Healthy Remembrance of 9-11-01

As is surely understandable, today, September 11, 2018, the internet has been flooded with calls to never forget 9-11-01. Most of these seem to focus on remembering those who lost their lives and those who gave or risked their lives to save others. Certainly appropriate memorial! Some seem aimed at fueling unlimited vitriol toward all Muslim people. Others promulgate a dark conspiracy theory that this was the work of treasonous Americans, to what end is unclear. Both of those gnaw away at the soul and are thieves of joy and peace.

As I approached my lectio divina and prayer Psalms today, I asked, what is a healthy way to remember 9-11-01? My mind went back to the attack on Pearl Harbor in which 2,403 Americans were killed on December 7, 1941, which President F. D. Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy.” For my parents’ generation, this was what they resolved to never forget. Though not without some tensions, after World War II, relationships between Japan and the US not only recovered but improved significantly to the benefit of both nations. Flags still fly at half-mast and memorials are held, but as that generation is passing the fervor on Pearl Harbor Day subsides.

Though the Japanese attack was on a military target, not civilians as on 9-11, and though there have been many other wars and tragic losses of life in violent attacks, Pearl Harbor Day may be the closest parallel in US history to the national experience of 9-11. While much has transpired in 17 years, and a generation with no personal memory of that day is coming of age, the wounds are understandably still raw. Remembrance that nurtures remains elusive.

With this question in my mind, I resonated with Psalm 11:1-4, “How can you say to me, ‘If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?’” Remembering 9-11 can fuel just such anxiety as it bumps up against the turmoil and polarization that seem to plague this nation today. But the Psalm goes on to affirm that “the Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven.” Healthy remembering for people of faith is a reminder that despite appearances, God is still active and in redemptive control.

I ended my prayer Psalms with 131 which gives important perspective. “I do not occupy myself with things too great and wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother.” We easily scramble our brains, our emotions, and even our hearts when we stew over things that are far beyond us. Healthy remembering assures us that we are invited to curl up on God’s lap to be calmed and quieted as a small child with its mother.