Anno Domini

On a quiet September morning, the world changed forever in a matter of seconds. Many people remember the details of this day, the clear blue sky, the rushed pace of people trying to get to work, the usual traffic, the daily grind. It seemed like this was the way things would be for all time...America was at its peak, the millennium had arrived, and we all survived Y2K....

....Then the towers fell.

If you compare pre 9/11 America to post 9/11 America, you will see radical changes. Before the attacks, America was enjoying a time of economic prosperity, of hope for the future. We didn't worry about the outside world. We were safe across the ocean from the whole thing. It looked like we could just grow and grow.

Suddenly we became aware of the world around us, of places called Iraq and Afghanistan, places people had only heard of in geography class. We started to be afraid to fly, the lines for everything got longer as metal detectors were put in everywhere. Two wars were started, with fear and opposition not seen since Vietnam. Most of all though, the damage to the American psyche was irreversible. We became different people after that day

The point is, we can look back to one moment in history that changed everything. Before and after. In this case, things changed for the worse, but there are instances where such change can be good. We see this throughout history and in ourselves.

Recorded history is divided up into two distinct measurements of time: BC and AD. Before Christ, and Anno Domini (Latin for the year of our Lord). The whole of human history is centered around one pivotal moment: the birth of a baby in a shack somewhere in the Middle East. After Christ is born, nothing is the same. Christianity spreads like butter on toast, and the Western world is changed, people's lives and eternal destinies are changed. Politics change. Human perspective changes. Everything we thought was right was suddenly wrong, and the brickwork for what became Western civilization is laid. All the values that our society holds dear come out of that. Everything after Christ, after the year of our Lord, is different.

It's not just history that pivotal moments change though. Personal history is changed by an encounter with Jesus Christ. Many times in the Bible, once someone has an encounter with God, they are different, even given a different name. God renames Abram Abraham (Genesis 17:5). Jesus gives Simon the name Peter (Mark 3;16). Saul chooses to use his Greek name, Paul, after his conversion (Acts 13:9). And these men are different entities under their new names! God leads them, he is the center of their lives, and they do great things because of it. Christians as well, true Christians, have these moments, where they are no longer the person they once were: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Things happen in life, some things good, some things bad, but they all center around God, and the things he does with the bad and the good are totally incomprehensible sometimes. We ask ourselves how He could even use something as tragic as 9/11, but he does. Solomon says: "For everything there is a season, and a time, for every purpose under Heaven" Ecclesiastes 3:1. He can use anything for His own glory, and none of it without having a purpose in our own lives.

An encounter with Jesus, a transformative one, is the hallmark of the Christian experience. Only through this are we reborn in Him, and only through Christ are we saved.