The Death of a Nightmare

My Mom can still tell me where she was when she heard that John F. Kennedy was killed, and I can still remember where I was when the Space Shuttle exploded, those dates are indelibly etched into our memories.  I remember where I was when the attacks on September 11, 2001 occurred and I remember feeling, much like everyone else in the Nation did, anger, hatred and disbelief.  That evening I did something on my way home that still sticks with me, and I remember it every day.

As I drove home that day, I was in shock and I began to pray for all of those people that I knew were dead, those that were injured and those that were missing.  I prayed for the victims, their families and I prayed for justice to be done, God's way not ours and then it happened, I prayed for the attackers, that God would have mercy on them.  I still don't know why I prayed for them, I shouldn't I thought, but I did and I continued to pray for them.

Prayer is a very personal thing, and I thought it was important that I continued to pray for EVERYONE in the attacks.  I shared this fact with a friend and he looked at me like I just grew a horn out of my forehead, and I could tell he was confused by it.  I wasn't praying for the "evil-doers", no sir, I was praying for lost souls that perpetrated this egregious offense against humanity.  God knows what happened and what they did, but they are still His children, lost lambs that were led astray and I prayed that they would be found.

Now I know the only way to God is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they obviously decided to not follow Christ, but I felt it necessary to include them, so He would have mercy, and I also prayed that He would forgive me for thinking the evil, angry thoughts I had on that day as well.  I understood the ramifications of the attacks and the evil that they unleashed upon the world, but I understood that I too was committing sins through my hatred and anger.

Time has an amazing effect on the human mind and condition, and as I have outlined previously, my path has been a rocky one and every day I sat and watched the war on television, like my Mother did when my Dad was in Vietnam and I saw the aluminum, flag draped coffins come home, and more young men and women arriving in country.  Two of my brother-in-laws were among those that were being sent to a foreign land, and my prayers continued.  Every so often, I would pray for those killed on 9/11 and I would still pray for justice almost in the same breath for the protection of our fighting men and women.

I sit here 9 years and almost 8 months from the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and in lieu of the recent event of the killing of Osama bin Laden, my memory has been jogged.  I went right back into the hate and anger of the events on 9/11 and then I remembered the victims, all of the victims.  bin Laden used the hijackers in such a way that they did his bidding, they became the murderers of 2.750 people on 9/11 and thousands since in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Osama bin Laden was the devil, he had to be killed, and I rejoiced with nearly everyone in his death.

I spent several hours reading accounts from the news wire as well as the many posts on Facebook, all of the musical dedications to his death, and something hit me all over again.  I found myself re-entering that forgiveness stage, this time for "Public Enemy #1", Osama bin Laden.  I prayed once again, that God would have mercy on him as justice had been exacted, and I prayed for myself asking for forgiveness and mercy for my sinful indiscretions of hate, anger, and my own evil.

Its funny because the next day I was taking a vehicle of ours for service and I was trying to find a radio station to listen to and I found a program that was talking about Osama bin Laden and the fact that we as God's children should not praise the death of an enemy, and that really stuck with me.  Today for instance, I have found myself attempting to understand His Word on the subject, and I did a little digging, and I found something in Scripture:

Matthew 5:43-48

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ...

Once again my question has been answered and in a fashion I never expected.  Osama bin Laden has caused great tragedy, pain, anger and loss upon every person on this planet, let us rejoice in the fact that justice has been done, but let us also remember the Truth in the Word of God.