Just over a month later, we are still struggling to come to terms with the events of 11th September 2001.  We struggle to comprehend how people could do such terrible things and how God could permit such things to happen.  We struggle to reconcile faith in a God of Love with the incredible suffering, the beginning of which we have only just witnessed.  Again we hear angry, hurt, accusatory voices cry, “How could a loving God do this?”, or even “Where was your God on 11th September?”.  But while we struggle to comprehend, life goes on and, as we continue on our way through life, we make countless decisions.

I wonder how the events of 11th September have affected the decisions that you make and the way in which you live your lives?  Just to give you a quick example of the way in which the events of 11th September have the potential to affect our lives - my wife, Ann, and I have been eagerly anticipating visits by friends from America next May.  In the light of the events of 11th September, both couples re-considered their plans to visit Ireland.  Understandably, they were concerned about the safety and wisdom of travel by air.  They considered their plans carefully and prayerfully, and that process is not yet entirely complete.  One couple have now confirmed that they are definitely coming, confident of God’s protection for them and of His provision for their family in the event of anything unexpected.  The other couple have a much longer journey to make and they have young children, but they too are praying and it seems that God is encouraging them to come, and not to be afraid.  So we are hopeful.  This is just a small example of the way in which the events of the 11th September have touched the lives and actions of three families.  Others have, of course, experienced much more profound and serious consequences.  The question before us is “How do we respond to these events?”.  We may think that it is only governments who can effectively respond and there is no doubt that their response is important, but our individual response is also important, indeed it is more important because it impacts on our relationship with God and our witness about Him.

There are two, seemingly contradictory, sentiments the expression of which, in connection with these events, we have all surely noted:  “The world will never be the same again” and “Business as usual”. Are they contradictory and, if so, which is it to be?

Reconciling Realities
I believe that before we can decide in what way the events of the 11th September will affect our decision making, we must first reconcile in our own minds the reality of what we know about God with the reality of these awful events.  To those who do not yet know Him, the awfulness of the events and the fact that they happened at all seems to effectively contradict the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful God who loves every individual human being on this planet.  But this apparent contradiction is dependent on two false assumptions.

Firstly, it is based on the assumption that a loving God is an indulgent God.  One day Ann’s cousin, Sandra, was annoyed with her daughter, Rachel, because of something she had done.  When Sandra disciplined her daughter, Rachel cried “Mummy, you don’t love me!”, to which Sandra’s reply was, “No, I may not like you very much right now but I will always love you”. The world’s idea of a loving God is of a God who tolerates bad behaviour, a God who makes life comfortable, a God who is content to be ignored when life pleases us but who quickly mops up the unpleasant consequences of our sinful behaviour.  It is an image of a doting, over-indulgent grandparent – the type that makes a parent’s life hell!  However, that is a false perception and not how God reveals Himself to us through His Word.

Read the prophecy of Hosea sometime.  Through his own example, Hosea vividly illustrates God’s love towards His people. At God’s direction, Hosea marries a woman whom he knows to be a prostitute.  The relationship is a stormy one.  They have children but Gomer abandons Hosea and returns to prostitution.  Yet he seeks her out and buys her back from slavery and loves her again.  As we read the account of Hosea’s marriage and hear what God said to Israel through him, God reveals Himself not as an indulgent grandfather but as a loving, responsible Father.  He reveals Himself as one who neither ignores nor tolerates sin but as one who loves His people, despite that sin, and who desires to restore them into a right relationship with Himself.  In  John 3:16 and we see the full extent of God’s love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus makes it plain that God reaches out in love, not merely to His chosen people, but to everyone in every place and time.  However, we may only enter into the full experience of His love through repentance and faith in Jesus.  That is the heart of the gospel.

The second false assumption is that the primary focus of a loving God’s activity will be our comfort and convenience in this life. This is an assumption that permeates not only the unbelieving world but also, sadly,  large sections of the church.  Turn with me to Matthew 10:29-31.  Jesus says:  “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Jesus tells us clearly that, as believers, God is intimately concerned with every detail of our lives, but this is not God’s primary concern.  Through the prophecy of Hosea, God reveals Himself as one who puts a premium value on His relationship with us.  God’s primary concern is that we should know Him and be restored into a right relationship with Him, both now and for all eternity.  Yes, God is intimately concerned about every detail of our life on this earth but His overwhelming priority is to rescue us from eternal separation from Him.  And when Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” He is showing us that great priority in the clearest possible terms.  Jesus reveals to us a God whose desire to rescue His creation from the consequences of sin is so great that He considers no cost too great to accomplish that rescue.  God is not merely concerned with how we fare during the short time that we are here on earth, He is concerned with eternity too. We have absolutely no conception of what eternal separation from God is like, but He has.  And because He knows, for God, rescuing us from that awful fate is much more important than our comfort and convenience in this life.

