Ten Years Later...

Sometimes change occurs gradually. It can take months, years, decades, even millennia. But sometimes it takes a matter of seconds. That was definitely the case on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

I remember where I was when I heard - I was a junior at Jackson Prep, and I was on my way to school. I was right there at the light by the baseball field, turning right. For some reason I had left my CDs at home so I was listening to the radio, which was pretty uncommon for me, but during a commercial break the y101 people said they had just heard that a plane had crashed into one of the buildings at the World Trade Center, but that was all they knew. It was pretty shocking news, but it didn't seem like it was real. I remember saying a quick prayer, getting out of my car and wondering how a plane could hit a building like that. We didn't find out about the second plane until activity period, and then the reality of the situation started to set in. We spent most of the rest of the day watching the news and speculating on what could possibly be happening, what it meant, why it happened, and any other question teenagers would have had. We heard about the plane that hit the Pentagon and eventually the plane that crashed in (I think) Pennsylvania. We watched the towers fall.

There was a certain part of all of it that didn't seem real. I mean, we lived in America. Our country hadn't been under attack in my lifetime. On September 10th, we were untouchable. On the 11th, we weren't anymore. The images of the towers falling, the planes crashing, people jumping...it seemed like we were watching a movie.

I feel like I spent the rest of the day trying to avoid the news. Pretty sure we had basketball practice that afternoon, so that helped, but I remember going home and seeing it on TV and just thinking history had been made.

I remember the next day. I was late to school because I had to drive past the airport and there was some kind of military checkpoint. When I showed up, the receptionist/person at the window that wrote tardy slips (who was generally just kind of a mean person) said "Why are you late?" and I said "Because I have to drive past the airport and there was some military checkpoint and I got stopped for a while." She said "well you should have planned ahead" and I told her "well, next time there's a national tragedy I'll know how to respond. Sorry." And then she gave me an excused tardy.

The world changed that day though. For a while, it really did feel like we were unified. That was good. But I think for me, that was one of the days I started to understand what it meant to live in a fallen world. That and one other day when I was in fourth grade are the days I can point to that I realized...this world is not a good place. The idea that people are basically good but make some mistakes went out the window for me.

Romans 8:18-22 comes to mind. It says:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

The world itself has been subjected to the corruption and death of sin.

But the most incredible thing, to me, that happened, was seeing the gospel lived out in the following days. In a lot of ways, the firefighters that rushed into the buildings and gave their lives for complete strangers represented the sacrifice Christ made for us on the cross. When Todd Beamer and the people on UA Flight 93 sacrificed their lives, the same picture was painted. Self-sacrificing love that didn't - couldn't - expect anything in return.

We were created in the image of God. Sin distorted that image in us. There's still this idea, though, that sacrificial love is right. There's something in all of us that wants it, we yearn for it. I think that's a big part of Romans 8...there's something in basic humanity that longs for redemption, though we spend so much time trying to find it in the wrong places.

But, ten years later, I am thankful for a country that rose up in the face of adversity and united. I hope we can remember that unity and find it again (and soon) as we continue to face various crises. More importantly, though, I am thankful for a savior who not only redeems humanity, but also will redeem the whole world. I'm thankful that he's promised his people he is coming back. And I'm thankful that, despite incomprehensible evil, he's promised us this:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerers through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That's from Romans 8 too, by the way.

Ten years later, I still don't know what to make of all of it. September 11th, 2001 was the most tragic day in the history of my life and I doubt we'll ever really see the full significance of it on this side.

But I know this...I won't forget it. And if I ever have kids, I'm going to make sure they know about the sacrifices made by the NYPD, NYFD, the passengers of Flight 93, and our brave soldiers who have answered the call of duty in the wake of the tragedy. I think about my friends that are serving in various branches of our armed forces and I am incredibly thankful for them.

But above all, I'm thankful for a God that is sovereign, and that even though 9/11 was a horrible day, it didn't catch him by surprise and it didn't thwart his plan. And I'm thankful for a God who also promised us this...again, Romans 8:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

The End.

The Question of Manhood

This has been an incredibly long day, but it has been a very good day. I've currently been awake for 19 hours and the end is very much in sight, but before I crash I wanted to put a few thoughts out there.

