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Dear
Chuck,
The Sept. 11 tragedy has left me with a feeling of helplessness and
even a hint of despair. I realize that this is nothing compared to
what the victims' families are experiencing. My heart aches for
them. Our church held a prayer service that evening. I realized that
I do not enter into that depth of prayer often enough. Why do we
wait for tragedy before we seek God? Even Christians, like me, do
not seek Him. This has brought me face to face with my own anemic
prayer life.
I
wasn't sure whether to be happy or appalled by the Congress reading
from the Psalms and praying, when just weeks before they were making
decisions about our country that fly in the face of the living God.
Suddenly, the name of God is an OK thing to mention in public. Maybe
this incident will bring this nation to its knees. Maybe we will
seek Him and He will heal our land. I don't just mean the unsaved
though; we Christians are really a lukewarm bunch, aren't we?
Chuck's
Response
Thanks for your kind note of concern about whether we had family
members affected by the tragedy. We were not involved, but bleed in
our hearts for the people who were. You are absolutely right. God is
an acceptable topic to almost everyone when things seem out of
control. I experienced that first hand last Wednesday. I do the
chapel meetings for the Seattle Mariners baseball team and about a
third of the team usually comes. Wednesday, when we clinched the
American League West pennant, instead of celebrating in the regular
way, the head coach, Lou Piniella, had the team go kneel on he
pitcher's mound after the game, where I led them in prayer. It made
the national news ... maybe you saw it. The non-Christian players
were touched and crying as the team came together like never before.
This tragedy is a wake up call that we need God's help and power to
get through it.
It's
OK that we turn to God in trouble. That's why He is there, and this
tragedy has made our non-Christian friends much more open to the
Gospel. So, at least, in that sense, this has been a blessing. I'm
so sorry that so many families have been devastated, but it's just a
matter of this type of thing coming "home" now. All of our
wars since 1865 have been in someone else's country.
Thanks
for living Christ in front of your family and friends. I'm excited
to be co-partners with you as we love other people into the kingdom.
- Chuck
Snyder
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