After events like the 11th September we may well ask: why did God allow this to happen?  Job reminds us that God is sovereign and cannot be compelled to explain Himself.  If you read the account of Job you will discover that it is very dangerous to presume to second-guess God’s motives.  Job’s three friends jumped to incorrect conclusions and incurred God’s wrath.  But one thing is certain, when you consider how much God loves each one of us; when you remember that it is only in this life that we can be rescued from the consequences of our sin; when you consider how many unbelievers lost, with their lives, all opportunity of rescue from eternal separation from God, then you quickly realise that amidst all the loss and suffering, the one who has lost most and who grieves most is God Himself.  How can a God who is, Himself, the essence and definition of love allow such a thing to happen?  Only with a very heavy and sorrowful heart.  Where was He and what was He doing on 11th September?  Well, He was busy!  He was preventing people from booking seats on the flights concerned.  He was causing people to be late for work.  He was bringing peace and comfort even in the midst of terror.  He was giving to ordinary men and women the incredible courage to overpower their captors and cause their aircraft to crash before it too could become a death-dealing weapon.  He was holding up twin towers for precious extra moments whilst thousands escaped.  He was empowering rescue teams with steely determination and courage.  I could go on.  Desperately high though it is, the death toll is much, much less than it could have been.  We have heard story after story of the grace and mercy of God in that situation and I am convinced that we haven’t heard a fraction of all that could be told.  And if God was busy on that terrible day, He will be even more so in these coming days, comforting and strengthening all who look to Him for aid.  If it breaks our hearts to observe all the carnage and suffering, how much more does it not break His heart?

The events of 11th September do not contradict God’s revelation of Himself as a loving Father, as both the essence and definition of love.  Rather they reflect the reality of sin in the world and the fact that we each are free to choose how we live our lives and in obedience to whom..

We struggle with the connection between suffering and sin.  Job’s three “friends” all came to the same conclusion, that Job's suffering was the result of personal sin.  They argued that one can ascertain God’s favour or disfavour towards a person by observing their material prosperity or adversity.  This was a view that was commonplace in the time of Jesus and one which Jesus confronted.  In the parable of the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus, it is the poor beggar who finds favour with God not the rich man (Luke 16:19-31).  Again, in the temple it is the poor woman who puts two small coins into the treasury, not those who deposit sacks of money, whom Jesus commends (Luke 21:1-4).  Peter, Paul and all of the other apostles suffered greatly because of their zeal for Jesus Christ. Yet, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomon all prospered materially when in right relationship with God.  Job’s friends got it wrong.  There are times when suffering is the direct consequence of personal sin.  For example, the suffering associated with liver disease caused by a lifetime of alcohol abuse or the suffering associated with lung cancer caused by a lifetime’s smoking of tobacco.  If we abuse our bodies we will eventually suffer the consequences. But for the most part, a cause and effect link is very difficult to identify and the suffering appears to be without just cause.

Sometimes such suffering gets referred to as 'the suffering of innocents'. There are two remarks that I would make about that concept.  Firstly I believe that there is one, and only one, example in the entire history of this world of an entirely innocent person suffering and that is, of course, Jesus Christ.  He is the only person who has ever walked this earth without falling into sin.  Paul tells us clearly that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. There is only one exception to that, and He is Jesus.  Secondly, all suffering has its roots buried in the reality of sin.  I do not contend that all personal suffering is directly consequent upon, or proportional to, individual, personal sin. If we turn to Job Chapter 1 we discover the real root cause of suffering, and one of the reasons why God permits it.  The root cause of suffering is the activity of Satan, as evidenced by the presence of sin in the world.  The root cause of Job’s suffering was Satan’s accusations and in the Book of Job we also find one of the reasons that God permits suffering.  He permits it because suffering faithfully endured has two very powerful effects:  (1) it drives us towards God and (2) it confounds the enemy, Satan.  That’s what happened with Job.  His suffering brought him into a place of new self-knowledge and dependence on God and his response to suffering entirely refuted Satan’s accusation that if only Job were to suffer enough, He would reject God.

Responding to Reality
So how are we to react to the terrible events of 11th September?  Has the world changed forever or is it indeed "business as usual"?  There can be no doubt that events have shattered any illusions that we may have harboured, that man has lost his capacity for acts of unspeakable evil.  Nor can there be any doubt that these events have highlighted the utter futility of mere human resources in the face of the massed powers of darkness.  Governments may try to formulate defences but the effectiveness of such defences is severely limited by the very freedom we cherish so much. We have as yet, no technology that can even begin to discern what lurks in a man’s mind, what secret schemes lie hidden in his heart waiting for an opportunity.  Without that ability, the best that our human defences can do is to try to minimise the risk.  There is One, however, who does know everything that is in the heart and mind of every man and it is to Him that we must turn.  We have a clear choice, we can either put our trust in the ingenuity of man or in the protection of God Almighty.  Proverbs 18:10-11 reminds us, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall”. When we trust in the Lord we find our true place of absolute, dependable, reliable, genuine safety. And, having put our trust in God, we can go about our business with confidence. So, is it business as usual?  No, not quite.  There is a change required.  This is a day of tremendous opportunity; a time to put things right between us and God, a time to respond and come into a real, vibrant relationship with Him.  And when things are right between us and God then our lives will be very different and we will be able to live without any fear of man.  The best way to frustrate and confound a terrorist (or any form of evil) is to draw ever closer to God. "The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; He is their stronghold in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in Him" (Psalm 37:39-40).  Will you respond to His call today?