Allow me to emphasize how important it is that we come together as a family of Americans, as we approach the 6th anniversary of Sept.11th.
I truly believe we must open ourselves up to the direction and love of God, then we will find each other. Too often, we are pulled in all sorts of directions and don't know which way to go. Life can be confusing and chaotic. It seems like so much overtakes us. But we all have help. It's in our Lord Jesus Christ.
When we as Americans let situations pull us every which way, we lose contact with those around us who can be a blessing. We lose contact with what's important and we lose sight on where God wants to take us.
When we allow God to lead us, we find such wonderful surprises and love we didn't expect. Let me use one example, an experience that I've had recently. The topic...Sunday morning church services.
Here's a little background on my life. I grew up as a military brat. Traveling from state to state, my family never settled on a church family, i.e., never joined a church due to the constant relocating. I have attended all sorts of churches, different denominations in my life. As long as the truth, straight from the Bible, was spoken and Jesus Christ, the Son of God was uplifted, my family attended. We never looked at the race of the worshippers and decided on whether or not to keep coming.
Note: There is a saying that on Sundays, it's most segregated. We are separated. God doesn't want that.
As a grown adult, for some time, I had been attending an Assembly of God church for about 5 years. I attended separate from my significant other who would worship with his Lutheran congregation. It bothered me that we worshipped at different churches. But as I look back on everything (after what I am about to tell you) I realize God does things in His own time.
It was a move of God that changed things for me. I feel God wants to do the same for America. It happened...something in me wanted to know more about how my boyfriend worshipped. I informed him that I wanted to attend a Sunday morning service with him. Mind you, he is Caucasian and I'm black (not that it matters, I see no race when I associate with people) and many blacks worship as Baptist, Church of God in Christ (COGIC), Assembly of God parishioners, etc., but not many are Lutherans.
I went on a Sunday to church with him and was INSTANTLY welcomed and showered with love from those in attendance. Not only was God there, but the people were real. The reverence of God during the services, the way the Bible and scriptures were held with such honor, the fact that communion is taken every other Sunday (it may vary from congregation to congregation)...it touched me.
Attending services together with my boyfriend was also very sweet, but the main thing is God was doing something powerful. At the end of services, as a line formed and churchgoers were shaking the hand of the Deacon and the Pastor, I just reached out for a hug to both of them. I mentioned something about being family. As of now, I'm in the choir, and have from the first day of attending the Lutheran church, become very close with those in the congregation. I'm building friendships. We are like a long lost family. A family I wish to join with membership to the church.
This is an example of God moving. I can't tell you how it feels to have someone reach out to you in love immediately when they haven't gotten to know you (but we DO know that we are all sisters and brothers in Christ). I am near tears when I think of it. It's an example of God's love. I cannot wait to see what else God does; He surely has some more surprises up His sleeve. I feel He's not done, not with this nation, and not with me. But we as a nation must allow God to work in our lives.
I wanted to share this message with all who reads this. I hope I didn't ramble, but it is a heartfelt message that I felt the need to share with you for the anniversary of 911. Sept. 11th should be a time to reflect. The message is that we can turn something that happened so horribly into something positive. We can all stop long enough to realize how short life is and not to take it for granted. We must learn to come together, like in the example and love exhibited in my experience above, and in that, we can be strong again as a nation.
Some may use this time to weep. That's ok. But we all need to realize, we are all in this together. We need to use this time to slow down and let God rejuvenate us. If we, as Americans, truly look at each other as brothers and sisters, and help each other, we can be unstoppable. God IS Love, and the only way America will make it is if we learn to love one another.
Felicia (Fee) Benamon is a political columnist who writes for various conservative sites including RenewAmerica.us, Michnews.com, Daley-Times Post, Renaissance Women (http://www.rwnetwork.net/ ) , Capitolhillcoffeehouse.com, TheConservativeVoice.com, Mensnewsdaily.com, and other news sites like AmericanChronicle.com. She is a columnist and a reporter for the Mid-South Patriot (www.freewebs.com/midsouth-patriot ) in Memphis, TN. Felicia hails from a military background, and has been politically active since the 2000 elections. She also has been a guest speaker on a variety of conservative internet talk radio shows
© Copyright 2007 by Felicia Benamon
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