9/11 – A Life-Changing Week for Me in Many Ways
A day late, but… [and I warn you it's the longest post ever...but I think it's worth the read.]
The significance of this particular date on the calendar makes me feel guilty for going about business as usual today. I’ve been knocking off items on my to-do list, doing my thing.
But then again, I’m almost overwhelmingly grateful that the victory God has allowed our nation to have over that day seven years go is what enables me to have a ‘normal’ day today.
I took Kenni to preschool this morning, then zipped over to Starbucks to do some reading and plug away on email…phone calls. Then I stopped by the office to check in before grabbing lunch with my wife and daughters. Then back to the office to take care of business.
If evil had won that Tuesday morning in 2001, there’s no telling what I’d have been doing today. Or whether or not I would even be alive.
Think about that.
God is a God of freedom, justice, and mercy. So much so that both the assailant and his victim are eligible for the same mercy.
So, that being said, I reminisce every 9/11 on what that day/week looked like for me. [get your hanky]
Monday morning • 9/10
Flew to Dallas, Texas to hang out at Metro Bible Study at Prestonwood Baptist Church.
MercyMe was the ‘new band’ at Metro, I met them and took some photos of their worship set.
I had never heard of them before…it was my first time hearing the song “I Can Only Imagine.” That song was heard quite a bit after that week.
Went back to the hotel, probably read a little or watched some TV.
Tuesday morning • 9/11
Alarm went off at 6-something. Flight home was to be later that morning.
For some reason turned on the TV and tuned in to the Today Show (NBC). That wasn’t part of my normal routine. They were talking a LOT about Michael Jordan’s return to pro-basketball, and interviewing Jack Welch.
For some reason I rotated the TV towards the bathroom door and turned it up loud so I could hear while I took a shower.
While in the shower, Matt Lauer and Katie Couric started talking about the first plane hit. Sounded like an accident.
Got out of the shower. Started getting dressed.
Second plane hit. No longer sounded like an accident.
Still had a plane to catch.
Caught an eventful ride to the airport. Listened to radio… [PLEASE let me take off before you shut down all flights in the country.]
Gov’t cancels all flights in the country.
Arrive at airport. Check in anyway. Sit down in an airport Chili’s.
Tower collapses.
Airline now ‘officially’ cancels flights.
To Delta counter. They are going to put me in a hotel. Catch ride to said hotel. Check in.
Phone rings.
It’s “her.” “She” is ‘that cute girl I talked to at Bible study last Friday.
I had told her I was flying to Dallas. She thought maybe I had said Dulles. One of the planes was from Dulles. She got scared. She wonders why she got scared. She realizes that it’s because she may ‘feel something’ for this guy in Dallas/Dulles.
She asks if I need money…offers to wire me some. Not sure why. She didn’t have any money to wire me anyway.
“I’m fine. Thanks for calling. Crazy day, huh? Wow. Alright. Well, I’ll see you Friday?”
Hang up.
What? Huh?
I realize I’m standing on the bed in this hotel room.
Standing on the bed?
I realize it may be because I might ‘feel something’ for this girl in Dallas. (Dallas, Georgia…where she lives.)
Friend calls. He’s a pilot for Delta.
“You okay? We’ve got friends who live in Dallas who said you can stay with them if you want.”
Weigh the options… Hotel…alone? Or a house with friends of friends? Option B.
Friend of friend turns out to be an illustrator a Wycliffe Bible Institute.
He picks me up and takes me back to their offices. Get a tour. Learn some cool stuff. End up spending the rest of the afternoon watching coverage with a bunch of people in the break room.
Head back to friend of friend’s house. Meet family. Eat a homecooked dinner.
Phone rings. Friend from Atlanta who’s a partner at Accenture was in Houston for the week. Somehow managed to get a rental car. He’s driving back the next day. Want a ride?
Uh…yes.
Enjoy the new friendship of very gracious hosts.
Lay down in bed.
