Twenty years ago.

In some ways, that’s very hard to believe. In others, the comparative size of our sons compared to that moment, it’s easy to see the change.

But it was such a pivotal event that it’s easy to remember. It’s easy to remember, even if we would rather forget.

I know I would rather forget. That’s part of why this blog is a day late. I really didn’t want to write it.

That time, those years right around 9/11, life was fragile. It always has been in truth, but it was during those years that the “here today, gone tomorrow” idea hit home.

First, we had the whole scare about the year 2000. Then the next year, 9/11 happened. Then the DC Sniper in 2003. And in between those events, there was always something publicized that incited fear. Since I had young children during those years, I didn’t need anything else to make me anxious. It was about then I gave up watching or listening to the news. If I happened to catch a headline while online, that was one thing. But I wasn’t going to seek the bad news.

Here is what I remember. (A few of the details may be slightly off of what reality was because emotions have a way of distorting memories.) The morning of 9/11 was a Tuesday. Tuesdays, at that time in my life, were ladies Bible study. I packed up my guys and headed to church. My latest Celtic CD was in the player. I had no clue that the nation was already grieving.

The parking lot was a bit quiet. Not empty, but not as many cars. Also, there weren’t any kids out playing in the field which seemed odd. Still, I took Erik and Karl up to the main building and checked them in. The woman on duty made some comment about none of us being there long today and shook her head sadly.

It made no sense.

I walked down to the other building where we had most of the classes. Several women and the pastor were sitting around our table like usual. What wasn’t usual was that none of them had their Bibles open.

“It’s terrible, isn’t it?” one friend asked me. “Can you believe it?”

She saw the blank look on my face.

“Terrorists attacked the World Trade Center.”

One woman was on her phone with her husband whose job would have kept him informed about such details. He just happened to work at the Pentagon.

The call dropped and she tried to ring him back unsuccessfully. Another lady the group had a portable radio.

I was in that room when another plane hit the Pentagon.

In this area, we know a lot of friends and family who work in that five-sided structure. The immediate tension was palpable.

“Let’s pray,” the pastor said, “and then disperse. This is not a normal day.”

In a fog, I regathered my two sons and headed back to the house. I tried to call Gary, but all the lines were busy and circuits jammed.

The rest of the day was spent trying to keep the boys diverted, answer phone calls that came in from friends and family elsewhere in the country, and trying to reach Gary. He got home early for a work day, about 3:30, but late considering he’d been trying to get home for hours.

Over the weeks that followed, we learned of countless miracles that had protected many. Yes, many had died, even sacrificing their lives on behalf of their fellow man. But others, including our friends, were preserved.

Several people we knew at the Pentagon had offices in the area that was hit. However, and this is a big however, their section was being remodeled. None of them were anywhere close to the destruction.

It is not a time I want to remember. Even focusing on the miracles, it was so sad on so many levels.

The children of Israel did not want to remember the wilderness years. So many died. So many turned from God just when he showed his power with their deliverance.

And yet, God told them to remember. He told them to recite the details over and over and pass them down to their children. It is in the hard times, in the difficulty, that humans show their true color.

So remember. And tell those not born yet in such a way that it is real to them and they remember. Because when we remember, we are better for it.

On Saturday, 9/11, I will be giving a talk on beginning again for our women’s group. That day is an anniversary of a time when we were forced to begin again and next week’s blog post will be about remembering the terrorist attack on our nation. But this week’s has a happier focus.

September 4th, my beautiful sister is getting remarried to a really sweet guy. Mark has a heart of gold. He regularly goes to church with her and my dad. He spends time with my dad outside of church, too. He knows what things are important to Liz and makes an effort to value them. And it goes both ways. I knew he had to be special when she, a diehard Chicago fan in all things, went to a Green Bay Packers game with him!

And this week, they commit to beginning a life together.

But why am I preparing a talk on beginning again? What initiated this idea?

No one can dispute that the past couple of years has been odd. It has changed our lives in ways that we never imagined possible. At the beginning of 2020, those who predicted a possible pandemic were labeled alarmists and fear-mongers.

I guess we should be grateful that not many of them said, “I told you so.”

