What I was REALLY thinking when I watched David E. on 9/11/01

In his post over on our RedeemingChurchConflicts.com blog, Dave Edling writes a powerful piece regarding today’s infamously tragic day:

We check each others draft posts (a help, by the way, which I am extremely grateful for!), and today he just would not let me say “my part” in his post. He (dear, sweet, humble man that he is) thinks my words are too flattering or self-serving. I can respect his opinion, of course! And I’m happy to honor his request.

But he said I could POST AWAY on my own blog. And so I shall.

I assume everyone over the age of five or six has some sort of “Where were you when the towers fell?” experience. It truly is our generation’s Pearl Harbor, Space Shuttle Challenger, and the visual of the Berlin Wall coming down.

For me, 9/11 will always be deeply tied in my heart to Dave Edling because of our friendship as coworkers at Peacemaker Ministries. We were both senior staff members and (almost) the entire staff was GLUED to the television. My eyes were glued to Dave. I just couldn’t look away from seeing his heart and his brain so engaged, so enraged; and yet so compassionately concerned about the immediate victims involved and their families AND the families of the military men and women who would undoubtedly be called into active service.

There he sat. A Warrior. A Pastor. A Peaceamker. An officer in two branches of the military.

(A few days after the actual emergency, I even asked Dave if the military would call him back into active service. He laughed and told me that given his age and physical state, I would have a lot more things to worry about than that because some country would be invading IOWA before he got called back up.)

Oh, Dave. Able to make me smile even in the most dire of situations. Must be that eternal perspective he keeps talking about!

Blessings to you and prayers to all of the survivors and families touched—

Your friend,
Tara B.