Devotionals by Dr. M. Craig Barnes
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. --
When we watched the World Trade Towers crumble to the ground,
it felt like the whole world had fallen.
In a sense, it did. The world we knew, the society we assumed was secure and inviolate,
has crumbled. But that world was only an illusion.
We were never as safe as we thought.
Most non-Western cities have long lived with a clear sense that
any day they could be attacked by the violence that has plagued our world.
Now we know it as well.
Sigmund Freud claimed that religion was an illusion,
a projection of wishful thinking. Healthy-minded people, he thought,
embraced reality without such a crutch.
Nothing appeared more real than those two enormous trade towers that scraped the sky.
If you ever stood at the base of them and looked up,
you had to be overwhelmed at their monumental strength.
But now they are dust. What a terrifying symbol they are today for
those who put their trust in Freud's understanding of reality.
What is an illusion is not religion, but the notion that
we can construct our lives on any foundation other than the love of God.
True religion is not a crutch but a way of constructing your world.
Any world that is going to survive the volatility and terrors of this life
is going to have to be built upon something more real than steel and concrete.
Only the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will do.
As we now understand, all other illusions of strength can fall.
-- Craig Barnes