BraveMen S3E49: Paul Louis Cole - 9/11: A Day To Remember

2,977. 2,977. That's a number of people who lost their lives in the radical Muslim terrorist attacks on the United States September 11th, 2001. There were sons and daughters, moms and dads, husbands and wives, some were able to call home before the final moment. Some jumped to escape the flames, perishing on their own terms. Some prayed final prayers as the fallen buildings consumed their dreams and for all of us, the deadly and deranged evil of men, tempting to stop the destiny of people with his own full display. In this whirling malstrom of crazy world events, the terrorist die tribes the angst of this political season, the stressful business of life. We pause right now and remember 2,977. The victims of 9-11. It's so easy for you and I to say, oh 9-11. And we get further away from it, but we need to pause, reflect and remember, where was I that day? What did I feel? When the buildings collapsed, did you, like Judy and I, instinctively cry out, oh God, no. It is true that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Our greatest weapons are faith and works. That means prayer and action. Pray for our nation, our leaders, pray for the church. Pray for the churches and terrorist nations. Pray for believers standing strong for their faith in the midst of terrible persecution. Pray for the troops, pray for the kingdom of heaven to be established on the earth, pray for your friends and loved ones and then act. Do something. When we pray, things shift on the face of the earth. Second Corinthians 10-3 says this, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. Verse 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Verse 5. Second Corinthians 10. Casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Touch someone with the love of Christ today. Help a friend. Encourage your loved ones. Volunteer in your community. Get busy in the planting of the love of God in your city. We're in a fight and the final victory is assured. But we walk this out a day at a time. Hope is alive. Hope as a name. Hope's name is Jesus. Today, 2,977. Today in the subterminal 11th special heroes edition of Brave Men. It's Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole. Wisdom encouraged for the journey. There were hundreds of heroes on that day, 9-11, and the days after. But I want to draw our attention, you and I, to two men whose lives were deeply defined by what happened and who have deeply impacted my life and will impact yours. One, you most likely know very well, but not the second. You'll know them both a lot better after this special edition of Brave Men. For anything you need in tools for discipling men, go to cmn.men. That's Christian men's network. cmn.men. You'll find all the things you need. The two men I'm talking about are President George W. Bush and a young man, 24-year-old Wells Crowther. The September 11 attacks we often talk about 9-11. You know what they are, but let me just rehearse it for a moment. There were four coordinated terrorist attacks by an Islamic terrorist group called Al-Qaeda. It's the largest terrorist attack in the history of the world. Tuesday morning, September 11th, 2001. You probably remember where you were. I know where I was. I was on a flight on a runway. Can you ready to take off from Dallas flying to New York? We were going to take a short holiday up near Boston in that area, my wife and I, Judy, and all of a sudden the plane shut down. Turned around, went back to the terminal, no explanation, and then sat there. We couldn't get off. Then somebody yelled out, there's been an attack or there's been a crash. That was the first thing. Somebody yelled, there's been a crash or on their phone. We got on our phones and called and our kids were calling us. We couldn't figure out all of a sudden our phone just filled up phone calls. Mom and dad, did you take off or are you okay? Where are you? They knew we were on a flight to New York. They didn't know what may have happened. So what is it? They said, well, the plane has hit the tower. As we're on the phone with them, my son Brandon said, oh my god, a second plane has hit the other tower. They didn't know what the first one was. I thought it was an explosion. They didn't know it was a plane to a little bit later. The results of that, 2,977 fatalities, over 25,000 injuries in UNI. I know there have been substantial long-term health consequences for many of the responders. It's a deadly incident for firefighters and law enforcement in the history of the United States. 343 firefighters died. 72 law enforcement officers. Again, I have to remind us, UNI, when we see all the disturbances going on across the US, people basically trying to throw off any kind of authority, which we know as an anti-Christ attitude in spirit. These were the people, law enforcement firefighters. They were the ones running in when everybody else was running out. There were four airliners. They departed from the Northeastern US and they were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. Two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. An hour and 42 minutes later, both 110-story towers collapsed. You've seen the photos. We've all seen it. The debris and the resulting fires caused other buildings around at the collapse. I have friends, Stephen Melanie Hickson, who were living to actually see it out their apartment building. They watch it right in front of them all of these buildings collapse. The 47th story, seven World Trade Center collapse as well. Significant damage to others. The third plane, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. There were injuries and deaths there. The fourth