72. The Bottom Holds
R
Save us and help us with your right hand,
that those you love may be delivered.
Psalm 108:6T
HEyear 2001 shook America to the core. The terrorist attack on
the World Trade Center robbed us of our sense of security as we
stayed glued to our television sets, mesmerized by scenes of devas-
tation.
I remember being brought to tears one night as I watched a news
special about some of the men and women who were working day
and night in the rain, covered with dirt and mud, breathing in
clouds of smoke, below the surface of the city. Wearing sheer fatigue
like a garment, they labored on, stopping to rest only when they
could go on no longer. At the ends of these grueling days they would
climb out of the pit for a few hours of sleep and return before day-
light the next morning.
Psalm 40:2 came to me as I watched that special: “He lifted me
out of the slimy pit, / out of the mud and mire; / He set my feet on
a rock / and gave me a firm place to stand.”