FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
Remembering 9/11…Remembering the important.
I write this DAWGHOUSE on 9/11…9.11.2021…The 20th Anniversary of 9/11.
This morning I had the opportunity to pray before a small crowd who gathered at Winter Springs City Hall to remember. Several City Commissioners spoke and then Rob Elliot, a long-time friend, FORGE Team Leader, and WS Commissioner spoke these words. Please take a minute to digest them, and remember 9/11:
“The pre-planned and horrendous attack on our country by evil militant Islamic terrorists on September 11th 2001, will forever be etched in my mind. I remember exactly where I was and who I was with while watching this horrible tragedy unfold. Our country has been changed forever and we now know we are still susceptible to these types of attacks on our freedoms at any time.
A few years ago, Sarah and I visited the 9/11 memorial in New York City. It was a clear but chilly day and we got there fairly early. It was a little strange because we were basically the only ones there. We took our time and walked the entire complex without saying a whole lot. What struck me more than anything were the 10 names listed followed by the term “and her unborn child”.
Nobody knows how many other women were pregnant and had not told anyone or might have been pregnant and did not even know it. To think what wonderful things these unborn victims could have experienced and shared over the last 20 years is unfathomable. If you think about it these children would be approximately 20 years old right now. This is so sad.
There are Americans living today who were born between 1997 and 2006 who were alive when the attacks occurred. Today these citizens would be somewhere between the age of 15 and 34 and even though they were alive at the time of this tragedy they would really have no memory of what our country went through at that point in our history. Of course, anyone born after 9/11 knows what happened from a historical standpoint, but did not experience the fear, confusion, anger and sadness we all experienced.
I was in 3rd grade in West Central Elementary in St. Petersburg, FL sitting in Mrs. McLamb’s class when I heard President Kennedy had been assassinated. I was 8 years old. I was sitting at home when I saw on the news that Ronald Reagan had been shot. I remember the feeling of sadness when Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were killed. These were sad times for our country.
The attacks on the World Trade Center struck me even more intensely because the victims in these buildings were not world or political leaders who put themselves in harm’s way to serve their country. I am in no way minimizing what happened to Presidents Kennedy and Reagan or Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King, but for thousands of everyday Americans to lose their lives the way they did in those towers is horrible.
When the cowardly attacks on the World Trade Center occurred my son was 11 years old. In 2008 he joined the Marines and saw combat action in Afghanistan in 2011. Our family is extremely proud of his service, and we thank God he came home safe and sound.
Our son is just one example of the thousands of men and women who chose to serve our country because of what happened on 9/11. There is really no way to thank our military and first responders enough for their service on the day of the attacks and their service up through this very day.
Our way of life here in the United States is unique in this world and because of that various groups around the world are jealous and dislike us because of our freedoms. It is imperative that we all work together to keep our country strong.
Our constitution allows us to have different opinions, different ideas, different beliefs and different lifestyles. In the end, however, we are all Americans and need to be committed to working together to keep our country safe, strong and prosperous.
We gather here this morning to remember those who gave their lives, remember those who bravely responded, remember those who have given their lives since 9/11 for the protection of our country and to remember that no matter what our enemies throw our way we will never give up, never stop fighting for our freedoms and never forget.
God Bless America
I would now like to introduce my good friend and Pastor for more than 20 years Dr. Pete Alwinson to lead us in prayer.
**
Remembering is an underrated and truly significant part of life. Rob’s words are strikingly powerful and they take us back…they remind us that forgetting significant events like 9/11 make us vulnerable to allowing them to be repeated. To letting down our guard. To emphasizing minor life issues over truly major ones. To not loving people well and fighting evil proactively. As the Winter Springs Chief of Police told me today, he’d like to wipe out the pettiness that he sees everyday in his line of work. Ah yes, pettiness…selfishness projected out through our relatively insignificant concerns.
Thanks for your words, Rob.
And thanks for running for a position so that you can serve the citizens around you…for not merely using this time of your life for yourself and family, but for others who will benefit long beyond you.
May your tribe increase.
Christian men have to remember so many important realities too so that we don’t become petty and suffer from in-turned eye disease. We remember the Gospel in the morning via our DAWG and thus our core identity as God’s deeply loved sons. If we don’t, the world will tell us who we are and it’s not flattering! We need to remember the incredibly sacrificial and truly heroic work of Christ on the Cross via preaching in church and celebrating the Lord’s Supper with God’s people on the weekend. If we don’t we’ll surely become discouraged…we need to remember that Jesus is coming again and will set everything straight!
So yes, remember the important… remember your wife’s birthday and your wedding anniversary as well as your kids and grand-kids birthdays. That’s a lot to remember for us men. If we know what’s good for us we will remember those dates and people!
A DAWG is a time to learn new truths, for sure.
It’s also a time to remember older truths and allow them to energize us once again! Don’t have a DAWG with the stated purpose of learning new truths to the exclusion of being reminded and re-energized with older ones.
Remembering was part of the Apostle Paul’s last message to the Elders who served the church in Ephesus:
Acts 20:32-38
“And now I entrust you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothes. 34 You yourselves know that these hands served my own needs and the men who were with me. 35 In everything I showed you that by working hard in this way you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
36 When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And they all began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, 38 grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they were accompanying him to the ship.”
In that one underlined statement of Paul above, the great Apostle gives us the literal words of Jesus that we do not find in any of the Gospels!
So FORGE men…remember…remember what’s important and you’ll be a Gospel energized man… a non-petty man, a sacrificial man, an unstoppable man…a great man as God defines greatness.
You take it to heart,
Pete Alwinson
