Why wasn’t I 344
I will never forget standing inside the little hut in Nassau, Bahamas, when the news started to report, “The US being attacked. Washington DC, New York, Philadelphia… The US being attacked.” As I looked at my friend Joe, I asked, “What are they saying?” He replied, “I don’t know.”
Little did we know at the time a group of terrorists, or better yet cowards, had highjacked multiple commercial airliners carrying civilian passengers. Their actions thereafter would result in the murders of 2753 people.
Within those 2753 souls were 343 men and women who could not be any different from the cowards who caused their deaths. Those 343 were the bravest of the brave from the New York Fire Department.
After twenty-two years, we have had the privilege and honor of hearing the stories from the family members concerning those lost on that tragic day. One of those stories I recently watched was from an actual New York Fireman who survived the attack but struggled with the reason “why” he did survive.
As he spoke in the interview, he said as he laid in his bed one night and asked his wife, “Why me? Why did I survive when 343 of my brothers and sisters died doing the same thing I was doing?” Her reply was more than prophetic, “Do you not think that there is a job for you to do?”
Think about it, he had just lost 343 of his fellow firefighters in one day, within a few hours, in one historic event, and she asks if he doesn’t think there is more for you to do…… Fast forward twenty-two years later and the FDNY is stronger than ever, and over 65 of their men and women are children of the souls lost that tragic day. Ultimately, she was right there was a job for him to do.
What about you? What job or task do you have in front of you right now that you have been specifically designed to complete? Remember you were created for a specific task and purpose. You have been given a set of skills that only you have the ability to use to increase the quality of life for yourself and those around you. The question now is are you using those to accomplish your designed purpose or stuck in the question of why me?