From the Publisher
October 2001

This summer, my family took advantage of the East Coast location of Annual Conference and vacationed the next week in New York City. We began with a visit to the World Trade Center where, like thousands of other tourists each day, we stood on top of the world, the wind whipping our hair as we gazed down from that dizzying height.

We splurged and ate lunch there, at a restaurant with an impressive view. The elevator lobby was beautifully appointed, and one graceful orchid sat on a small shelf. While we waited for the high-speed elevator, the attendant took a liking to our five-year-old daughter. After a little conversation, she showed her the orchid, then plucked one bloom. "Oh, look, one fell off," she said with a smile. "You can have it." Monica clutched the gift the rest of our time in the World Trade Center, but the delicate flower lasted no more than an hour.

The massive, 110-story towers lasted just two months more. I ponder the fate of the kind woman whose job it was to usher visitors up and down the building.

"Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. . . . The grass withers, the flower fades." (Isa. 40:1, 8).

Twenty years ago I commuted each day to the subway station in the World Trade Center, and worked in a building one block away. Almost everyone has a connection to this place, it seems. We all know someone in New York. Or we know of a friend of a friend who works there.

Our connections go deeper than our individual travels and histories, however. Little communities were formed around radios and televisions, and a national community emerged quickly as we all watched the same footage over and over again. Prayer services, blood donations, and unusual patience demonstrated by stranded air passengers were evidence of a country moved beyond individualism to immense compassion.

Can we shape this outpouring of compassion into a force for good? Is it possible for our country to respond in a way that does not escalate terrorist attacks into further violence? Can we avoid scapegoating innocent groups of people? Will we examine more closely the interconnectedness of all violence?

In the hours immediately following the attacks, seasoned reporters, corporate executives, and political leaders alike all urged people to pray. In the face of unspeakable horror, that is the place for all of us to be. And that is where we must remain, even after the physical rubble is cleared away. "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever."