Senior year. Students were chatting and sipping coffee on the patio of the FSU College of Business as usual, but this time, the conversations in every cluster were the same. Byron Donalds was the first to tell me - two planes just hit the World Trade Center... A student burst from the glass double doors to announce that another plane had hit the Pentagon. A collective gasp. We filed inside into classrooms where the images of the burning towers covered the projector screens. Our professor had the nerve to turn off the broadcast to begin class. Perry Laverpool and I, appalled, immediately got up and left, settling in a classroom next door to continue watching the news with a crowd of other students. Stunned. Scared. Silent. I reported to work, where I was told I could go home but I would not get paid for the day. Fine. I left. Byron and I met at my house and watched. Cried. Prayed. Watched some more...well into the evening until we could not stand watching anymore. I wept (balled, actually), and still do, for every life lost - every son and daughter stolen, every fatherless or motherless child, widows and widowers... Soon after, we visited Ground Zero. The photos and tributes lining the fence were more than my emotions could handle. And since then, the lives lost on the battlefield...my heart breaks. No number of ceremonies, or cost of memorials can suffice. I Will Never Forget. This evil also stole dreams. From all of those Seniors whose lives were just beginning. We were ready to take on the world. The economy once thriving and poised to welcome us had collapsed in an instant. People with years of experience, more degrees, and families to feed, were being laid off in droves. We were no competition for them. Where you start determines where you will finish...but what if you cant even get started? I said all that to say this...but God. When I think back to the hopelessness that ensued during those times, and where God has brought us since, I am overwhelmed. He gave us jobs when there were no jobs. Multiple jobs when we needed them. He opened doors we could have never opened on our own. He has not allowed our beginning to determine our ending. He has always provided more than enough, just as He promised. I cannot help but praise Him! He brought us home - to Naples (a place I swore Id never live), our perfect paradise where we are blessed to raise our family and be a part of an amazing community. No matter your hardship today, He will do it for you, too. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 11:35:00 +0000
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