Another Day That Continues to Live in Infamy

Sept. 11, 2001 – a day that all of us who are old enough to remember will never forget. It’s one of those “where were you when?…” events that mark and mar human and social history.

Nearly 3,000 lives were lost. More than 6,000 others were injured that day, and over the years since, many other lives have been lost, mostly first responders who courageously rushed into the devastation despite great danger.

 

Four jet airliners commandeered that morning by terrorists, two of them flown into the iconic Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, New York, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth forced into the ground in rural Pennsylvania before it could reach another terror target.

 

Not long ago, a congresswoman described the murderous acts of 9/11 as “somebody did something.” But for many of us, that “something” was akin to the Dec. 7, 1971 attack by Japanese naval and air forces on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing more than 2,400 military and civilian personnel and injuring more than 1,000. The following day President Franklin D. Roosevelt labeled it, “a date which will live in infamy.”

 

As the mournful anniversary of what is commonly known as “9/11” reaches its 20^th year, it’s a time for reflection. Like many people, I was at work. One of our staff came to tell me one of the towers had been struck. Several of us gathered in front of a conference room TV to watch the news coverage. 

 

Some felt led to pray for the victims; while we were praying, we heard the report that the second tower had been hit by another airliner. This confirmed to all that this was an intentional, planned event. Our eyes remained riveted on the TV screen as first one smoke-spewing tower, then the other, collapsed in an enormous heap.

 

After the reality of what has just happened started to settle in, I thought of my friend Jerry, who lived in Bayonne, N.J., across the river from Manhattan, and worked in the North Tower. A few years earlier, I had enjoyed lunch with him and another friend in the famed Windows of the World restaurant, located on the tower’s 107^th floor. Could he have been in the tower?

 

Providentially, Jerry was not. After staying up to watch a Monday Night Football game, he had failed to properly set the high-tech clock radio he had received the previous Christmas, and the alarm never went off. Being sole proprietor of his Manhattan business, Jerry had decided not to make his usual commute into the city. Instead, he was sitting at his kitchen table, drinking coffee and reading the morning newspaper when one of his daughters called, frantically hoping he was safe.

 

Jerry immediately turned on his TV and saw the destruction of the iconic towers unfold. Unlike most viewers, he personally knew dozens of people trapped in the North Tower, the final minutes of their lives caught up in the chaos. Had he awakened on time and ridden the subway to the station under 1 World Trade Center, Jerry likely would have been on the 77^th floor visiting with friends when the building was rammed. To this day, my friend grieves their loss – and still marvels at how God spared his own life because an alarm clock didn’t wake him up.

 

Twenty years later, grim memories remain. From a spiritual perspective, what can we glean from this heinous terrorist plot? Of many possible lessons we could draw from, I’ll suggest only a few:

 

First, the senseless acts of 9/11 gave us indelible evidence of the prevalence of evil in our world. In one of the Bible’s most powerful prophetic books we read, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Many years later Jesus said, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (Matthew 12:35). If there was any doubt about this, watching commercial passenger jets crash into the glistening towers dispelled it.

 

Second, virtually all of us go through life planning for tomorrow, next week, next year. The tragedies of 9/11 were a grim reminder that we’re not guaranteed five minutes from now, let alone tomorrow or some later time. Using a parable about a rich fool, Jesus taught about life’s brevity and the importance of establishing and keeping proper priorities. In the story, a rich man had accumulated so many goods and such an abundant crop that he resolved to tear down his existing barns and build larger ones. “…But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:13-21).

 

Sadly, the past year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic also has pressed this point home, with people we know falling victim to the virus. Young or old, we need to be prepared for the day we will stand before the Lord. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). While this refers specifically to what is commonly known as “the end times,” it can also apply to our final moments on earth.

 

One last point: During His earthly ministry, Jesus made a habit of presenting unconventional teachings. One was His response to the commonly accepted view of retribution, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” During Jesus’ “sermon on the mount,” He gave an opposing perspective: 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same?” (Matthew 5:43-47).

 

This is one of the most difficult of Jesus’ messages to grasp and apply. We don’t want to love our enemies. We want vengeance, to make those who hurt us pay a severe price. We certainly don’t want to forgive. This, however, is one of the precepts that separates the teaching of Jesus Christ and Christianity from any other religion or belief system. How can we love our enemies, those who persecute and seek to harm us, even kill us? This is only possible through the presence and power of God’s Spirit living in us.

 

Let’s hope and pray we don’t need another 9/11-type of calamity to remind us of these truths. 

