It was 10 years ago that the United States had it's core shaken with an intensity that my generation will never forget. It was a Tuesday. I remember the day with a clear vision in the midst of an enormous fog. The day seemed to go by suddenly and crawl at the same time. I was on my way to work and had to flip the channel because they interrupted it for a weird news broadcast about something that was happening in New York City. Because I don't live any where near NYC, I was certain this had nothing to do with me! After all, I had an important appointment later that morning and I wanted to get some paper work done before my big day. I got to my office and turned the radio on and proceeded to get to work.
Again with the interruptions!!! I was getting kind of irritated by now. After changing the station a couple times I finally decided to listen to what was going on. I sat stunned for about 10 minutes before a coworker came in chipper and happy as usual. I asked her if she knew what was going on knowing full well she didn't considering her temperament.
I told her that there had been 2 planes just flown into the World Trade Center Towers in NYC. We sat for what seemed like forever just listening to the radio in my office - - stunned. After only about half an hour or so, I had to leave for my big appointment.
At approximately 11 am I found out that I was pregnant with my first child. As I was in the midst of such serious excitement, I was in fear of our country's current circumstances! How could I bring a child into a world that we are now in the midst of living in? My husband had just come home in June from his first military deployment in Kuwait. We hadn't even had our 1 year anniversary yet. We had just cancelled our plans to move to Wyoming after falling in love with the area on our honeymoon about 50 weeks prior to this devastating event.
What in the world is going on?!
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Now here we are, 10 years later. I have 3 kids, a dog and a 3 legged cat. Sarge has managed to rack up 3 more deployments. Our country has done what it can do to rebuild and realign itself to fight the terroristic attacks that rocked our nation.
A lot can change in 10 years. The Islamic terrorists that once attacked our nation now get to have a mosque just blocks from the memory of their attack on our country and get to have it in the name of "freedom of religion." But if a child wants to pray to God in a school, this is frowned upon. What is going on? How did our country come to this?
And since I've mentioned God, how about I go off on a rabbit trail on those that speak of God as if they know Him. I know that I have not worshipped God my entire life. Shoot, Ive only considered myself to be a full on believer for about 8 years now and only been going to church regularly since January of 2005 - but I know enough to know that I know WAY more about God and His word than SO many people that get to speak of Him on television.
Lucky for me, I lean toward an "all or nothing" approach to things that I do and God was no exception. When I was ready to learn, I was on it like "hite on rice." I go to church Sunday morning and evening as well as Wednesday evening services. Ive taken all but 2 tests to have an Oxford approved Associates degree in Theology (as well as a Bachelor's in Psychology and Master's in Counseling). I am an educated individual. Aside from my education, I have revelation.
I have revelation of the fact that just because I took a college Chemistry class, this does not make me an expert in the field of Chemistry. This doesn't make me any more a "scientist" any more than so many people get to call themselves "Christian" because they attended Vacation Bible School as a child. Yet, so many people get to have an opinion of God and what He is and is not and broadcast it to the whole world.
What saddens me is that I remember being on the other side of salvation and thinking just like the scoffers of the world. Thinking that God allows this destructive type of thing to happen and doesn't do any thing to stop it. I remember thinking "Why doesn't God do something?" or "If there really is a God, why does this stuff have to happen?" or even "There cannot be a God considering all the crap that is going on in this world!"
See, in my head; God was suppose to be this lovely, happy, feel-good spirit that lived in this fictional place called "heaven." He loves everyone everyone and all of use get to go to heaven even if we did a decent job here on earth. Shoot! I obeyed some of the commandments even though I didn't consider myself a christian!
But then I got myself on the right side of thinking. I see that while God is all powerful and all knowing, He doesn't have control of the earth and all its happenings. He doesn't get to put a little bubble around all the good, Christian folks and protect them from ever being hurt by anything or anyone. EVERYONE is subject to the evil one that was cast down from Heaven to Earth because he got a little too big for his britches and thought he could take on God.
Now, as part of living on the Earth, we have to fight a battle in what seems like our minds - but really, it's a spritual battle between good and evil. Do you go with God by studying His word? Do you go with God in theory even though you don't bother to go to church or read the Bible? Do you just use God as a fire insurance policy hoping that you never go to Hell even though you aren't sure there really is a Hell?
I believe that we have to fight the devil. YES! I said the devil. Do you believe there is one? I do. And I believe just exactly what the Bible says about him too. He comes to kill, steal and destroy. Doesn't that sound like an awful lot of the yuck that happens in our world these days? What if the devil was the one responsible for all of this? Does believing this mean that you would have to believe in God? Would it mean that one would have to consider trying to understand how this all goes together?
Quite honestly, I think that there are just too many people that think all of these questions but choose to do nothing about it. Church is for weird people, right? Besides, why would you want to do something different with your life. It would just mess up your partying on Friday and/or Saturday nights and be able to try to sleep it off on Sunday.
I know that this tyraid is all over the place . . . I feel like I'm a little ADHD right now . . .
I guess what I need to say is that saying your a Christian doens't make you one any more than standing in the garage makes you a car/truck/lawn mower/power tool/etc.
God doesn't just let bad things happen to good people. The devil likes to get in the way and has done a pretty good job doing it. But, I know that God wins because I've read the book.
Have you?
