Interrupted!

Keep listening, Job. Don’t interrupt, I‘m not finished yet! Job 33:31

In this high paced world of today, it seems that interruptions are the norm instead of the exception. I can remember my mother instructing us girls to “never interrupt adults when they are talking, never interrupt when she was on the phone, and never interrupt our teachers.” We tried our best to obey these rules, and so we spent much of our childhood standing and waiting to be recognized.

There are so many interruptions today. It is common to have someone who is talking to you on the phone receive another call and say, “I am sorry, but I have to take this now. I will call you later.” Newscasters contiually interrupt their guests while they are speaking in an effort to get another word or argument inserted in the conversation.

One of the two biggest interruptions in my life occurred in 1960 when John F Kennedy was assasinated and twenty two years ago today when our world, country, and life was interrupted by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the hijacking of United Flight 93. We can all remember vividly where we were (if you are old enough) when we heard of the assasination and when we heard the twin towers had been attacked.

Everyone has a story of that fateful day on September 11, 2001. I was at school and had just taken the class to specials when I noticed a group of teachers surrounding the televsion in the hall. I walked up just as the plane hit the tower. Everyone went completely quiet as we tried to figure out exactly what just happened! Almost immediately, parents began calling or just coming to pick up their chidren. My thoughts went immediately to my own children who were in Montgomery and Oxford at the time. It is amazing the relief that comes over a parent when you hear your child’s voice and know they are okay.

Randy immediately called for a prayer service at the church, and the staff and volunteers swumg into action to make it happen. The community poured into the sanctuary to pray for our country that evening. There were tears, disbelief, and a general sense of confusion and helplessness among us all.

How do you contain the sense of anger, the bitterness, the sense of revenge or retailiation, or even the sense of betrayal by God? The future of our country was so uncertain and the grief so intense, but in the midst of all the emotions, God interrupts our doubts and calls us to forgive and move forward.

The story is told of a photographer named Joel Meyerowitz who spent nine months photographing and documenting the recovery and wreckage of the south tower inside the World Trade Center. On March 30, 2002, Joel was taking photos inside the area of the south tower when a fireman called to him and handed him the remains of a Bible he had found in the debris. The front of the Bible was obliterated, but the remaining fragments sat open faced and melted into a piece of heart shaped steel.

While most of the Bible was destroyed, the little more than half a page on top was miraculously preserved. The melted King James version was open to Matthew 5. The first thing Joel noticed was the word “Retaliation” in Matthew 5:38-39 where Jesus says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, you turn the other to him also.”

Joel was stunned. How remarkable that of all the fragile pages that had survived, it was this passage in the midst of such an unspeakable act of evil.

Many things in our lives were interrupted that day, but God continues to show us that evil should never interrupt the doing of good. Jesus’ message of forgivness endures even on this day twenty two years later. No matter what we’ve been through or what’s been done to us, it still applies to our situation.

It is the church’s responsibility to not only remember that day and to work hard every day in praying that this sort of thing might never happen again, but also to be ambassadors of forgiveness in the midst of our interruptions.

As we remember the souls who lost their lives on that fateful day, may we be comforted in knowing that Christ still calls us to forgive just as he has forgiven us. One thing is for sure, interruptions happen, but God is with us through it all. God Bless America!

(The picture above is of American flag found in New York in the rubble of September 11, 2001.)