That’s as far as I got. Am I nervous about the civil situation, or intrigued by the phonecall from “her?”
Probably both.
Wednesday • 9/12
Friend arrives in Dallas. Picks me up. We start driving.
Drive.
Drive.
I mention the girl.
Hmmmm…
Drive.
Drive.
Thursday • 9/13
Arrive in Atlanta very early.
Friend drops me off at Hartsfield to pick up my vehicle.
Sleep.
Sleep.
Wake up. Eternity sets in.
This craziness.
That girl.
Wait.
Friday • 9/14
Work.
Wait.
Finally…Bible study time.
Obviously an emotional night for everyone.
Bible study wraps up.
YES! We’re alone for a minute.
“Soooo… How ya doin’?”
“Everyone’s going to Applebee’s. Wanna come?”
Late dinner.
Chit chat.
Next thing I know, we have plans for tomorrow night.
The plan?
Dinner, and then watch The Holy Grail. Yes, people… Monty Python.
Saturday • 9/15
Cleaned my house. Probably got a haircut, worked out, prayed that she’d like me, etc.
Early evening: Doorbell.
Opened the door.
Dang! Gorgeous.
Dinner at Long Horn.
Talked forever.
Back to my house. (Don’t get any ideas, people… We didn’t even hold hands.)
VCR (yes, VCR) messed up.
I’m crawling around playing with wires or something. She thinks to herself, “I think I’m going to be seeing a lot more of this.”
Fast-forward 5 months to February, 2002.
Got buddy passes from same friend who hooked me up with a ‘room’ on 9/11.
I give “her” the biggest bragging rights in her entire elementary school…
The other teachers ask, “Soooo, what did he do for Valentine’s Day?”
She’s able to answer, “Oh, he just took me lunch at a nice Italian restaurant…IN MANHATTAN!”
Sidenote: Daytrip to New York City is a VERY good way to win a girl’s heart. We were only there for 12 hours, but had a BLAST.
BTW, we visited Ground Zero. Sobering. It was still a HUGE mess. Dust on the tombstones at George Washington’s church…orange spray painted arrows on the side of Burger King that read <–TRIAGE / MORGUE–>
Late Februrary, 2002
I sell all my worldly possessions and buy a dang nice ring.
Mid-March, 2002
She says yes.
and…
“So, I guess I have to kiss you now?”
[no joke]
June 29, 2002
“I now pronounce you…”
September 11, 2002
We recognize the 1-year anniversary of 9/11 in a little blue house we rented from her Granny.
And they lived happily ever after.
Latest on ‘Little Dude’ Parris
The visit with the perinatologist was good… Nerve-rattling, but good.
There are no ‘structural’ problems with our little man other than the 2 vessel umbilical cord ‘anomaly.’ That means he most likely doesn’t have any life-threatening issues. There is still a very slim chance that there is SOME sort of chromosomal abnormality, and only an amniocientesis or birth could tell us for sure. So we’re just going to monitor his growth with monthly sonograms, and as long as he’s growing like he should, we’ll just roll on like normal.
Thanks for all the encouragement and prayer. We love y’all!
Hope in Humanity Renewed
While we were on summer vacation in North Carolina the week of July 4, Annette lost her purse. It was a major event. We retraced our steps from Asheville to our campground. Nothin’. Replaced the debit card, drivers license…the whole bit. Hugely annoying.
Then today Annette gets a call from our pediatrician’s office and is told that there’s a lady from a Wal-Mart in North Carolina on the line who says she has her purse and has been calling every number she could find in Annette’s day-planner ever since, but no one would give her Annette’s phone number. Makes me feel good about Annette’s ‘contacts’ that they wouldn’t randomly give away her number. But also make me feel good that someone out there would be diligent enough to track her down for three months.
So she’s putting it in a box and shipping it our way.
Go figure.