Now, on the other side of the pandemic, whether it is ebbing or becoming an ongoing part of our lives like the flu, we are having to start over. We can’t go back to 2019 and pretend it never happened, any more than we can go back a bit over two millennia and pretend the cross and the resurrection never happened.

Life has changed. So we have to begin again.

No one knew beginning again like Noah and his family. For part of the talk, I am going to pretend to be Mrs. Noah. I am using the name Naamah for her because that is what they call her on the Ark (Encounter). Imagine everyone and every place you knew, gone. Only her husband, sons and their wives remained. The waters reformed and carved the earth into a strange and mostly barren land. They would replant. They would nurture the ground and encourage it to produce again.

But they had known cities. Now, there were none. They had known fields, farms and forests that no longer existed.

The world they had known had been wiped clean by the water.

Other than her existence, we know little of her. What did she think when Noah got drunk and Ham laughed at his dad? Was she the one who encouraged the other two to treat him with respect? Or was it Shem’s initiative, since he got the blessing?

We don’t even know how long she lived after the flood. Assuming she was younger than Noah (because of his age when they had kids), she could have been alive when the tower of Babel occurred. Which son would she have been living with? I would like to think Shem, or his children. I would like to think that the flood had made her wise enough to cling to the promise of the Messiah.

So we have nothing even close to adjust to. I’m not saying it isn’t difficult. I’m just saying it’s not impossible. We can begin anew. We can choose to cling to the good and the promises of God in our changing reality.

Back to Liz and Mark... it is my fervent prayer that this beginning unites them firmly under God’s throne. May this re-beginning heal hurts, establish trust and foster an ever-deepening love. May it be the truest of beginnings, created and maintained by the source of all beginnings.

And today, and every day, regardless of circumstances, let the rest of us choose to begin again.

As you may have noticed, particularly if you have known me and my family for a while, or if you have been reading these posts more than a year, my son Karl and I like to be specific.

So much so, that all someone has to do is mention a generality at the dinner table and one or both of us will come up with the exceptions.

This frustrates Gary. If he has had a hard day or is tired or just craves some peace, the last thing he wants to hear are our “discussions”. (He calls them arguments, but neither Karl nor I see them that way. We have fun decoding the fine details together.) So he kept reinforcing, “as a general rule” when he made a statement to fend off our possible debates. He said is so much and so often that, with true government employee finesse, he turned it into the acronym: AAGR. (Pronounced Ag-ar with an emphasis on the final r.)

This solves communication in our family. All one of us has to do is grumble out AAGR and it releases tension and we know what we meant.

It got me thinking, AAGR is a good way of living for the most part. It explains how things usually are. Not how the ideal will be. Not how the worst can fall. No. It talks about the principles for a given situation and how they apply to most people. Or it talks about nature and how it interacts within its environment. Or it talks about God and his creation.

Most of the time.

Ongoing trends.

The usual, barring the exceptions.

If you think about it, the proverbs that occur both throughout the Bible and history are examples of these AAGR ideas. ‘A stitch in time saves nine’ or doing a job right the first time keeps you from having to redo it. ‘Eat such honey as is sufficient for you’ reminds you that overeating is not a good practice to get into.

We all know there will be times when the general rule does not fit or does not apply to us. That’s just the way life is. It is always changing. We grow, we move, we learn. These steps into our days and our futures often make the standard rule fall flat.

Often, but not always.

There are reasons the tried and true are the tried and true. They worked 200, 2000 and 2 years ago. If we treat others as our neighbors like we want to be treated, most neighbors will respond in kind and kindly. If we act in honor, we will garner respect. AAGR

The argumentative among us can find an exception. We can look to history or world affairs and say this instance or this trend in this country went against what you say. Earth gravity is a given unless you are in a zero-grav laboratory. Chaos will eventually result unless a creator is dropped in its midst to reestablish order.

The main problem with AAGR is that most of us find the AAGR we are looking for. If we look to see the world against us, those proofs will reveal themselves. If we look for God’s interaction in humanity, that’s what we’ll see.

Yes, the world is full of evils. AAGR. Yes, the world is God’s creation and he still works within it. AAGR.

Today, and any day I remember where to keep my eyes, let me make my AAGR Philippians 4:8 (NKJV). “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

Because, then, as a general rule, my heart and mind will stay in the right place.