Neal Pollard
To speak of “the victims of 9/11” is to bring vivid images, memories, and thoughts to mind. It is hard to believe that this fall makes a decade since that unspeakable tragedy. The recollections get more vivid if you say “World Trade Center,” “the Pentagon,” “Flight 11,” “Flight 175,” “Flight 77,” or “Flight 93.” These places and planes were the sites of an unprecedented attack that led to thousands of lives lost in a concerted attack on our nation. But, to say “Paul Acquaviva,” “Siew-Nya Ang,” “Takashi Kinoshita,” “Mary Barbara Trentini,” “Juliana McCourt,” “Teddington H. Moy,” “Mary Jane Booth,” or “Lauren Grandcolas” is to make the tragedy much more personal. Each of the 2,996 victims had family, personality traits, and responsibilities. Each had a unique tone and quality of voice, a distinctive laugh, a peculiar demeanor, and set of interests. It is one thing to feel a note of sadness to think back to the big picture of the terror attacks, but it is quite another to see a picture of or to have known someone who died in them.
We sing “Seeking The Lost” or “Rescue The Perishing.” We read, “God so loved the world” (John 3:16), “the lost” (Luke 19:10), and “many will go in the way of destruction” (Matt. 7:13). We preach and pray about opportunities to reach the lost and dying world. That is important, but it can become impersonal. Too often, “the lost” and “the world” is this faceless, nebulous, indistinct group whose lostness may cause a twinge of sadness in our hearts. Last Saturday night, during our wonderful, truly inspirational, prayer service, Bob Turner stood before close to 200 saints and prayed for the lost…by name! Those present wrote the names of loved ones, friends, family, and neighbors who were either spiritually struggling or outside of Christ. Bob prayed for about 150 names, one by one. To hear those names, some first and last names, others only first names, a few identified without even the mention of the name, many unfamiliar to us, some very familiar to us, made a profound impact hard to describe to those not present and participating. To hear, one by one, “Jim,” “Jarvis and Helen,” “Melissa,” “Stacy,” “Doug,” “Austin,” “Katie,” “Manuel,” “Bruce,” “Floyd and Steph,” “Daryl and Becky,” and so many others, shook us into a startling reality. Yes, we want to “think souls!” But, those souls are people. They have names! They are real. They are personal. And, they are lost. We can struggle to ignore that, but it does not make the reality or the task any less vivid. May God grant us the focus and faith to see the lost for who they really are–the people in our lives we can influence, reach, and bring into God’s wonderful family!
The Preacher Pollard Blog 
Thank you so much for this sobering reminder of our responsibility as Christians!