On Collective Desolation and the Consoling Power of Prayer

Monday, September 17, 2001

By GREGORY J. RUMMO

ON THE EVENING of the day terrorists flew jetliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, President George W. Bush said, “These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.''

“Our country is strong,” the president continued, and the “foundation of America” cannot be touched.”

After imploring Americans to pray, he said “And I pray [the families of the victims] will be comforted by a power greater than any of us spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me.’”

The need for prayer has always been the same in America regardless of the circumstances in which we have found ourselves.  But in times of war or great national crisis, the urgency to pray for our president, our elected leaders and our country takes a huge step forward in the minds of many people who may have been otherwise complacent in this regard.

If you are like me, you were numbed by the events of Tuesday morning. And unless you are a part of the ongoing rescue efforts or a news reporter, I doubt your main concern was getting into the office to get more work done.

You thought of your family. You wanted to be with them and hug them. Tell them that you love them. Nothing else mattered.

Now as much of the initial shock and horror has melted into anger and indignation, we have an obligation to let those with the proper authority mete out justice while we pray for God’s wisdom to prevail over them.

During a time in Israel’s history when they were under oppression by the Babylonians, God told the prophet Jeremiah, “Call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Many of us feel helpless and this is only natural in light of the enormity of the events of earlier this week. But we are hardly helpless when we fall on our faces and ask God for His help.

If we seek Him with all our hearts, He has promised that we will find Him. 

E-Mail the author at GregoryJRummo@aol.com

This column also appeared in The New Jersey Herald with the headline, "Prayer Delivers Us from Evil" and subsequently won a journalism award sponsored by The Amy Foundation.