Ten years ago and still the pain lingers for many...

As I write this I want to choose my words carefully because I know there are members who may have lost loved ones when 9/11 happened and I do not want to reopen hurts, but now that I live here in CT, I find that there are many more people who were directly affected by 9/11. I lived in Reno, Nevada when this tragedy happened so while I was aware and deeply saddened it did not personally affect me in that I did not know anyone of the victims. Here though many people did, there were fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters that lost their lives in this attack. Now that the 11th is coming up on its ten year date there are many here who seem to be reliving this tragedy all over again and I find myself not knowing what to say or do? In all truth I don't want to look at the pictures of it happening, its to much for me, the sorrow and hopelessness in the faces of so many it overwhelms me. IS this just selfishness on my part? I want to be useful and help those who GOD would bring in my path but in this situation I don't know what to do??? The heaviness and weight of such a loss by so many just seems to linger all around here right now and I am not sure of the words to share...

God Bless
maryjane

MaryJane,

I suggest you lend a sympathetic ear. People need to vent their feelings without feeling judged. Something like this will anger a body but it is not good to stay there. Forgiveness means you acknowledge a wrong has been done, you accept it and go on. A person without the Holy Spirit dwelling within will find this impossible.

From your writings, I sense the people do not know the LORD. Since this is the case, I would be very sensitive to the leading of the Spirit in knowing how to respond. The responses from one person to the next will likely vary - there is no one size fits all response.

You could begin by asking people if they are religious and how this incident impacted their faith, or something along that line - get the drift? Get them talking, listen and go from there.

Blessings...

Yes ginnyrose the people I was speaking about do not call themselves Christians. The thing is though, many of them do not want anything to do with the LORD any other time but have said that they plan to be in church this Sunday for sure. I will be looking for any opportunities the LORD may give me.

Thank you for your advice, it is sound and I believe very helpful.

God bless
mj

" have said that they plan to be in church this Sunday for sure."

I find this idea interesting. It may be informative to ask them why go to church then? What benefit is there? See what they say...