I remember where I was when Bear Bryant died. Losing Paul Bryant was for Alabama fans what losing the Pope would be for Roman Catholics. Well, sort of. Alabama takes its football seriously.

I remember my location when the Challenger blew up in midair. The video of the explosion is burned into my memory. Thank you, CNN.

I also recall where I was when those terrorist driven planes crashed into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a rural field in Pennsylvania. (Missing its intended target because of some brave Americans whose attitude was, “I don’t think so!”)

Saturday was a day of remembrance for our country. 9/11 was a day that meant huge changes for us here, and abroad. As my family sat around the dinner table, we all talked about where we were when the first plane hit the first tower. For the most part my kids are really too young to remember it happening. My youngest was just ten months old. My oldest had turned seven the day before.

When he turned ten I remember him saying sadly,

“9/11 will always be more important than my birthday. It’s going to always be what people think about now.”

He was bummed. He wanted to keep that spotlight for himself. For all our sakes, I wish he could have.

I did not know, personally, anyone who lost their lives that day, but I remember that it didn’t matter. It felt like they were my neighbors, my friends, anyway. For all our differences, we were one nation in the days that followed that tragic one. Our false sense of security stripped away, we drew together in strength, and we gathered our reserve. We turned to our God in prayer and pleading. We didn’t criticize our leaders for praying publicly. We wanted, expected, them to.

Then God did what he always does when his children call upon His name. He answered, and poured out his grace and mercy upon our grieving nation.

In that one day we were reminded that our security lies in Him alone. Since that time our country, as well as the world, has suffered great economic hardship. Again we are turning to God for provision. So often, as a country, we tell God, “We’ve got this. We can do fine without You. Have a seat over there until we need You. We’re good right now.” And so He does. When He’d like nothing more than to crawl right up in the middle of our stuff and show us the way.

We can complain all we want to about how “they” are taking God out of everything. But think about it. Don’t we all do that on our own level at least sometimes? We take the reigns over from Him with this false sense of security and proceed to drive our lives right off the road.

Then with our wagon in the ditch, we call out to Him. What if we just stopped doing that? I’m talking about the part where we take the reigns from Him in the first place, and ask Him to step aside.

What if I live my life for Him, really live it for Him, and not just say that I do? And what if you do? What if every Christian in our country and others do, too? Rather than Christianity being only a part of who we are, it becomes the whole of who we are.

It’s just not enough to click the Facebook links that say, “Click ‘like’ if you are a Christian and proud of it.” Or “Let’s find one million Christians on Facebook”. Whoop-de-do. Still, that’s about as bold as some of us get with our faith. We click a link and think we’ve really done something for Jesus.

The last nine years have been tough ones for this country. I don’t think there is any indication that things are getting any better any time soon. I’m not military or economic guru for sure, and I’m truly not trying to sound all negative. I do have hope.

As Christians we have the advantage of living above our circumstances, both personal and corporate. It’s the ability to walk by faith and not by sight. Can you do this? If you know Jesus you can.

Remember Peter? He’s the only person other than Jesus who was able to walk on water. I know he fell eventually, but that’s because he took his eyes off of Jesus. That’s when he went for a swim. Even then, he was smart enough to call upon Jesus who came immediately to his rescue.

We’ve taken some falls in this country of late. Are we smart enough to call out to the only Savior that can raise us up? I’m calling out, are you?