September 11, 2001. Who can ever forget that fateful day when the twin towers fell in New York City due to a terrorist attack at 8:46 a.m. One of my grandsons had his eighteenth birthday that day and said his birthday would never be the same again. I was reading a passage in scripture this morning, Isaiah 30:25 “In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall…” This had nothing to do with 9/11…or did it?
Here is an awakening anecdote as given to us by Matthew Ruttan in his March 30th devotional. He goes on to write:
There’s a marine training facility called Parris Island. A young man signed up who was a bit out of step with the others. He was nice enough—but he just didn’t fit in. As a result he got picked on. A lot.
In his barracks there were guys who were particularly mean. One of them came up with an idea to drop a disarmed hand grenade on the floor pretending like it was about to go off. Everyone would be in on the joke and know it was disarmed—everyone except the new guy. They figure he’d freak out and totally embarrass himself.
So the next time they were all together someone out of view tossed in the disarmed grenade. “It’s a live grenade, it’s about to explode!”
But the young recruit, instead of running away, jumped on top of the grenade, hugged it to his stomach, and yelled, “Run for your lives! If you don’t you’ll be killed!”
They all stood there, frozen in their own shame, marveling at what he was prepared to do for them without any regard for himself. What they thought would be that young man’s moment of great embarrassment and humiliation turned out to be a moment of great self-sacrifice and glory.
Does this remind us of anyone? Hint: It was posted on Good Friday.
I enjoy Matthew’s daily devotionals and you can too at:
My Precious Life 