t's Sept. 12 now, two years

and a day after the Sept. 11.

I was home writing an article

when I received a call advising me to turn on the television set. I did

and sat transfixed as one tower of the World Trade Center burned. Then,

in a horrifying instant, another airliner slammed into the remaining tower

and rained fire, glass, concrete, and bodies onto the streets so far below.

I went to the closet, took

out the American flag and planted it firmly in the holder attached to

a column on my front porch. It seemed like the thing to do since, evidently,

the United States was under attack. It would get worse. The Pentagon would

be in flames and Flight 93, bound for another target, would, due to the

courage of several passengers, fail to reach its destination and crash

in a field in Pennsylvania. Over three thousand people lost their lives

and we lost our sense of invincibility.

Even today, we are affected

who do fly now fly less often or only when necessary. We endure intrusive

searches at the airport that we would not have tolerated two years earlier

and many us cautiously scan the airplanes for signs of young Middle Eastern

men who may be on board.

I asked a security expert this

week if he felt secure on airplanes. He responded that he felt the danger

was no longer from people on board the plane but from the lone terrorist

who may be able to secure a shoulder launched missile from the ground.

"It only takes one," he said, to bring a plane down.

People are now aware that a

Sunday professional football game, with a stadium, packed with tens of

thousands of people, or a Saturday college game, for that matter, offers

a terrorist a wonderful target of opportunity. We realize that a national

holiday, such as July 4th, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, may well be chosen

as a symbolic day to strike another blow against the nation. In nearly

every community, under the American flag, flies the single colored flag

that denotes the level of "threat alert" for the day. We wait,

knowing that another attack, if the terrorists have their way, is simply

a matter of time.

We have invaded and conquered

two nations since 9/11, although there is still violence in both of those

lands. Tens of thousands of American troops are in harm's way on a daily

basis. In the barber shop the other day, the man cutting my hair opined

that we would have to do the same with Iran and Saudi Arabia at some point.

"Iran," he said, "has nukes. We can't tolerate that."

Another gentleman felt that we would be in another war with North Korea.

Like the Israelis, we are learning to live with the ever-present possibility

of catastrophe.

It is very tempting to feel

helpless or, worse, to finger-point and blame others for the current situation.

Yet, the scriptures offer a verse that makes it clear that people of faith

can and must do something to affect the present and the future. II Chronicles

7:14 states: If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves,

and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will

hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.

(NIV)

The answers to the future of

the nation are not found in the halls of Congress, within the walls of

the Supreme Court, or in the Oval Office. The answers are to be found

in the pews of the churches of the land. If the people of God those who

are called by His name will bow the heart and the knee to God in submission,

will sincerely and fervently pray, and will turn from their own sins (for

"judgment begins at the House of God"), God promises to hear,

forgive, and heal.

A survey a few years ago found

that the average Christian prayed 30 seconds a day. Pastors did not fare

much better, devoting only three minutes a day, on average, to prayer.

Is it any wonder that, while we may be militarily and economically strong,

we are, as a nation, spiritually weak? To withstand the onslaught of evil

and terror, we must be people of strong spirit.

Neither the Republicans nor

the Democrats can "save the nation." Believers in God must cease

their criticizing, stop the games playing, and get serious with God. We

must return to church, return to God, become people of the Word and prayer,

receive the graces found in the sacraments, and quit lamenting the sins

of others when we have so many in our own lives. Otherwise, like all the

great nations before us, we too shall fall. And it will be our own fault.

[David Epps is rector of Christ

the King Charismatic Episcopal Church, which meets at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Sundays on Ga. Highway 34 between Peachtree City and Newnan. He may be

contacted at [email protected] or at www.CTKCEC.org.]