REFLECTION
Gratitude,
Duty, and Hope: Thoughts on September 11
By
Charles Colson Guest Columnist
CBN.com
-- No one who was old enough to take it in will ever forget September 11,
2001. We see passenger jets flying out of a clear September morning, the flashes
of flame, the destruction, the death, and the valiant acts of heroism. It is well
to remember and to mourn the victims this day. But let me raise the question of
why we memorialize those who have sacrificed for us. Whats our object in doing
so? The answer is gratitude. As we mourn and remember the sacrifices of
those who went before us, we ourselves, out of gratitude for what they did, commit
ourselves to defend those values for which they diedprinciples we hold so dear:
freedom and human dignity. Gratitude: John Calvin said gratitude was at
the center of the Christian life, and G. K. Chesterton called it "the mother of
all virtues." It was gratitude for living in a free country that caused me to
put on the uniform of a United States Marine officer during the Korean War. We
do our duty to our country out of gratitude for those who went before us to defend
the liberties we hold so precious. I love the scene at the end of the movie
Saving Private Ryan. Ryan, who is now seventy years old, returns to Normandy,
and he is looking at the grave marker of Captain Miller, the man who died to save
him during World War II. Ryan is on his knees. The grave marker is a stark, white
cross. He addresses Miller, now long dead: "Ive tried every day to live up to
what you did for me I hope Ive lived a life worthy of your sacrifice." On
this anniversary of the attacks, we ought to be looking at the sacrifices people
made for us and asking ourselves whether we are living lives worthy of their sacrifices.
In addition to gratitude and duty, we remember because good can come out
of those vicious terrorist attacks. It is, of course, a biblical principle that
God works through human suffering, tragedies, and defeatssometimes to do His
greatest work. These acts of war served as a wake-up call. There was a
lot of utopian discussion going on in the nineties about how Western liberal democracy
had won the great ideological contest for the twentieth century. We forgot this
is a dangerous world and that evil is real. Now we know better, and even the postmodernist
has to agree there is evil. And just as the great World War II generation
saved the world from Hitlers evil, so this generation must become great for this
moment. It is our calling to be great in defense of liberty and freedom and human
rights, to defend good against evil today. The war on terrorism is, by
its nature, slow and treacherous. We must not allow ourselves to become discouraged
or fatigued. On this September 11, after looking back with gratitude, we
need to look ahead. Our hope lies in our resolve to do our duty that our gratitude
inspires. Our hope lies in the lessons we have learned for the future. And our
hope lies in our confidence in a sovereign Godthat in the end, right will prevail,
that civilization can be preserved, and that America and her allies, in defense
of freedom and in opposition to evil, will triumph. And just like that
scene in Saving Private Ryan, let us also this day look at the cross as Ryan did.
May we live lives worthy of the supreme sacrifice Christ made for us.
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