Caution: If You Follow Your Heart, Where Will It Take You?

Watch any romance movie, especially those of the happily-ever-after Hallmark genre, and somewhere along the way one of the central characters is sure to receive this well-worn advice: “Follow your heart.” Sounds great, right? This fits along with the ever-popular, “If it feels good, do it!”

But is this really good advice? Can we always trust our hearts – essentially, our emotions – for guiding us to wise, well-considered decisions? If we’re to believe what the Scriptures say, and I am among those who do, that’s not always a good idea.

Talking about the heart, as it frequently does, the Bible isn’t referring to that amazing pumping muscle that sends blood coursing through our veins non-stop, minute after minute, year after year. It speaks of the emotional dimension of the brain, where fickle feelings govern love, anger, envy, jealousy, and all manner of other emotional responses to our circumstances past, present and future.

I can remember a few times when my “heart” told me to quit my job because I was unhappy with how things were going. Random thoughts popped up: “You’re better than this!” “They don’t appreciate you!” “You don’t have to put up with this!” Fortunately, rather than letting the whims of my heart rule, I chose to follow reason and logic instead, and realized how foolish and unproductive quitting would have been. Because I didn’t “follow my heart,” things worked out far better than I could have anticipated.

Many marriages have ended because one or both spouses decided to follow their heart, causing irreparable damage to their families. And often leaving a trail of regret and remorse. It might have been because their mate didn’t meet their expectations, they somehow “fell out of love,” or found someone else more appealing. Regardless, the result was typically more “heart trouble” than they imagined.

One of the worst times to simply follow your heart is when considering a costly purchase, whether it’s a house, a car, or even a major appliance. Even if “it feels so right,” it’s advisable to give yourself a cooling off period, allowing time for your head to catch up with your heart and bring facts and level-headed thinking into the equation. Sometimes you’ll arrive at the same decision – but sometimes you won’t.

It's useful to consider some of the things God says about the heart and why it’s so unpredictable and unreliable. For instance, sometimes we can fool ourselves and fail to comprehend why we’re so set on doing – or not doing – something. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

The heart – our innermost emotions – serves as the seat for our motivations, the rationale for our thoughts and actions. We can justify what we intend to do, but according to the Scriptures, God is as concerned about why we’re doing something as He is about what we’re actually doing. This is a truth Proverbs states repeatedly:

“All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart” (Proverbs 21:2).

“All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord” (Proverbs 4:23).

“The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart” (Proverbs 17:3).

In reformed theology, one of the central principles is called “total depravity,” meaning everything we think and do is tainted by sin, just as a single drop of poison would taint a glass filled with our favorite beverage. So it’s wise to be wary of impulsive, emotion-based decisions. “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin’?” (Proverbs 20:9).

Knowing the fallibility of our hearts and our motives, the Scriptures warn us to safeguard our attitudes and thinking, seeking to ward off words and actions we would later regret, sometimes bringing about devastating results. If we don’t fling open the door to temptation, it’s less likely we’ll succumb to the sins that follow. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

What I’ve learned over the years is before determining to “follow my heart,” it’s best to pause first and pray about it, seeking to determine whether my heart is aligned with God’s will. As my life verses often remind me, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6). 

Motives Under Question . . . Sometimes?

Whenever a murder, an act of terror, or some other heinous crime is committed, we hear law enforcement authorities are investigating to determine the motives for the act. If people do bad things, we want to know why. But when was the last time (if at all) you heard of an act of extravagant kindness, and someone in authority said, “We’re conducting an investigation seeking to ascertain their motives”?

It seems when evil is committed, there must be some nefarious cause, and we itch to learn what it was. But when good things are done, we typically assume they're performed magnanimously, with hearts of gold. Why is that?

Maybe it’s a belief that when we do good, that’s “normal.” Whether helping an elderly person across the street, volunteering to assist children, the sick or other people with specific needs, serving the homeless, or making a charitable donation, we presume such things is intrinsic to human nature. Why should we question underlying motivations, asking, “Why did he (or she) do that?”

Have you ever received a very nice gift from
someone, and then questioned their motives?

However, even the most generous gestures might be birthed out of ulterior motives. We see this in politics, of course, where people make large campaign donations with expectations they will receive favors or special considerations in the future. The old “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” scenario. Employees sometimes go beyond the call of duty, “smoozing” the boss, thinking that will help them gain a promotion or pay raise – or both.

