We are STILL the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! (Psalm 33:12 ESV)

I was a first-year high school ESL teacher in Texas, less than a month into my job when one of my students stuck her head into my classroom during my morning conference period to tell me that a plane had crashed into a building in New York City.

When I sat down at my desk to check CNN's website, all that came up was text...

Then the principal spoke over the school's PA system...

By lunchtime there was a loud line of impatient parents stretched out the front doors, some yelling at the poor attendance clerks to "Can't you hurry up!! Please get me my child!! We're under attack!!"...

When I walked out of that school building later in the afternoon, there was the sound of a pair of fighter jets droning on in the sky above; there was no sign of the usual passenger planes departing from and arriving at Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport...

On tv and seemingly everywhere around me people were asking each other and God... "Why?!"

My faith in a Lord and Savior who understands suffering in a way we cannot assures me that not for one second were we alone in our tears, grief, and fear on September 11, 2001. That same God in Christ who suffered and died in abject dejection by the very creations he was sent to save also understands self-sacrifice. While we still mourn those innocent persons senselessly killed by Hate that day, we must never forget the heroes who sacrificed their own lives to save others.

Contrary to the idealistic but poorly executed message of a handful of professional athletes, whose quixotic refusal to stand for our national anthem contributes more to a culture of confusion than one of resolve, the United States of America is STILL the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

And God is STILL with us.