Remembering...

This post actually began as a comment in response to this question from my cousin Amy. My comment was getting too ridiculously long, so I thought I'd turn it into my own post.
Classes had just recently started at Ohio University and I had just left a morning class and went to the Bookstore to check if a book I needed was in yet. I ran into a friend at the Bookstore who told me that a plane crashed into a building in NYC, but I honestly didn't even really think much about it and went home, changed, and went on a long bike ride because it was such a gorgeous fall day. While struggling to get up one of Athens' many hills on my bike, I remember thinking that I never turned on the news to see what my friend was talking about and I'd have to remember to do that when I got back. I peddled home and turned on the tv and soon found that nothing was the same. Images of the planes crashing into the different sites around the country were on every station. I didn't even really comprehend all that was going on, but I remember that I wanted to talk to my dad right away. I also just wanted to hear the voices of the ones I loved and hated being far away from them. I remember my dad saying that he just wanted all of us to be together and go to the Lake. I don't know particularly why the Lake, but that's exactly what I thought, too. I just wanted to have my family near. I remember going to bed that night and looking out the window by my bed. It seemed surreal. I was in Athens, listening to crickets and stillness. Surely not what they were experiencing in NYC. Surely not what thousands of families, waiting and fearing, were experiencing.
I, too, noticed lots of attention given to 9/11 this year, commemorating the 5th anniversary. As I watched, I was again reminded (which I suppose is the whole purpose of Rememberance Day) of my frailty and that I'm not assured security simply because I live in America. My security must lie in Jesus Christ, the One who never leaves, never fails, and never changes, no matter what happens. I must rest in the One who knows the beginning from the end and who still reigns in the midst of chaos, although I may not understand. He doesn't consult me for His plans, but rather tells me to trust Him and know that He loves me and has a perfect plan that, in the end, will culminate in His glory and my good.

"When the earth quakes and its people live in turmoil, I am the One who keeps its foundations firm." Psalm 75:3