Uncertainty
So Annette shared a few days ago that we found out via ultrasound that our next addition to the family is a boy! I can’t lie… Now that we know, I was really hoping for this. In fact, the Sunday before we found out Annette was pregnant, I was walking through our kitchen when I had a random rush of thought run through my head, and I just blurted out to God, “I would really like to have a son.” Go figure.
Our baby man is scheduled to arrive somewhere around January 31. He looked pretty good and is measuring on target. In fact, Annette’s post originally got pretty specific about his measurements. Fortunately we re-read it and she made a subtle change. It originally said:
But I digress.
He looked good… His heart has four chambers and they’re all thumping along at the right speed. His arms and legs are all where they should be, and he’s moving them all over the place.
But while the ultrasound tech was going through her checklist, she made that “hmm” sound that you never want a doc or nurse to make. Not a long, cataclysmic “hmmmmmm,” but a quick, “hmm” that translated to, “that’s odd.”
She explained that it appears that “Little Dude” (Annette has gotten in the habit of calling him that) only has two blood vessels in his umbilical cord. Obviously, with a two-dimensional, run-of-the-mill ultrasound it’s tough to see too much detail in there. But she checked from a few different angles, and only briefly thought she might see the third that should be there. The doctors call this “SUA,” or Single Umbilical Artery. There are some pretty serious issues that can be associated with SUA, and to be honest, the odds that there’s nothing at all out of the ordinary linked to the SUA aren’t all that encouraging. Some studies show that one in four SUA kiddos are born with birth defects, and another one in four are born prematurely or at a low birth weight. (And since both our girls were tea-tiny, this fella needs all the help he can get.)
So, today at 2:30, we will be driving across town to visit with a Perinatologist. He’ll supposedly look at Little Dude with some pretty serious ultrasound machinery to see what he can see. Personally, I feel in my gut that he’s going to fire up his big machine and pretty quickly find that third artery, or at least see that the blood flow in the one remaining artery is nice and strong letting us leave his office with nothing but serious peace of mind and some pretty cool pictures of our kid. But there’s obviously that wee bit of apprehension that makes this a pretty nerve-abusing day for us.
So if you happen to think of this as you go about your day, would you mind praying for Little Dude? Like I said, I have a pretty severe peace about the whole thing. But in the interest of full-disclosure, I’d rather my peace stem from his being 100% healthy than from being able to accept and pull through a frightening prognosis. Know what I mean?
I’m sure Annette and I will both be blogging what we find out before we hit the sack tomorrow night.
In the mean time, we sure could use some stories from those of you who have experienced this same “anomaly” only to find out everything was fine and dandy.
Mere Christianity
CS Lewis published Mere Christianity more than six decades ago. I’ve been aware of the book for probably one of those. But I have just read it in the last week.
It has changed me.
I’ve enjoyed some books this year that have a bent towards the fundamentals of Christianity. I read Chesterton’s Orthodoxy last Spring (published in the 19th century), and just a couple of weeks ago read Chuck Colson’s The Faith, published in the last year.
The theme that God has woven together through these three books is brilliant. I have never been so intrigued by the very foundational concepts of Christianity. The fruit of that intrigue has been the reinforcement of my own views and of my own understanding of our Faith in Christ.
I have, however, been overwhelmed by ideas that these three books have in common that collide with views I’ve taken for granted for many years, but for just as long have had an almost subconscious skepticism towards (or against, as the case may be). It’s almost like my gut wants to claim that it had told me so. I’ve found a new confidence that my soul is more able to distinguish truth than my intellect. And I can only attribute that trust to the work of God in refining my ears to hear what the Holy Spirit testifies to be true about Him. After all, He does call for the “renewing of my mind.” And I suppose that would not be necessary if my mind were pre-programmed to understand the nature of God.
I think the search for fundamental truth and the understanding of that truth should be the journey of every man. And not in the respect of ‘should’ as in, “it’s a good idea to search for truth.” Rather, it is the call of God on every human to seek out reason and fundamental truth because He is the founder of reason and He is, by His very own definition, Truth Himself. And as we get more familiar with Truth, we see the very mandate of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus to satisfy the nature of that Truth.
