Morning: Psalm 42:1-11
1 Kings 16:23-34
Philippians 1:12-30
Mark 16:1-8 (9-20)
Evening: Psalm 102:1-28
On this anniversary of 9/11, my husband has just landed at London's Heathrow airport for a business trip. I am anxious a bit, as I remember that we were separated 6 years ago on this day, on 9/11/01. I was at Princeton seminary and he was back in Overland Park, Kansas at work, when we watched the towers go down miles apart from each other. How I missed him and my children on that day, and the days that followed. Psalm 42 was on my heart back then - and it rises up from within me whenever I think of being separated from those I love and feel distant from God. When I heard and watched the terrorist world attack my country and my faith. When I listened to the explanations from some ambitious politicians and more than a few Christians explain the evil as God's wrath on America that made it even worse, while the world watched how we responded. And today, the evil is still with us, even though some of those voices are not. The grief is remembered.
As I kissed my husband goodbye yesterday, I was prompted by the Spirit to tell him to remember we are one in the Spirit, even though we are absent in the flesh, in the back of my mind thinking, "what if I never see him again?" But today, the Lord blessed me with Paul's letter to the Philippians, a letter of encouragement to those he was separated from, while in prison for the gospel.
The psalmist also reminds us that our hope is in the Lord alone, that he is the true source of our longing and our peace. No matter what happens to us - or those we love - peace and comfort, hope comes from God. God is the only One we can count on now and for eternity because of Jesus. Many I know this day are suffering for the gospel, with decisions of conscience; others face family struggles, poverty, depression, separation from loved ones, aging. I miss my husband this morning, and my 2 children who live in other cities. And I feel like Paul sometimes, risking to preach the grainy truth of the gospel, shedding light on the evil that is within us and that pursues us, knowing that I will sometimes be struck down, ridiculed. And sometimes, I will behave badly in it all while others are watching.
But Paul also assures me when he writes of the sovereignty of God and the power of God's word in all things: 18What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice...27...live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel...
May the love of God and the peace of Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit be yours today as we remember 9/11 and proclaim the gospel in season and out.
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