"A date that will live in infamy..."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke those grave and powerful words with regard to Japan's attack on the United States on December 7th, 1941. People have not forgotten that attack. It was over 65 years ago, and my have we not forgotten. Most of us were not alive on that day; many of our parents were not yet born, but we remember.

Oddly, when I got up this morning, I thought of Pearl Harbor. I think it's because today is Sunday, and the Pearl Harbor attack was on a Sunday as well. However, today is Sunday, September 11th, 2011, and it's exactly ten years after New York City was brutally and unexpectedly bombed.

Tragedy has a weird way of bringing people together. Suddenly, social status doesn't matter. Suddenly, race, business rivalries, family disputes, debts, grudges, and politics don't matter anymore. Suddenly, we're all just Americans. Did Japan awaken the sleeping giant? You bet they did.

Have you ever watched someone die? If you have, I'd think it would be something you could never forget. Well, most of America has watched thousands of people die. Live. Most of them saw it on TV, but it doesn't make it any less awful. At ten years old on September 11th, 2011, I sat in my living room, unable to tear my eyes away from the TV, and I watched thousands of people get crushed or blown up or burned alive. And that's something I'll never forget.

Whose fault is it that it happened? Did someone know about it and not report it? There are all kinds of theories. Maybe one of them is true. Who knows. But what I think some people miss is that the fault lies in the hands of those who actually did it, and they're the ones who will have to answer to the Almighty God for what they have done.

We don't always agree with what our leaders are doing about the situations across the sea and the countries that we have issues with. On a similar note, we don't always agree with what our government is doing about the economy, unemployment, illegal aliens, and many other issues. I think it's about time we started praying for our leaders, and if we already are, then to start praying for them more. I also think it's about time for some of our leaders to start taking responsibility for their own failures instead of blaming it on their predecessors, but that's an entirely different topic altogether.

Psalm 33:12 says, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance...." And verse 16: "No kind is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength..." Verses 18-19: "But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine."

Our nation was founded in the beginning on the principles of the Bible. God will always be the final authority on anything that goes on in the world, but do the people of the United States really still regard the Lord as the God of our nation? People sit around talking about taking "under God" out of our pledge, making prayer illegal at times to avoid offending people, murdering unborn children, and looking to today's trends instead of to God for direction, and we expect His blessing?

My pastor spoke this morning about Pharaoh and the Israelites. One thing he said was that God wants to deliver us even more than we want to be delivered. Even after the Israelites were rescued from bondage, they sometimes complained about their lives and said they would rather be back in Egypt where they could live comfortably under total oppression. How many times do we resist God's direction, His power, His rescue? How many Americans reject Him? The natural question that arises in light of this is why would God continue to allow this to happen? Why doesn't He just come back and take His own and destroy who oppose Him?

God is a God of mercy. He is a just God, but He's also a God of mercy. 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."

This song pretty much sums up what I'm talking about here. Chris Rice is awesome. Unfortunately I couldn't find this song on youtube, but the lyrics are what I'm really getting at.

So here's September 11th, here once again to throw cold water in our faces. Wake up, America. Wake up, sleeping giant. Come back to God. Pray for your leaders, for God is the only one who should be leading us.

The Ghost College

Sidewalks once used for travel now stretch lonely into the distance,
Waiting for many stepping feet,
But I am the only one.

The air seems to live,
Pressing harshly on anyone who dares brave its unbearable heat,
It's got to be 100 degrees.

The ghost-whispers of students reach my listening ears,
And I know they are gone.
Gone... far, far from here and away.

The grass is dull, and the trees seem to call out for water,
This place is a desert.

I continue slowly, eyes searching the horizon for some sign of life,
But only a bird flies by,
Perhaps searching for water.

I keep waiting for the world around me to yield to the heat and burst into flames,
But everything remains still.

If I see any living creatures, I expect them to be driven mad with thirst,
So I walk circumspectly.

This place has really turned to a desert! But what makes a desert?
And how could I prove this?

Where are the cacti and carcasses and floating tumbleweeds?
Why not hills full of sand,
Rolling as far as the eye can see?

 

And hark... I see something I hoped to be a mirage.
Surely, then I would know this was a desert.

But alas it is not! What I see is real.
It's a great fortress called Kinlaw, a place of refuge for wayfaring travelers
Like me.

I enter it in silence with respect for its timely appearance.
It's air conditioned.

The Stupidest Things Happen to Me

I have the weirdest stories. No, my life hasn't turned upside down... like, I haven't moved to India or shaved my head or accidentally eaten fried squirrel. But just in the every day race of life, the most random stuff happens to me.

For example.

Let me just preface this by saying that the scariest movie I've ever seen is Psycho. It's positively terrifying. Don't watch it. Seriously, don't do it. I saw it when I was like 12, or maybe even before that, and I've never forgotten about it.

Back to the present. Four or five days ago, I was having a deep conversation with my roommate. We both stay up late frequently, and this time we were talking until about 4 in the morning. About 4:15, she told me she was tired and needed to sleep. So she went to sleep, and I grabbed my towel and soap and such and started walking down the hall.

"What?" you're thinking to yourself right now. It's four in the morning! You're seriously going to take a shower? Just go to bed! Well, I can't sleep without taking one. Pretty much ever. 

Fast forward to ten minutes from that point, and I was about halfway through my shower. Of course there's not going to be anyone else awake at this ungodly hour, so imagine my surprise when suddenly ALL of the lights just SHUT OFF in the bathroom.

Everything was just BLACK. PITCH BLACK. My heart pounded, and I gripped the handle of the shower door in trepidation. When whoever—or whatever—it was that had shut those lights off tried to find me, I knew I had to try to hold the door shut.

Find me? Silly me! That wouldn't be too hard with the sound of the shower running...

For whatever reason, I had brought my phone with me, so I called my roommate, woke her up, and told her that "ALL THE LIGHTS ARE OFF AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!" 

Now, generally I have a good memory. But not in this case. She just sighed. "Melissa, remember the scheduled power outage? There's been signs everywhere for three days. Just don't forget to set your phone alarm since other one won't work."

She was so nice about it. I just said "okay" and hung up. Scheduled power outage? Really? Here I was, thinking that someone wanted to cause my demise, and it was just a stupid scheduled power outage?!

I was not a happy camper. For one thing, it was really difficult to find the soap or anything since it was still PITCH BLACK in the bathroom.

To make matters worse, I heard the bathroom door open, and someone came in to use the bathroom. I couldn't help think of Psycho, even though I knew the whole lights-off thing was just a scheduled power  outage. But the other problem was that whoever that was was probably more scared than I was. They were probably thinking, "Who takes a shower at 5 in the morning!" 

Well, I do. Or, I did that time, anyway. Something like that would only happen to me. Because no one else would be awake at that time, let alone taking a shower. Ridiculous.