As I sat in church today on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I began to think about the events of that day and all the pain and heart ache that followed. I thought about the men and woman who ran into those buildings to save as many people as they could. I thought about all the people since then that have enlisted to serve and protect our country. I just kept thinking what courage and bravery and then my think took a little bit of a different route. I realized as I sat worshiping God from my comfy seat that there are a group of people born of the pain of 9/11/01 who’s bravery and courage are not as often acknowledged; the everyday American families torn apart by these events.
I’m not saying that they have been ignored, because I know a lot has been done and said of them, but today my heart breaks for them as they are once again reminded of their suffering. I weep for the children who not only lost a parent, but never got to know them because they were too little when it happened. I pray for the parents who lost their children and never again get to hold them in their arms. I hurt for the men and woman who said goodbye to their loved ones as they headed off to work thinking they would see them walk through the front door again. I am thankful for the men and woman who gave and continue to give of their lives, but today these are the people I am going to remember most. These people are my heroes.
Calling these people my heroes may seem a bit odd or lofty a placement to many of you, but they are. They are everyday, average Americans that didn’t sign up for a job or life that may someday require them to give their lives for anyone. They were probably thankful for what they had, but wished they could get this next promotion or send their kid to that better school or even just get that girl or guy they like so much to notice them. And then in an instant, none of those things mattered anymore. All those things that annoyed them or that they wanted seemed petty because before they knew what happened, they had lost the most precious people in their lives that can never be replaced. Their whole world came crashing down with those towers.
I can’t begin to imagine their pain because I have never experienced loss like that, but even as a little 6th grader I recognized it in their eyes and hurt with them. Sometimes I try to think what I would do if my family had been on one of those planes or worked in one of those buildings and even the thought of losing them makes me tear up. If I were counted among the people who lost loved ones that day, I can say with reasonable certainty that I would have given up. I would have completely lost my mind with grief, begged God to take me instead, and would have hated him when he didn’t. But that’s not what they did.
I’m not saying that they have it all together and don’t break sometimes, but these people didn’t give up. They mourned their losses, held tight the ones they still had, and kept living. Through all the pain they had the strength and the courage to keep moving. I have heard it said that courage is not the absence of fear (or in this case pain), but rather having the ability to overcome it. These people had to have more courage in the days following 9/11 than most of us will ever have to have in our entire lives. I pray that I can have even an ounce of their kind of courage in my life.
Really this goes for anyone who suffers and yet perseveres. From the person who’s loved one dies in a car accident to the one diagnosed with cancer and their family, this is just as much for you. So here is to the everyday hero. The men and woman who keep on living despite their pain and loss, to the people who have the strength to keep breathing no matter what life throws at them, to the people who dream even when the future seems bleak. I thank you for the example you set and I pray that God bless and keep you everyday. You Are Heroes!!!