Two different things happened today that have me thinking about the question of manhood.

This morning, I started the Men's Fraternity at Redeemer Church in Jackson, the church I've been visiting for the last month or so, and it was a great morning. Over the next 12 weeks, we're going to be discussing a lot of issues that face men, and one of the things that especially peaked my interest was the idea of coming up with a working definition of manhood. Let's face it - if you asked 10 different guys the definition of manhood, you'd get 10 different answers. So I'm very much looking forward to what happens with all this.

This evening, somebody told me about a tweet basically scolding some college and post college aged guys for tweeting about Harry Potter, saying it was time to "grow up" or "man up" or something like that. We had some fun with the tweet, but a little later on we got to talking about the actual content of it and the underlying implication that somehow, liking Harry Potter isn't "manly." At least not in the eyes of some people.

Think about that. Liking Harry Potter all of a sudden isn't manly. Or...well...maybe it never has been for some. I've never been a Harry Potter fan, but I don't hate it or anything, I just haven't read any of the books or seen any of the movies. But all of a sudden your opinion on Harry Potter determines at least part of your manhood? I mean, somehow liking Harry Potter and tweeting about it makes you less of a man, but not liking Harry Potter and not tweeting about it makes you more of a man?

If any part of your view of manhood is based on how you feel about a series of fantasy novels, I'd say your view of manhood overall is shallow and pretty superficial. And I'd also argue that there's something in those books that stirs something very positive about manhood up in all of us, but more on that later. How you feel about a particular book is irrelevant, but I think those books touch on something very real and very tangible that we all desire as men.

I just don't think being a man is that shallow. I'm thankful for awesome example of godly, manly men in my life, but while they are/were all without a doubt "real" (whatever that means) men, they all look completely different. One of my grandfathers is as tough as nails, he builds things, he's worked in factories or doing other kinds of manual labor his entire life. He loves hunting and fishing and everything outdoors. My other grandfather loved classical music and reading theology. He worked in an office and on computers. Yeah, he liked to do outdoorsy stuff too, but they looked like totally different men and their lives looked very different. My dad doesn't look exactly like either of them, either. He embodies certain traits that they both have, but he's not exactly like either one of them. Oh and he likes fantasy stories and awful sci-fi movies. And we talk about Star Wars, Star Trek, and other stuff like that. But that's another story. But they were all definitely men and the embodiment of manhood. They love(d) their wives, their families, their God, their church, and it's not just in the wake up, work 9-5, come back and be left alone way - they enjoy(ed) rich, deep relationships with their families and friends...I mean I don't even really know how to explain it, I just know I want to be like them.

But looking at Harry Potter...these stories are wildly popular, and they're widely recognized as good literature. I think fantasy stories awaken something in us though. I mean I can't speak to Harry Potter, but I can speak to Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings. Yeah, it's dorky, but seeing someone realize their purpose in life, fight for it, and achieve it is something I think resonates with all of us. I mean, we're wired to have purpose. We're wired to experience adventure. These are things that Wild at Heart, the basic Christian treatise on manhood (again...not a book I was really in to) but those are ideals are really expounded in there.

And I think the fact that we don't read those kinds of stories anymore...the fact that we look at that stuff and laugh and think it's lame or not manly...I think that's part of why men are just kind of blah now. Our sense of wonder and adventure has been replaced by the 9-5, by the mundane routine of working the same job, the same vacations every year, even down to the same lunch place every day...we just get beat into a routine.

CS Lewis knew this. JRR Tolkien knew this. I think JK Rowling probably knows this. Story is a big deal, adventure is a big deal. I really hope we don't get to a point where it's not acceptable to enjoy a story that awakens all of this in us.

As it is with a lot of the things I write, a specific person or event triggers the thought, but these are the kinds of things that have been brewing under the surface for me for a while. I also don't know if this is coherent or not. There are some Biblical things in my mind right now too, but I'm way too tired for research.

Read on, fellas. Even if it can be a little annoying when my Twitter feed blows up with a movie or book I have never read, enjoy it. Life, literature, adventure, all of that...it's meant to be enjoyed. So keep it up.

-Chandler