9-11-13

As we make our way through September 11, 2013 I am reminded of the specific context I found myself on September 11, 2001. I was a recent college graduate from Mercer University, the Harvard of the South, as one of my professors use to say. I chose two majors, both within the liberal arts school, which meant that I was largely unemployable without more schooling. After continuing to work at a bookstore I worked at as a student, I was able to get a teaching job at a small private school in the south part of Bibb county. It was a blessing. I was primarily hired to teach Government/Economics part-time, but I was given more courses to justify paying me full-time. I taught students in the 6th, 8th, 11th, and 12th grades. They were all unique with different challenges and joys. I distinctly remember receiving the news of an attack then watching with students as the second plane struck one of the towers. 

The rest of that day shifted from being about accomplishing lesson plans to counseling students about fears, hopes, dreams, and the role of faith in this event. The ones who orchestrated this tragedy were motivated by their own theology, albeit an incorrect theology in my opinion. Perhaps one of the great tragedies that ensued after 9-11 was that Christians produced a plethora of bad theology in response to the attacks. What I found myself doing was providing comfort, hope, and a truer biblical perspective of all that was unfolding in the world in relation to God's word and his work in the world. 

I have sense encountered several of those students I taught, both in person and through social media. I dare say that I would have remembered them regardless of the events of 9-11, but perhaps because of that day they are indelibly pressed into my brain and my heart. Now many of them are married with kids of their own, hopefully making a difference in the world around them.