Personal 9/11s

This week, we remembered 9/11, and as is true for many of you, every anniversary of 9/11 takes me back to where I was on that day. In remembrance, social media is flooded with memes that encourage us to “never forget” and sentiments wishing that we as a nation could again experience the unity of 9/12.

This year, my reflections were somewhat different. Even though it is forever seared into my mind, I didn’t spend much time remembering that specific day. Instead, I spent some time pondering what we are really remembering, and I think that events like 9/11 ultimately remind us that our world is just not right.

The reality is that tragedies like 9/11 happen every day. Maybe these tragedies are not on the mass level like 9/11 when so many people were impacted at once, but when you begin to hear people’s life stories, you realize that we are living in a world that is severely broken.

Almost 60% of children will suffer significant trauma at some point during their childhood years. As an educator, I have heard some devastating stories. These children suffer all types of abuse, such as bullying from peers and adults, loss of family members, neglect, hunger, and exposure to drugs and violence just to name a few. Like 9/11, these personal tragedies are symptoms of a broken world. We all realize that things are not the way God intended them to be.

The Bible openly states that the world is not as it was meant to be, but the Bible also provides hope that God will restore His creation to the peaceful Kingdom that we all ultimately desire. There will be no more 9/11s in the Kingdom of God. There will be no more abuse. There will be no more hunger and violence.

Until that time, God also gives us the opportunity to bring a taste of that Kingdom to our world today as we make a difference in the lives of those who are hurting. That is what our staff at KCA strives to do, and then teach our students to do, as we all interact with a hurting world in need of hope.