12-21-03
Back to a higher terrorism alert level for the past few days. Most of us have prayed as a
result of that sign of increased danger. Most of us prayed even more after the attacks of
9-11. What exactly have we been praying for? What a stupid question, right? Okay, but
humor me and answer it. God's protection? Protection of what, exactly? Life? Sure, and
safety from injury. And not just for ourselves, buddy! We're praying for the whole nation
here. Selflessness in action.
Immediately following 9-11 church attendance went up dramatically by all accounts. The
increase has typically been described as a "spike" in attendance; attendance went up and in a
period of a few months -very few, actually - attendance went down. In fact, it went all the
way back to the level of 9-10. Hmmm. We prayed for God to help us and indeed over the
period of time since 9-11 we have seen the economy recover (at least by some measures and
according to some economist types), we have won 2 wars (I didn't say we had solved every
problem in the war zones or that violence has ended), and there have been no terrorist attacks
within our national borders. So, why did we leave church so quickly? Because God
responded and now we can return to our normal lives, I guess.
And therein is a lesson. I don't really think we wanted God to show up and make things right
in any fundamental way at all. We just wanted Him to make things the way they were and
keep them that way. Bottom line, we wanted to continue in a Godless life and we wanted
God to make sure we weren't disturbed in the process. Making things right would involve
repentance and the fruits of repentance would surely not so quickly rot as has our short lived
dependence on God.