25 Years Later: Have We Forgotten?
written by Michelle Hamann
Where were you when you heard?
If you were alive on September 11, 2001, you probably know exactly where you were.
I was in high school, sitting in geography class in the suburbs of Philadelphia, not far from New York City. Our teacher rolled in the television cart and turned on the news.
We watched.
And watched.
And watched.
The images coming from NYC were almost impossible to comprehend.
The smoke.
The towers.
The rubble.
The people running.
The firefighters and police officers rushing toward danger while everyone else was trying to get away from it.
And then there was the realization that this wasn’t just happening in New York.
There was the Pentagon.
There was a plane down in a field in Pennsylvania.
And the question that seemed to hang over everything was: Where will it happen next?
The news stayed on endlessly when I got home. There was no escaping it.
No one knew what was coming next.
And, to top it off, my birthday was the next day.
It was the worst birthday. Ever.
We said we would never forget.
The Church Doors Were Open
I also remember our church.
The doors were open, even during the school hours.
People came.
They prayed.
They wept.
They wondered.
They asked questions that had suddenly become much more urgent:
Where is God?
Why would God allow this?
What do we do now?
Is there any hope?
Churches like ours across the country responded by opening their doors, holding vigils, offering counseling and practical help, and pointing frightened people toward the precious promises of Scripture and of the gospel.
There were extra services.
There was prayer.
There was comfort.
There was an urgency about eternal things that seemed to settle over the entire country.
For a brief moment, the things we often consider most important suddenly didn’t seem nearly so important.
People were thinking about eternity.
People were thinking about death.
People were thinking about God.
People were thinking about their eternal souls.
And churches were there to point them to Jesus.
Now it is 2026.
Twenty-five years have passed.
The school kids who, like me, watched those towers fall are now parents and grandparents.
A whole generation has been born since that day and knows September 11 primarily through history books, photographs, documentaries, and the memories of others.
And perhaps the question we need to ask is not simply:
Do we remember 9/11?
We do.
The better question is:
Have we forgotten what 9/11 taught us?
Our prayers are not as desperate.
Our sense of the world’s brokenness is not always as immediate.
We have settled comfortably back into ordinary life.
And, perhaps without even realizing it, we have allowed ourselves and those nearest and dearest to us to be captivated by the world’s vision of a better society—a world where we deceptively think,
- if we could just fix enough systems,
- educate enough people,
- remove enough injustice,
- redistribute enough resources,
- and make enough progress,
maybe humanity could eventually create something good.
But September 11 reminded us of something the Bible has been telling us all along:
There is something profoundly wrong with the human heart.
The Bible does not tell us that mankind is basically good and simply needs better circumstances.
It tells us:
“There is none righteous, no, not one.”
—Romans 3:10
The problem is deeper than our circumstances.
The problem is sin.
There is evil in this world because there is sin in this world.
There is darkness because we live in a fallen world under the curse of sin.
And no human program can ultimately solve the problem of the human heart.
No political system can.
No economic system can.
No educational system can.
No technological advancement can.
No earthly leader can.
We need something—and Someone—far greater.
We Need to Remember the Victor
The message of Christianity is not that humanity will eventually fix itself.
The message of Christianity is that Jesus Christ has already won the victory.
O Most High, dwelling among us
Son of Man sent for sinners
By Your blood You have redeemed us
Spotless Lamb, mighty Savior
Who lived, who died, who rose victorious
Now to the Lamb upon the throne
Be blessing, honor, glory, power
For the battle You have won
Hallelujah
– “Christus Victor (Amen),” Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, Matt Boswell, Matt Papa, Bryan Fowler
Jesus came into a broken world.
- He entered our darkness.
- He bore our sin.
- He went to the cross.
- He died in the place of sinners.
And He rose again.
The cross looked like defeat.
The tomb looked like the end.
But Christ was victorious.
Hebrews 2:14 reminds us that through His death and resurrection, Christ destroyed the one who had the power of death.
First Corinthians 15:54 declares:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
That is the hope we desperately need—not the hope that someday humanity will finally get everything right, but the hope that
Jesus Christ is Lord and King, and He will ultimately make all things right.
The world is still broken.
Evil is still real.
Death is still an enemy.
But Christ is still victorious.
And that changes everything.