Like most of you, I spent this week reflecting back on the events of 9/11 as I saw the news coverage on Wednesday illustrating the events that occurred so many years ago.

Shannon and I had just gotten married the month before it happened - and both of us awoke on that morning to the radio host talking about the attacks, and we climbed out of bed and turned on the television just in time to see the plane hit the 2nd tower. 

In that moment, the world changed. There was an uncertainty as to what would come next - what our national response would be, we wondered how the attacks might impact our marriage and future. We didn't know if it was the beginning or the end. Many of you were right there with us - in the same boat, wondering what would come next. 

It always blows me away just how many years ago it was. 18 years. If we would have had a child that early in our marriage - that child would an adult today. The resulting war in Afghanistan has become the longest running military conflict in U.S. history, and has had an effect on the political, economic, and social landscape of the United States.

Young people who are 18 and under have never know a United States that was not at war, and it has had a long-term effect on the fabric of our nation. 

Do you remember what it was like the week or two after the attacks? How everyone in America seemed to forget their differences for a little bit, how they were courteous, and polite? Do you remember how the entire nation seemed to turn to God and lived, albeit for a short period of time, as though their character mattered?

As with many things - as the weeks went on, it faded - but it was beautiful for the short period of time that it bloomed.

This year, September 11th had a stronger effect on me than it has in past years. This past August, I had the opportunity to visit the World Trade Center site in New York, as a result of a 22 hour layover in NYC on the way to Ghana. As Mr. Moody and I stood there with Lewis VanAusdle, the pastor of the New York City congregation, standing in front of the almost 3000 names forever memorialized in the bronze that surrounds the reflecting pools at ground zero, it was a somber and powerful experience. 

It was hard not to think about the number of individuals who simply went to work that day, or boarded flights like any other day, and didn't come home. This year hit home a little harder as a result of that experience in New York a little over a month ago.

I read an article on Wednesday about a woman who was married to a man who worked for Euro Bankers located on the 84th floor of the 2nd Tower. He did not survive the attacks. A few years after the tragedy, she met and fell in love with a first responder who had also lost a number of friends in the attacks. They were able to connect and in some ways bond with their shared trauma. They were ultimately married and are living life to its fullest. 

She was quoted in the article as saying, "I'm not moving on... I'm moving into the life that I was given."

I thought about that quote for quite a while this past week. The lives of those involved, and those closest to them out to the 'n'th degree were impacted by this event. None of them chose to experience this, it wasn't a result of a conscious decision they made - it was time and chance. Sometimes - things happen that we're powerless to control them. There are times in our lives where we are provided with opportunities to grow that we would have never chosen for ourselves, and the expectation is that we will grow through those experiences and "move into the life we were given."

One of the most beautiful aspects of God's plan is His willingness to give everyone an opportunity at eternal life, whether they heard and responded to the gospel message in this life or not. For those who died in the attacks at the World Trade Center on September 11th, when Christ returns and the Kingdoms of this world return to their rightful owner, when the 1000 years of His reign are finished and the resurrection of the dead occurs, these individuals will have an incredible opportunity.

That opportunity is the same one you and I have been provided at this time. This Sabbath and this coming Holy Day Season, let us lean in, really move into this life we've been provided, and focus on the opportunity we've been provided to be a part of God's family.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

                                                                                                                                                                    2nd Peter 1:2-4