9-11 Twenty Years Later

 Today I have a guest columnist—my friend Ryan Ho, who was there….

Is there a parade today? I looked out the window with a bit of confusion as paper fluttered down from the sky. Working on the twentieth floor of an office building in downtown New York City, I didn’t often see objects fall from above. I stood up from my desk, moved into another room to get a better view. . . and gasped in horror at the gaping, burning hole that I saw in the side of the World Trade Center’s North Tower.

So began one of the most consequential days of my life. When the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2021, the world changed, and so did I. Up to that point, I was in no rush to do anything significant or meaningful. I had intended to go into ministry since I was a boy, but after graduating college and acquiring a well-paying job in Manhattan, I became comfortable. I was succeeding tremendously at work, and I clearly had a future in the company. Overall, I felt secure.

When the second plane flew into the South Tower before my eyes, that sense of security shattered. I distinctly remember wondering what would happen next. How could we recover from this? As the Towers toppled, I knew that New York would never be the same, and it wasn’t. But I would never be the same, either.

The Monday after the Towers fell, I returned to work, but a part of me never went back—the part that felt comfortable, the part that felt secure. I looked around the office and saw things with new eyes. The job paid well, and it had a future—but it wasn’t my future. I knew the Lord had called me to more.

Ryan went on to graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary and to work as an associate pastor and church planter in Oklahoma and Oregon. Today he is an Instructional Designer at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas.  

What about you? In what do you place your security? Were you made for more? 

Photo by Jason McCann on Unsplash