I know that huge moments are frozen in time. The assassination of JFK is frozen in time. Anyone who was alive on that day that I have asked could tell me where they were and what they were doing the moment they heard about the death of JFK.

I can remember where I was the moment I heard the news that Ronald Reagan had been shot. I remember where I was standing when someone first told me, “The space shuttle just blew up!”

And 9/11.

It was a Tuesday. I was at our District prayer retreat and the morning session had just started when a staff member came in and said the news was reporting that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in NYC. We were all dumbfounded. The morning session went on because we simply didn’t know anything more. After the session we all scrambled to find a TV and see what was going on.

By that time both towers had completely collapsed. I remember being on the phone with my wife and she broke the news to me. “The towers are GONE!”

I was so completely dumbfounded. We spent the rest of the day glued to the TV trying to found out what was going on. We prayed that night, but I was still numb.

Going home the next day I called my Muslim friends to make sure they were okay. Word was out that this was a coordinated attack by Muslim terrorists. I wanted my friends to know I wasn’t going to blame a people group, but my grief and anger was toward the people who planned this attack. They understood completely. They grieved for their nation, their home, because it was not just my home. It was theirs. We hurt together.

More than what this meant for a nation, I had a stirring as to what this would mean for the American church. I have regrets over these ten years. The regrets all stem from my lack of attention to the stirring I felt. The American church is suffering from the things the Lord put in my heart in those days. Because I didn’t really heed that stirring, I feel like I’ve lost time in disciplining my own life, as well as leading my church into deeper discipleship.

Today I still hurt. I watch video reflection of that day and I get emotional. It is a painful event and I don’t want to lose the emotion. I also want to hear the voice of the Spirit this time around and NOT miss what we need to do as believers in a shifting culture. We need to more clearly hear the voice of the Spirit.

God, heal our nation in this time of grief. Lord, call out to your Church and call us HIGHER. We need to hear your Spirit more than ever.