What good is it for me to gain the things of this whole world, but lose my own soul? I, by the power of Christ, want to gain the whole of God so that I may gain…the whole of God. It is for that single purpose that I exist.
Rain, Grass, Tru-Green/Chem-Lawn, and Christianity
So after getting fed up with weeds in my lawn a couple of summers ago, I decided to invest in one of those companies that keeps your lawn fertilized and weed-treated routinely. I did the math and figured the price difference between doing it myself and paying them to do it would be money well spent.
So my little patch of green hasn’t seen a weed since 2006.
My neighbors? Not so much. The folks across from us have beautiful shrubs, flowers, and nicely fluffed pine beds…and about 4000 18-inch tall dandelion flowers. The folks to our left? Well, let’s just say you can tell where our two patches of green meet.
It’s tough to not feel a little proud.
The irony? Um, that would be the fact that Georgia has been plagued by a severe drought since last summer. While I haven’t seen any weeds pop up, I’ve barely seen the first green blade of grass in as much time.
But that has ended, perhaps. At least for now.
Hurricane/tropical storm/depression Fay has smiled on our .5 acres and dumped quite a bit of liquid gold on us the last couple of days. And now, my neatly trimmed sod is actually…dare a say it?…growing! And it’s also turning an odd color. I think they call it “green.”
I’ve waited two years for this. Too bad it’s almost SEPTEMBER and it won’t be long before my patch of green becomes my patch of blonde.
Let me warn you now that I’m the king of cheesy analogies. But it’s how God teaches me, so I make no apologies.
I’ve had a very discouraging couple of weeks. It’s hit from all sides. And one of the more discouraging things happened to day. It had nothing to do with my job, my finances, or the unity of my family. It was just ‘one of those things’ that probably wouldn’t have knocked so much of the wind out of me if I weren’t so prone to a bit of melancholy. But if today’s discouragement were a storm, it would have been one of those long, soaking rains that doesn’t stir up a lot of trouble… It’s just enough to make you want to stay in the house and hope there’s not a leak in the roof you didn’t know about. Just enough to get you a little depressed. (Maybe that’s why they call the leftovers of these storms “depressions.”)
Like our little state down here in the south, I’ve been a bit of a drought the last couple of years. Not the kind that leaves you parched…but the kind that just barely keeps the grass alive. You know…where you don’t HAVE to cut the grass every week unless you just want the exercise.
It’s been tough to follow-through consistently, but I feel like I’ve been hearing God say through all this time, “Stick with me. We’re still moving forward. The rain is coming.” I’ve complained about the heat plenty. And I’ve sure as heck let myself get dehydrated from time to time. But He’s been faithful to me. He always is. I’ve tried to keep praying without ceasing, even when I’m being smacked around. And I’ve tried to keep asking the tough questions and looking to Him for the answers. It’s been kind of like fertilizer during the drought. It’s tough to see what good it’s really done. But now that there’s been some rain the last couple of weeks, I’m thinking I may start to see a little something happen. I’m hoping to find out that the rain has made me grow and that He may be shaking things up a bit.
I don’t want to miss this lesson: To keep our Christianity alive and ready to grow at a moment’s notice, we need to keep ourselves spiritually disciplined. It is TOUGH. But the fruit it bears in season is juicy, ripe, and plentiful. God honors OUR faithfulness to HIM with HIS faithfulness to US. And His faithfulness obviously exceeds the breadth of ours exponentially.
Pray even when He doesn’t tell you He’s listening. Give even when you don’t know where it’s coming from. Encourage others even when you feel like all of your own hope is gone. Seek Truth even when you wonder if there really is any. And believe His word even when the text is blurred by your own tears.
He WILL redeem what has been broken for His sake. He always has, without fail.
…
And then there’s the issue that once the grass starts growing, you’ve got to keep it cut down to size. That’s an entirely different spiritual lesson for another day. I don’t want to think about that right now. ( :