"As you come to Him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
1 Peter 2:4-5

“Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”
Isaiah 58:12

On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, people went to work holding tightly and unquestioningly to the belief that buildings are safe; they do not fall down. People wheeled their chairs across carpeted concrete floors without a second thought. They drank their coffee and answered their emails.

And then the world was transformed in an instant.

People met their Maker while typing up expense reports or talking to insurance adjusters. For those left alive, the building on which they once relied became like shifting sand. It shuddered and shook and burned. Some jumped out the windows. Some made it out the door, only to have the stuff of their dreams come crashing down on top of them. Some lived on under the rubble, but could not be reached in time.

America herself became like the Titanic, rock solid one minute, gashed and sinking the next. People spun crazily from disbelief to fear to anger to a deep and abiding insecurity as we watched, over and over, the evidence that told us our old way of thinking was no longer valid. We went to sleep on a luxury cruise, but we woke up as swimmers.

People have always had the same questions, but in our day the ruling answers to those questions have been money, technology, insurance. Now the financial district is lying in a heap on the floor of New York. Technology turned out to be the problem’s cause, not the solution. Insurance is meaningless to those who died.

So people are looking for an older answer to their questions. They want an answer that gives not only the appearance of being solid as a rock, but an answer that actually is so. They want an answer that will empower them to stare straight into the teeth of this grisly spectacle and be hopeful.

This is where we as followers of Jesus Christ come in. God is calling us to raise up the age-old foundations, to repair the broken walls. We are to become living stones building a spiritual house. We are to be built on a rock that is immovable, on the foundation that holds the universe together. It is our God-given task to repair and replace the things that have gone neglected, to make strong the walls that have grown weak. And those looking for stability will find an invulnerable spiritual home, and those looking for strength will find, and those looking for compassion will find Abba, and those looking for hope will find the Messiah, crucified and resurrected. A nation of swimmers will see their unshakable rock, and they will come.