Academic institutions are littered with educational buildings and dormitories proudly bearing the names of mega-donors. Salespeople bring special gifts to enhance business relationships.

We see it in families, where a relative responds to a pressing need and then proceeds to make that person feeling obligated – “beholdin’” – for a long time afterward. It occurs in churches, where affluent members contribute to major fund campaigns, then “humbly” bask in the adulation for their largesse. Even children quickly learn that one way to gain friends is to do something special so they will like them.

This isn’t to say we shouldn’t seek out situations where we can do good to others. After all, as followers of Jesus we’re instructed to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Also, to “do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31). We’re commanded to love even our enemies and be willing to do good to them.

The problem surrounds not what we do, but why. What are our motives for doing good? The Scriptures tell us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?“ (Jeremiah 17:9). In Romans 3:10 we’re told, “There is no one righteous, not even one.”

We’re also told God, the only true judge of the heart and its motives, is very attentive not just to what good we do, but also to why. “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord” (Proverbs 16:3). Similarly, Proverbs 17:3 tells us, “The crucible for silver and the crucible for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.”

The book of Proverbs seems especially concerned with our hearts, our motives, being in the right place. It offers this denouncement: “A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart” (Proverbs 26:24-25).

What’s the solution? Should we simply resign ourselves to the conclusion of the prophet Isaiah, who said, “’Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined (undone)! For I am a man of unclean lips’” (Isaiah 6:5)?

No, the book of Proverbs offers a better alternative: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23). We can also pray as did the psalmist, who wrote, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Proverbs 51:10).

The Word of God tells us we all are afflicted with a heart problem, although for many it doesn’t involve the physical muscle in the chest that beats 100,000 times a day.

Without question, the Lord is calling for us to do good. As much good as possible, as often as possible. That should be part of a believer’s spiritual DNA. But as we’re doing it, we should be diligent to “guard our hearts.” If we suspect our motives are less than noble, we should ask the Lord to create in each of us a pure heart.

Then, if someone were to ask, after we’ve done good to others, “Why did you do that?” we can know we did it out of love for God – the greatest commandment – and love for our neighbor, the second greatest commandment.

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

Things just aren’t made to last. How many people do you know that keep their cars 10 years or longer? Maybe a few, but not many. Some people purchase a new automobile every year or two, others hang onto them for several years. But we know that cars have a limited lifespan. Trade it in before it breaks!

The same applies to clothing, appliances, eyeglasses, even paint. Most smartphones have an expected life of two years. By the time our mobile provider contract is up, there’s a totally new version available that makes our old cell phone seem like it has a rotary dial. And computers? We might try to squeeze every day out of them that we can, but with the advances in technology, your computer is obsolete almost before you can get it home and plug it in.

We purchase things fully knowing that almost before we realize it, it’s time to replace them. “Planned obsolescence” is one term for it. Products are manufactured with enough durability that they don’t break or deteriorate within the first few months or years, but sooner or later they become old and worn, in need of replacement. Or the new version is so advanced we feel foolish clinging to the old one.

This model of the human heart, on Discovery Fit &
Health's website, shows an amazingly durable organ.

So I always marvel about the endurance and longevity of the human heart. We occasionally hear of people having heart transplants, but for most of us the heart we’re born with is the one we’ll take to the grave. That’s why coronary health is of increasing importance. People are living longer and if they don’t take precautions, heart disease looms in their future. If you have a heart attack you can’t simply go to a used heart store and get a new one.

A normal heart at rest can beat from 60 to 100 times per minute. The average person, according to the Mayo Clinic, has a resting heart rate of 72 beats per minute. That translates to 4,320 beats in one hour; 103,680 beats in a 24-hour day; 38 million beats in a single year. And that doesn’t include faster heart rates during times of exertion and stress. Applying those statistics to a 70-year human life span – and many people are living much longer than that – a single heart will beat non-stop more than 2.7 billion times. That is a lot of lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub!

In a day or so I’ll mark seven years since undergoing open-heart surgery. It involved four arterial bypasses and, for good measure, an entirely rebuilt ascending aorta. (The old one was on the verge of popping, which isn’t a good thing.) So when Christmas rolls around, I regard the past year as another gift. Other than the half-hour or so when my heart was stopped during surgery, with a heart-lung machine filling the gap, my heart has been beating and pumping without fail.

Over the succeeding years I’ve engaged in a consistent cardio exercise program (my resting heart rate is 60), I’ve tried to eat better (there’s still room for improvement), and I’ve taken my medications as prescribed. This marvelous blood-pumping machine God gave me more than six decades ago has served me well.

