There is an open field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania which hosts a story of heroism. I’ve walked the field to discover a large rock which marks this nondescript place. Beneath the boulder was a massive hole where United Airlines Flight 93 found its resting place. If you stand at the rock and look back, you’ll discover the path of its final flight. The memorial is just beyond on a hill where a concrete building hosts the sounds and pictures of the moment.
Somerset is off the beaten path. It is not a destination anyone would stumble upon. Unlike the 9/11 memorial in New York City, the open field in Pennsylvania offers no other attractions. Yet, there are memories held there. Lives lost and a story that must be remembered.
Our busy lives can swallow up necessary history. The lessons, losses, and dangers of the past are critical to maintain. History lost is history repeated. The painful events of the present are often tied to the forgotten past. The failed and painful philosophies of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin have been whitewashed, leaving us vulnerable for a new revival of socialist bondage. September 11, 2001 is a day of infamy. It is a moment of great importance that if buried in the plethora of me-ism will cause undo harm to the next generation.
The Children of Israel forget the goodness of the Lord. They moved on from the Lord’s deliverance on many such occasions. They were privy to the wonders of God’s mighty hand; far greater than anything we have ever seen: a mountain of fire; the parting of the Red Sea; an attending pillar of fire and cloud; a flowing river from a flint rock. If they were able to forget God with all of those tangible wonders, we too can lose sight of Him.
The exercise of remembering is perhaps the difference between a healthy church and a self-ish disposition. It could be the dividing line between thankfulness and entitlement. I submit that we remember both the dangers of the enemy in our time and the spiritual deliverance from the Lord. We should embrace the Cross on which Jesus died and hold fast to the doctrine first delivered to the saints. My hope is that this generation will know the sacrifices made both in war and in church. It might just be what keeps our hearts centered on the Kingdom of God.
Pastor Jeffrey Harpole