It took a few hours to get home, but once I made it back safely, all I wanted to do was to stay in my safe apartment for refuge.  For the rest of the day, I alternated from talking on the phone to anyone from close relatives and distant friends to sitting in stunned silence. I spent hours flipping channels between horrifying news coverage and feel good movies in an attempt to escape it all. It was September 11, 2001. I had seen the smoke rising from the Pentagon on my way home from the federal government complex at which I worked. The smoke was the first real indication that the events on the surreal day were truly happening.

Like the rest of the nation, I had no idea what to expect next. My father telephoned to say that he thought I should stay away from federal buildings for the next few days. That sounded like a good idea to me! I wanted to stay right where I was in my cozy apartment in Alexandria, VA instead of making the trek back into work. But my boss had other plans. Along with most of us, I’m sure, I watched the President’s address to the nation that night. Among other things, he ordered his government back to work on September 12.  This was no time for retreat, he argued. It was time to get back to our lives so the terrorists wouldn’t win in scaring us into inaction.

As I’ve reflected anew the past few days on that significant day in US history, I’ve thought about how my own experience of it relates to so much more than our national security. Faced with the terrible, I wanted only to retreat – to feel safe and secure again. How often we respond that way in many spheres of our lives! Whether in difficult family relationships, financial insecurity, neighborhood crime, a difficult ministry, or global issues, we are often tempted to seek the safe road instead of taking needed risks on behalf of what God demands of us.

Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Evil is pervasive in the world today – affecting ourselves, our families, the Church, our nation and our world… Out of hopelessness, seeming futility, and a desire to stay safe, we too often hide from the realities before us. All too often the Church is inactive in the face of evil. Today twenty seven million people are in slavery. Thirty thousand children will die of malnutrition. Thousands of children in the US will be abused. Countless marriages will end because of abuse, addiction and infidelity. In the midst of all this evil and strife, I often feel paralyzed from guilt, fear, and powerlessness. Yet God has a message in this. He’s saying this is no time for retreat for want of safety. Keep working. Don’t let evil scare you into inaction. Be strong and courageous. Seek my kingdom. Seek justice.