I was driving to work. Nancy called. She was at home with Hope, eating breakfast, watching the news, watching the crash.

We opened the church building that day, put out a sign, hooked up a television so we could keep track of what was happening. People talked about people turning to God.

I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone has been more aware of God during the last ten years. I have been, but I’m not sure that it’s linked to that day.

To think of the last ten years is to think of buildings collapsing, yes. Lives stolen and then, since, lives sacrificed. But I can’t isolate  the change in my life that comes from that event from all the rest that has happened in the last ten years that has connected with me directly.

Since then social media invaded my life. And working for a week in  Gulfport. And a different job and 300words and kids grown and gone and my dad dead and thousands of conversations. And then, as I realized Sunday morning, knowing people who were in New York and Washington that day.

So on that day, what happened affected me because it was so visible and tragic. Today, it hurts me because I know that Cathleen and Jeff and Jim were connected and I’m connected to them. And Matt aches and I don’t know him but I know Rob and Meg who love him and grieve his pain.

It’s the relationships. It’s hard to grieve in the abstract, to pray vaguely. But to ask for help for my friends, comfort, that I can do. God? Cathleen and Jeff and Jim and Matt and Rob and Meg, they need you. Because this day is a memory of a day of little sense. And you’re needed.