Most physicians and scientists would tell you the heart is nothing more than tissue and muscle, designed extremely well for performing a very specific task. The Bible, however, views the heart differently. It describes the heart as the seat of emotion – and motivation.

For instance, one translation of Proverbs 4:23 states, “Keep your heart with all vigilance (guard your heart), for from it flow the springs of life.” As the prophet Samuel searched for a new king for the people of Israel, God told him, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). And Jeremiah 17:9 declares, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Obviously these passages aren’t referring to physical properties and functions of the human heart, but do suggest there may be a spiritual dimension to the marvelous muscle. For years following my surgery, I volunteered at the hospital, visiting patients who also had undergone open-heart procedures. It was not unusual for even strong, tough-looking men to have eyes fill with tears as they reflected on what they had just experienced – the fact they had ventured to death’s door and then stepped away.

So as I take time to reflect again on the blessing I have in a refurbished physical heart, I’m also reminded of Jesus’ admonition about the spiritual heart: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Perhaps He had in mind the warning from Proverbs 21:2, “All a man’s ways seem right to him; but the Lord weighs the heart.”

Where is your heart today?

Why Good Isn’t Good Enough

Imagine being at a restaurant and the server brings your favorite beverage, but before setting it down, as you’re watching, he spits into it. Hard to imagine, right? But think about it, how would you react? You might consider a number of options, but one thing you wouldn’t do is drink it. Right?

Consider another scenario. You’re starving. You haven’t had anything to eat all day, and finally arrive at a cafeteria that looks promising. But somehow, just before you take your first bite, you learn the food you’ve been served has been tainted accidentally with a pesticide. Despite your hunger, I’d bet you wouldn’t proceed to eat.

In both instances, scientifically speaking, the food and drink are probably 99 percent acceptable. If chemical analyses were performed, in terms of atoms and molecules, they would consist mostly of the drink ordered or the food served. But the remaining one percent – be it saliva or a poisonous substance – has spoiled the entire drink or meal, making it unacceptable and potentially lethal.

There's an important spiritual parallel. How many times have you heard someone say something like, “I consider myself basically a good person,” or, “God understands we’re not perfect. He’ll accept me because my good outweighs the bad.”

From a human perspective, that makes sense. It’s true, we’re not perfect. So it’s futile to expect perfection from ourselves or from others, whether at home, in the workplace, or anywhere else.

  

But God doesn’t judge according to “human perspective.” He has only one standard, and that’s perfection. For instance, Romans 3:23 states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:10 declares, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” In the Old Testament we read, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). And Psalm 143:2 agrees, “no one living is righteous before you (God).” Harsh words, no doubt.

Does that mean that, according to the Bible, God sees everything we do as totally evil, utterly disgusting and without value? No, but like spit in a drink, or a dash of poison in food, sin – our failure to keep God’s laws and standards – taints all we do, making it unacceptable to God.

Christian theology offers the concept of “total depravity,” the belief that even our best thoughts, words and actions are contaminated by sin – selfishness, pride, self-sufficiency, and other impure motivations.

Jeremiah 17:9 explains, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  In other words, even when we’re doing good things, can we be certain we’re doing them for the right reasons?

In human relationships, when we mess up we can apologize, ask forgiveness, and try to salve the harm done by doing good – buying gifts or flowers, performing chores without being asked, planning a nice evening out to help heal the wounds. Outweigh the bad with good. Offer the “nobody’s perfect” plea.

Heaven and earth - where divine perfection
and human imperfection collide.

But God has already judged our performance and, to borrow an educational term, we’ve flunked the course. No matter how much good we do, in terms of earning His favor it’s about as effective as trying to rinse off rotten meat with water and serving it for dinner.

So what’s the solution? If this is true, is there no hope? Yes, there is. But we have to fall back on the plea men, women and children have uttered through the centuries: “Lord, have mercy!” As Titus 3:5 tells us, “he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

That passage brings up another term that people outside the Christian tradition find problematic: “Washed in the blood of the Lamb (Jesus Christ).” Sounds yucky, doesn’t it? But it’s a proper, biblical term describing Christ’s crucifixion, shedding His own blood and offering purification for the sins of mankind. In Revelation 7:14 we find this description: “they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Hard for the human mind to conceive, but from God’s perspective, that is the only solution to the dilemma of sin pollution, the “total depravity” that otherwise disqualifies us from entering God’s perfect and holy kingdom.