Words of

Words
of
Hope

By Dr. Jon Wilson

The Tears of 9-11

It happened two years ago today. "The tears will never stop inside, when I think of it. Freedom from fear is gone. I will never be free again in this lifetime."

Last week I received those words via e-mail from an old high school friend.

She continued, "9-11 changed my life, in that I knew that nothing would ever be the same again. When we were young, we lived in the golden era. We never knew fear. I knew on 9-11 that this country was in deep trouble. It woke me up, in asking, "How could this happen to America?" The indomitable America was hit dead center, not once, but three times in its heart—how  could this happen? I almost feel guilty for having lived such a life with no fear.

"I knew that not only 3,000 of my countrymen were gone on 9-11, but my freedom was gone, too— I had fear to my core. The tears will never stop inside, when I think of it. Freedom from fear is gone. I will never be free again in this lifetime."

Pain and fear-filled words.

We’re living in an era of fear, of fear that has become of epidemic proportions.

We have fear of terrorists, fear of airplanes, fear of flying, fear of being in tall buildings, fear of being in crowds. If you don’t have those fears, you feel "guilty" or naive, as if, "I should be afraid!"

A few years ago, David was fleeing terrorists. He was a fugitive from the Philistines that were closing in on both the south and the north of Israel. He wrote these words in Psalm 11: "When the foundations are being destroyed, what do the righteous do?" That passage reminded me so much of the past two years.

The foundations of America have been shaken, the foundation of freedom, the foundation of our economy, the foundation of our sense of security. All of these foundations have, indeed, been shaken.

When our foundations are shaken, we typically go through three stages—at least I did.

First, we’re in shock. We don’t understand what’s going on. It was like a horror movie that might have come on at six o’clock in the morning.

Later, the shock turned into a sense of anger, then into fear, fear of what could happen next and fear for family.

What does fear do? It makes us miserable. Proverbs 12:25, "Worry can rob you of happiness." David writes, "I am worn out by my worries," in Psalm 55.

Alfred Hitchcock once said: "The only way I can get rid of my fears is to write movies about them." He wrote certain scenes that I still remember, and his fears are passed on to us.

However, the fear that we feel on this 9-11 anniversary isn’t a movie. We are dealing with reality. We, for the first time, have seen these things live and in action as they happen.

We didn’t see Pearl Harbor live. We saw it months later. Two years ago, we saw it. We saw airplanes crashing into buildings—we saw people jumping out of skyscrapers, we saw the pain, anxiety and tears of family members who were left. This wasn’t a movie—it was something that we’ve faced on a day-to-day basis. It’s live. It was broadcast on television in daylight and it has made us fearful.

How can we overcome that kind of fear?

God isn’t the author or source of fear.

The Apostle Paul makes that clear when he wrote to Timothy in II Timothy 1:7, "God is not the source of fear of any kind. God has not given us a spirit of fear." The word "deilia" is a word that’s often used to translate cowardice or timidity. Here’s the point: When visions that we have of skyscrapers tumbling, etc., are multiplied by our present fears, it can cause us to be timid. God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear.

When you see a fireman, as we saw, run into that towering inferno, how can you explain the courage that it took to run into a building that was on fire and that may well—and did—collapse? It was the power of faith that overcame the power of fear. That’s how strong faith is, faith can overcome any fear.

What does having faith really mean? There are those who say, "Well, just hang in there. Everything is going to work out all right. Everything works out okay for those who wait. You just have to believe the Bible that all things work together for good."

That sounds really good.

It’s a passage of Scripture that we memorized as children, right out of the King James version in Romans 8:28, translated in 1611, "As we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose."

That translation places the emphasis on things working out in the lives of people who love God. That gave rise to the idea that given time, all things will work together and will work out.

The next step was the development of the vague trust in the eventuality of things working out, rather than in God. What goes around comes around; hang in there. That creates panic induced ideas about the Father. That loses the meaning that, in the original text, the order of the words in the Greek text put the meaning into true perspective and gives us a cure for our own sense of fear. It says in the Greek order of things (remember King James was translated 400 years ago), "For we know that to those who love God in all things, God works together for good to those who are called according to His purpose."

As much as some people would like it, "Things do not work out! God works things out!"

Ultimately, fear is driven out not by putting our trust and confidence in the president of the United States, although we all want to do that. It’s not driven out by some "pie in the sky" idea of the balance between good and evil. Our Lord drives it out. It’s the most important lesson that I think that God has ever taught.

The secret of living without fear can be summed up in two words: Trust me! Trust me! David said, "I put my confidence in God and wept."

The lesson that Israel has never learned and the lesson that we, too, have never learned is: "Trust me!" If you have fears on this anniversary of 9-11, trust God. He will not let you down. He has a promise for every fear you could think of. Trust Him, trust Him, trust Him.

The Rev. Jon Wilson, D.Min., lives in Calabasas and is senior pastor of Canoga Park Presbyterian Church in Canoga Park at 22103 Vanowen. Hear him speak on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. or contact him at Jonwclergy@aol.com). Call the church at (818) 883-3510.