Forever Changed

How many times in the past year have you heard the words, "I’ve been forever changed by the events of 9-11." Ever utter those words yourself?

Have you truly changed? Has anyone really changed?

There is an ad going around which says, "Adversity does not build character, it only brings it out."

Were those fireman and police officers suddenly heroes? To say that the events of 9-11 made them heroes demeans the job they did before 9-11 and the job their compatriots continue to do today.

You’ve got memories you didn’t have before 9-11. You’ve might have emotions and desires you didn’t have before 9-11. Those things were in you all along, waiting for the right stimulus. They did not change you character or your nature.

You might watch more news now than before 9-11. If you have been keeping your eyes on the news, you see life going on pretty much as before. Children being kidnapped and having unspeakable things done to them before being murdered. Teens being abducted and raped, their abductor killed in a hail of bullets. CEO and CFO raping and pillaging our financial institutions. The famous being defamed. War and rumors of wars, victory and defeat, death and destruction, accidents and civilian casualties. The threat of yet another baseball strike.

For all that, has any of it actually changed who you are?

I don’t think so. Man in spite of all his good intentions is still pretty much what he was before something significant and meaningful happened to him or near him.

There were three days in history that did change the world forever. They occurred on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Spring of 33 AD.

2 Corinthians 5

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.