plane, the United Airlines Flight 93. We know this one. This is the one that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. That was the famous Let's Roll as they overwhelmed the hijackers and most likely stopped another terrible attack on a heavily concentrated population center. But two men marked forever by this tragic event continually impact my life. The first one, Wells Crowther. Wells Crowther was a 24-year-old young equities trader. He was on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center in the South Tower. When the South Tower United Airlines Flight 175 struck that building September 11, 2001 in the morning, he was working at his desk on the 104th floor. Wells grew up in NIAC, New York. He played D1 lacrosse at Boston College. He was a volunteer firefighter. In fact, being an equities trader and working his way up in the financial industry was really going to be basically his 20-year plan towards being a firefighter later in life. That was his dream. When he was six years old, his father gave him a red bandana. That red bandana to him was a symbol of his strength as a young man, his courage. And he carried it everywhere. His dream was to be a firefighter and to have that red bandana with him at all times. That was his dream. It was in his desk on the 104th floor when that plane hit. He took that mask as the smoke quickly filled his office, put it around his face, and then looked for a way out. He ran into a group of 10 people who couldn't find a way out. He found a way out, helped those people down 17 floors. One of the young ladies on the very first floor broke her ankle. He picked her up and carried her on his back 16 floors. He escorted them safely to those firefighters. They all escaped. He then, what did he do? He went back up. He ended up on the 78th floor to find another group of survivors in need of assistance. One of the ladies who was saved by him said that grab the group says everyone who can stand stand out, if you can help others do so. They didn't know who he was, but he was wearing a red bandana over his face. He helped that group down safely. He was last seen going back up the stairs with members of the fire department to save more people. That bandana became a mark and people began to talk about it. There was a man in a red bandana helped us out. We don't know who he was. On March the 19th, 2002, Wells body was recovered months later. His parents having heard those stories somewhat thought maybe that was Wells. But when they found him, he was on the ground floor of the lobby. Right beside the fire department's control center, he had stayed right there. When they found his body, there was the red bandana. His heroic actions saved so many people, but what he did was he stood up for courage and what's right. Today, Boston College continues to remember him in so many different ways. Their football team has red bandana uniforms. The lacrosse team has red bandanic games. There's a Wells Crowder foundation. He saved many, gave his life. A lot of people would never hear about him. It didn't matter to him. He didn't do it for that. The red bandana. The other man, the president of the United States. Now, this position for you and I is pivotal because how he reacts would tend to be the way the rest of us would react. Now, how his temperature is, how his demeanor is, what's his spirit like? George W. Bush. He reacts in a way that helps all of us focus our courage and our hearts. He helped found one of them folded into another one. But in 1989, he bought part of the Texas Rangers. He became the coordinating, operating business owner of the Texas Rangers. That's a baseball team if you don't know who they are. In 1995, though, he ran for governor of Texas and he won. People didn't expect that. In fact, some people who had known him as a young man didn't expect it at all because George had a temper and an alcohol problem. He had actually had a couple DUIs. He had had some other issues and alcohol was about to ruin his life. But his wife prayed him out of it. He recommitted his life to Christ. You can read this story in his books. How he recommitted his life to Christ in the late 80s and then everything began to unfold in his life. In 2001, he actually became the president of the United States. Then 10 months later, the attacks. What I want to draw our attention to is this. I'm going to read the whole thing and just give it to you because President Bush made some remarks three days after this happened. He called a national day of prayer and remembrance. He went to the National Cathedral in Washington DC and he made a speech that I think is so often overlooked, unremembered, but I'm going to bring it up now. He made a speech at the National Cathedral in Washington DC and said, In September of the 14th, 2001, his remarks are this. I want you to listen because what he said should be how you and I respond in the middle of crisis, struggle, turmoil in our own lives. We need to be like Wells Crowther and we need to have this kind of character. Listen. We are here in the middle hour of our grief. So many have suffered so great a loss and today we express our nation sorrow. We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead and for those who love them. On Tuesday, our country was attacked with deliberate and massive cruelty. We have seen the images of fire and ashes and bent steel. Now come the names. The list of casualties were only beginning to read. They are the names of men and women who began their day at a desk or in an airport busy with life. They are the names of people who faced death and in their last moments called home to say, be brave and I love you. They are the names of passengers who defied their murderers and prevented the murder of others on the ground. They are the names of men and women who wore the uniform of the United States and died at their posts. They are the names of rescuers, the ones whom death found running up the stairs and into the fires to help others. We will read all of these names. We will linger over them and learn their stories and many Americans will weep. To the children and parents and spouses and families and friends of the lost, we offer the deepest sympathy of the nation and I assure you you are not alone. Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not yet have the distance of history but our responsibility to history is already clear to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil. War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing in terms of others who will end in a way and add an hour of our choosing. Our purpose as a nation is firm yet our wounds as a people are recent and unhealed and lead us to pray. In many of our prayers this week there is a searching and in honesty. At St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on Tuesday a woman said, I prayed to God to give us a sign that he is still here. Others have prayed for the same searching hospital to hospital carrying pictures of those still missing. God signs are not always the ones we look for. We learn and tragedy that his purposes are not always our own. Yet the prayers of private suffering whether in our homes or in this great cathedral are known and heard and understood. There are prayers that help us last through the day or endure the night. There are prayers of friends and strangers that give us strength for the journey and there are prayers that yield our will to a will greater than our own. This world he created is of moral design, grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance and love have no end and the Lord of life holds all who die and all who mourn. It is said that adversity introduces us to ourselves this is true of a nation as well in this trial we have been reminded and the world has seen, that our fellow Americans are generous and kind, resourceful and brave. We see our national character in rescuers working past exhaustion in long lines of blood donors in thousands of citizens who have asked to work and serve in any way possible. And we have seen our national character in eloquent acts of sacrifice. Inside the world trade center one man who could have saved himself stayed until the end at the side of his quadriplegic friend. A beloved priest died giving the last rights to a firefighter, two office workers finding a disabled stranger carried her down 68 floors to safety. A group of men drove through the night from Dallas to Washington to bring skin grafts for burn victims. In these acts and in many others Americans showed a deep commitment to one another and in abiding love for our country. Today we feel what Franklin Roosevelt called the warm courage of national unity. This is a unity of every faith and every background. It is joined together political parties in both houses of Congress. It is evident in services of prayer and candle light vigils and American flags which are displayed in pride and wave in defiance. Our unity is a kinship of grief and is steadfast resolved to prevail against our enemies and this unity against terror is now extending across the world. America is a nation full of good fortune with so much to be grateful for but we are not spared from suffering. In every generation the world has produced enemies of human freedom. They have attacked America because we are freedoms home and defender and the commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time. On this national day of prayer and remembrance we ask Almighty God to watch over our nation and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. We thank Him for each life we now must mourn and the promise of a life to come. As we have been assured neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth can separate us from God's love. May He bless the souls of the departed may He comfort our own and may He always guide our country. God bless America. Those were the comments of President George W. Bush and I told you about the life of Wells Crowther and I believe that you and I need to walk in that same commitment. We need to walk in that commitment against those who would come against freedom, the tyranny that may be in the streets even of our own cities. But we have to walk in love and respect, compassion. The Bible says, I was reading it this morning, the Bible says, we need to have patience with those who are immature. But it also says we need to help them to a place of maturity. 2,977 people who didn't know what the day was going to bring and now they're no longer with us. What is your commitment for today? If today is your last day, what's a commitment? What do you do if it's really? What do you do if you know that you've got a month? If you knew you had two months, how would that change your priorities? I think that's where we have to go. I remember 9-11 this week. I think we have to go there. What is my life about? Do I have the courage of a Wells Crowther? What do I need to do to have that? Could I speak into somebody's life with the depth and strength that President Bush spoke? Let's pick our game up and let's be the men and women that these guys deserve by the very sacrifice of their life. 2,977. Let us never forget. God bless you on Paul Lewis Cole. This is Brave Men. You've just experienced Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is President of the Christian Men's Network. Connect with Paul at cmn.man or write to him at Paul at cmn.man.