Self Definition

On this day 7 years ago, we witnessed the horrendous tragedy that we now call "Nine Eleven". During a time of silent contemplation as I gathered with a number of colleagues in ministry, I was reminded of something I heard in a Charlie Rose interview with Thomas L. Friedman (author of The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century). In that interview Friedman said something like this:

Since that fateful day seven years ago, we as a nation have defined ourselves through the lens of that event rather than through the lens of the "Fourth of July".

This morning I thought that so often even we as individuals get our self-definition from the tragic events of our lives rather than the hope we have in Christ! Lord help us to know who we are in you, and not be defined by the things that happen to us.