In Remembering ... 9/11

As I sat down this morning at the first fall meeting of my Ladies Bible Class, I wrote this at the top of my notes page.

9/11/2012
*Remember*

But then I stopped and thought about our topic for the class this fall... "Forgiveness".

So I added on to the heading

9/11/2012
*Remember*  ...but also Forgive.

That was a hard thought for me to write down.
I believe it is important for us to learn from things that happen to us, and things that happen in our world. In order to learn from those larger things in our history we MUST remember.

But we must also forgive. Jesus taught us to pray to God by saying, "forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." Wow. I sure want God to forgive me, so I need to learn to extend that grace to others as well. It is for my own spiritual health that I have to let go of the hurt.

On 9/11/2001, there were specific people who hurt other specific people. I hope those vicitms and their families have learned to forgive, even in the remembering. I also see that our entire nation, and perhaps the entire non-muslim world was hurt by the actions of a handful of people. Have we forgiven them?

I don't want you to think of this as a political issue right now, remember that it's a personal one.

So I'll ask again. In remembering the events 11 years ago, have you fully forgiven?