Unshackled Moments ~ September 11 ~ Where Were You?

Where were you when the world stopped turnin' That September day?

- Alan Jackson

I remember where I was when the planes hit the towers and where I was when Alan Jackson sang those words publicly for the first time two months later at the 2001 CMA's. I was in the same place both times, actually within feet of the exact spot. I went to prison in the end of May 2001, and less than four months later on September 11, I still hadn't made the adjustment fully from free American to convict. I remember my cellie waking me and telling me I needed to go to the day room of that prison transfer unit dorm because an airplane had flown into one of the Twin Towers. I remember standing there watching the black smoke on the television in a silence that the day room had not seen in my short time there as a second plane hit the other building. Then silence shattered as men began to react to what was being seen and heard coming from the television.

Within a few hours, as news reports of other planes and Bin Laden reached us, guards hit our area and pulled all the professing Muslims from gen pop and placed them in protective custody with the other Muslims from the unit. I heard that this happened in every state prison in Texas, but I don't know.

I remember 9-17 too. Few know that date as well as 9-11. To be honest, I didn't remember the date. I had to count it out, but I remember the day as clearly as the day of tragedy as over a thousand convicts wearing white TDCJ uniforms and surrounded by corrections officers, steel and concrete and razor wire stood together and sang Lee Greenwood's words that we were proud to be Americans where at least we knew we were free. A bunch of locked up men singing in chapel that they were free. Many of those men were like me, at the beginning of a long lesson in freedom lost or thrown away. The transfer unit only held men on their way into the system or on their way out. Yeah, I remember that day too.

I remember the CMA's playing on one of the day room televisions and Alan Jackson singing his song, the song I hear in my head every time I think about that September day. But the thing is, whether you remember where you were or not, no matter how you reacted, no matter what we feared, the world didn't stop turning. It didn't end.

Tragedies come. Evil happens. Death visits each of us. But never since its beginning has the world ended. Even the flood didn't end the world, and there is only one record of the world stopping to turn for a day to help God's chosen nation have more daylight. Once this rock started spinning on its axis again it hasn't stopped. It didn't stop that September day, and it won't ever stop until it stops for good. The question is not where were we when the world stopped turning but where will we be.

We can spout ideals of freedom, but the truth is men aren't born free. We are born slaves to sin. Without being redeemed and set free by God, the idea of freedom is about as real as a convict saying it, or an addict saying he can stop whenever he wants. On the other hand, when we surrender our selfish lives in exchange for new life and are set free by the Son, we are free indeed, and nothing can take that freedom away. Not razor wire, not death and not an airplane hitting a building or the frightened reactions of the people and politicians rushing to sacrifice liberty for the illusion of safety afterward. Some of the men I sang about freedom with were more free than a lot of people on the outside of those walls.

There is freedom that can't be lost or stolen or taken away. It doesn't have anything to do with nationalities or politics or law. It has to do with are we His or not. And there will come a day when the world really will stop turning and those who are free will remain free forever, while those who are not yet free will find that freedom forever gone. Where will you be when the world stops turning. No one knows the day. Will you be rejoicing with Jesus at His return or crying that it is too late?

It's been 15 years since the towers fell. Some things are better. Some things are worse. One thing is exactly the same. The only free choice any of us really has is the choice to surrender to God and enter into relationship with Him through the grace of Christ's death on the cross and resurrection or the choice to say no, I want to be my own god. We all have a season, a time period, to waffle back and forth and think about it and make a decision. Some get a few years. Some get a hundred. But the world stops for us all, and when the tune is done an answer must be revealed. There will be no more chance to revise or change answers.

No matter what you have done/ No matter what happens. If there is war. If ISIS continues to advance. If this country gives up ever freedom the Constitution speaks of. Regardless of anything and everything you can be free. It has nothing to do with being an American. It has everything to do with being adopted by our Heavenly Daddy. If you are His, rejoice in your freedom and be not bound in chains again. Lean on His grace and walk by the power of the Spirit so that you might remain free. If you are not His, you can be. The price is paid. He says come as you are, not as you should be. You can be forever free.



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