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Note: For the 9/11 Tribute Post, please scroll down.

“We cannot go back and make a new start, but we can start now to make a new ending.”

I am a regret kind of a person.

I spend way too much of my life looking back at mistakes I made or things that went wrong, and wishing I could change them, analyzing the moments and the decisions that evolved into disaster until my mind is sick with frustration and futility. I cannot change the past, but I do allow myself to destroy my present and my future.

How do I step out of it?

As I read through the 9/11 tributes, I find myself growing angrier as I read each tragic story. These people did not need to die. It shouldn’t have happened. These children deserve to have their Mommies and their Daddies back.

While I remember, honor and pray for these people and their families, how can I “start to make a new ending” out of this mess?

And then I remember the children and the lesson they teach about resilience and healing. They may have lost their Mommy, or their Daddy may not be the one to teach them to ride their bike, and they will cry and grieve. But they will also get back up and play again. They will still laugh, love and learn. They will still grow.

There is a time for mourning and for learning from mistakes. But there is also a time for healing and growth.

And our Lord will hold us close and wipe our tears if we allow Him. He will weep alongside us and then He will heal us and make us stronger.

There is pain in this world. Jesus assures us it will be so, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Death and suffering are tied to this world and we can have a future one day without it, safe with Christ in Heaven where our tears will never fall again.

So while I weep today for all that was lost, I also thank God for all that will come. And I pray that we will all allow Christ to bring us to that day.

“God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Revelation 21:3-4

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