch on t.v. Woe is me!
I have some other "do you remember where you were?" instances: (a) when Manilla fell to the Japanese; (b) when Roosevelt died; (c) when Tuman defeated Dewey; (d) when North Korea invaded South Korea; (e) when the "Iron Curtain" was raised, and when it was dismantled. With excpetion of the last, each was accompanied by an even greater negative anticipation, most of them never realized.
I also remember where I was when I first was aware that the Lord had spoken to me through His Word. We had been involved with a Charismatic prayer group and I was struggling with the whole idea of the "gifts." I don't remember the provocation for my reading chapter 14 of John's gospel, but I well remember descending the stairs to our family room, when verse 12 stood out in my consciousness with clarion volume: "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I go to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it." (John 14:12-14 NIV)
I stood at the bottom of the stairs and said aloud, "The Lord did not leave a powerless church when he went to His father." The penny fell!
I remember where I was when that happened! What a glorious "God-moment!" It has been followed by an ever developing anticipation of how that's going to be lived out, not just in my life, but in the lives of the Church! That's exactly what happened to the two men on their way to Emmaus; Jesus opened their minds to the truth of scripture. And they never forgot where they were when that happened!
I hope you have had such an experience where you can quickly bring to mind the circumstances when you heard the Lord clearly. If that proves difficult, then just go to a memory when you felt absolute peace, and ask Jesus where He was in that instance. It's a place to start, and a good place to remeber where you were when you discovered His presence.
Pressing on toward the mark, I remain
your brother in Christ,
Dick
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