by As our hearts and lives are deeply and forever touched, we may ask ourselves, “What drives soldiers headlong into the face of death, and what motivates rescue workers into danger without consideration for their own life?” A solid answer is, “They have accepted that they are already dead.
To this soldier the enemy has no power over his call to duty, and to this rescue worker his own death has no influence over his compassion for life. The sooner they accepted this, the sooner they were able to function as effective soldiers or rescue workers, rescuing over 17,000 people on 9/11.
As devastating as 9/11 was, Jesus left us in this world for a far greater rescue mission. Our job is to be “pulling them out of the fire” of Hell (Jude 1:23). This means we are to be running headstrong into the fire where they are. The underlying word for “pulling” is “harpazo,” where we get our English word harpoon, which means “to drag away.” The idea around this word is a relentless aggression, never letting up. Like a fisherman who throws out his harpoon, we must be tenacious in throwing out our line, fishing for men to rescue from “the fire” (Matthew 4:19).
As we remember the heroes of 9/11, let’s do it by setting aside self to answer our Christian call to duty and compassion for life. Our enemy the Devil has no power over us, and the enemy of death has no influence over us. We can praise God, the fire of very “the gates of hell shall not prevail against” the rescue mission and battlefield Jesus sent into (Matthew 16:18).
