A Personal Remembrance of 9/11

Having recently passed the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, many Americans have been rightly reflective. It is natural for each of us to think about where we were when we heard the news and who we were with. For many of us, the attacks also served as a wakeup call – that our country was not so indestructible as we thought and that our world was really more fragile and dangerous than we were led to believe.

A Journey Through Suffering

Suffering is part of being human. It’s inevitable. Depending on the degree of pain experienced, our entire lives can be impacted. Suffering can consume our thoughts, affect our relationships – even our relationship with God – and leave no part of our lives untouched. Watching someone suffer is also difficult. As a counselor, I want to ease the emotional pain quickly; however, swift relief may not be the best course of treatment.

Just world view

Those who have a relationship with Christ normally turn to Him during times of distress. When the anguish continues and relief is nowhere in sight, suffering can be confusing.  A common assumption among believers is that painful and traumatic events do not happen to the righteous. This belief, known as the Just World View, refers to the degree that people believe that the world is a fair and just place (Fetchenhauer et. al., 2005). The idea allows people to view God as predictable. Further, the church body often interprets events in a manner that supports a belief that the sufferer has a lesson to learn or that the presence of more faith would relieve the suffering. Verses such as John 10:10 are often quoted to support the idea that God protects those who are faithful and removes His protection from those who are not.