To Commemorate

That September morning was crisp and clear in Washington, DC. The sky was Robin's egg blue. The humidity of summer was gone. The field of coming fall and the turning of leaves to those brilliant reds and oranges and umbers and yellows was just around the corner. And I was at a breakfast. There was a Tuesday breakfast each morning for almost all of the 15 years that we were in DC, which I attended a large, old estate across the Potomac River from Georgetown University. And it was there that a couple of leaders in government and former leaders hosted a breakfast for people in places of leadership, mostly ambassadors, but some business leaders and on occasion a congressional leader would come and just have breakfast to be together as brothers and sisters. Some of them were people who believed that Jesus was real and they were following him and others weren't sure about that, but they liked the breakfast in the company. And so they came. And it was just before 9 o'clock that breakfast was at 8, it was just before 9 o'clock that someone ran out of the kitchen and said something terrible has happened in New York City. The day was September 11th, 2001, 22 years ago, and it came to be known as 9-11. And when that person ran out of the kitchen, everyone stood up from the table and walked into the library to turn on the television to see what was going on. This is Dick Foth with stories from the road. And as I stood there watching the television, I realized I was standing next to an ambassador from a large North African country. We did not have good relationship as a nation with his country, but we had good relationship with him. He came to this breakfast because he said he was addicted to our friendship. And as we stood there, the second jet plane, jet airliner, hit the second tower in New York City. And he said, oh my God. And he ran out, got in his car, his driver took him back to the embassy. And even though we didn't have good relationship with his nation, his president was the first one to call then president George W. Bush to say if there's anything we can do to help in this moment in time, we'd like to do that. We'd like to believe that it was because of our relationships around that table that that in fact happened. But that day, September 11th was a whirlwind. I went out and got in the car, and just after I got in the car around, I think it was around 9.45 or so, that jet airliner hit the Pentagon. So on that day, you had the airliners hitting the towers in New York City, the one that went down in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the one that hit the Pentagon. And the combination of those things was hard to believe, everybody's in shock. And it seemed like there were sirens all day long in Washington, DC, and that they weren't just about all day long. You could see the black smoke roiling up from the Pentagon. And I was anxious to find Ruth. And when I found her, we went home together. And about 20 minutes from Capitol Hill. And as we watched the television and heard the news reports, they had asked people to stay in because of emergency vehicles needing to get where they needed to go. And it was just a profound time. By day's end, and I think unbelievable, would capture that. And when night settled, all across Washington, DC, where traffic had virtually stopped, there were flags hanging from overpasses, and there were candles set out on the porches and stoops of houses and neighborhood after neighborhood. To try to remember that feeling almost boggles my imagination at this point in time. But the thing that I remember thinking is where are my friends? Where are the people that I know that are in government? At one friend in the Justice Department, it took me 30 hours to find out where he was. I had one friend who was in the Pentagon in the Navy on that day, about 800 feet or a little more from the point of impact of the jet. By that evening, I was able to find out where he was. And then I had another friend who was working with the Veterans Administration at a very high level. And of course, they're responsible. The VA is responsible for hospital medical supplies and all of that in case of a nuclear attack. And so they had adopted that stance. And he was in a different place in a different location than Washington, DC, helping to lead the charge and coordinate the efforts of response to what happened on 9-11. And I didn't know where he was for 9 days. There is something about knowing that something horrific has happened and responding, connecting with people that you know are in play in those situations and realizing that life is so fragile, that everything can change in a moment. It's hard to describe the feelings of that day, even looking back 22 years after the fact, except the sense that nothing could ever be the same again for a whole variety of reasons, not just the political things or not just the military things or the governmental or the economic things. But what 19 men did on that day in terms of impacting the world, because when they hit those towers, it was dozens of nations that were involved, not just the United States. There's something about that that can rattle one to the core and for all of us at some level that did. But I think a phrase that captures the place we go to in times of great trauma is found in Psalm 91, where it says, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. I'm going to read that again just as we wrap up this brief moment on stories from the road. He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. That's a wonderful place to be. That's a, it's not just a fallback position, but it certainly is the place to stand or to sit or to lie and to know that that the God of all creation is our place of shelter and refuge in times of trial. I would say every day of the week and always remember that in times of trauma, the place to be is in the shadow of the Almighty. God bless, catch you later, bye bye.