Twenty-Five Years Later (Psalm 46:1-2)

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea."

Psalm 46:1-2 (NIV)

Twenty-five years ago tomorrow, a generation of Americans found out together what fragile actually means. The smoke rising over Manhattan. The Pentagon. A field in Pennsylvania. The phone calls from people who weren't coming home.

For anyone old enough to remember, it isn't really a date on a calendar. It bypasses the calendar and lives in the body. You don't celebrate September 11. You feel it.

The Psalmist knew something we tend to forget in ordinary seasons.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear — though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.

That is not a poem written for peacetime. That's a poem written by someone who already knew what an earthquake felt like.

Where you put your hope decides what fear is allowed to do to you. Tomorrow is a good day to put it back where it belongs.

Point of Reflection

What's the thing you've been afraid of — and what would change if you handed it to a God who doesn't move when the earth does?