By Jennifer Rae Vliet
It was Friday morning, September 14th when my cell phone rang at 4 am. On the other end was the limo driver, Tom, whom I had hired to take me to Newark Airport for an 8AM departure to San Fran. I was visiting my parents in Jersey from Southern California as I did every year but was diverting to Northern California to attend a Gala fundraising event that I was very involved in. The driver told me that all flights were cancelled suddenly because of a bomb scare in one of the terminals and all flights were grounded. This was the first day flights were to begin again since the Twin Tower attack just a few days before. This was United Flight 93 that I was to get on that morning, Flight 93 flew every morning, same path, same departure gate, same departure time as the infamous Flight 93 that was hijacked on Tuesday.
I have to say, the night before I was certainly chewing my nails about flying that coming morning and I contacted a dear friend about it. He asked me, “Jennifer, do you believe you can change the day and the time of your death?” I thought, what a great question and responded, “No, I believe it is a fixed day and time chosen by God”…to which he said, “Live your life and keep with your vision and plans while keeping that in mind. God controls that moment, not you.” That helped me meet my slumber with some peace and a renewed commitment to head to Newark in the morning. Little did I know that God was orchestrating some very important moments for me during this trip that were going to change my spiritual life so much.
Being that those plans were thwarted, and flying was going to be undependable, it was time to trust God in a new way for me. I decided to take a journey solo across the country since there was no way to make the event in Northern Cal and head back home to SoCal; I had planned some special stops along the way.
Anyone who had chosen that next week to drive to their destinations know exactly what I am talking about when I say how beautiful of a journey it was. American flags everywhere, attached to all the overpasses, attached to car windows, and people were just so gracious. People actually made eye contact with you wherever you went; the good kind of eye contact, strangers looking out for one another is what it was all about…I refer to them as strangers, however, I remember feeling like they really were not. We were all connected somehow in some way because of the atrocities of 9/11.
On my trip, I decided to head to Virginia to see a good friend who just so happened to be related to Bob and Tammy Barney. I had the pleasure of meeting them and their beautiful daughters as I was invited to a Bible study at their home and boy, was that a Bible study unlike any other I had ever been a part of. A study where you actually read the words on the pages of the Bible, and BELIEVE they mean what they say right there in front of you! Such a special group of people and a trip to remember, today.
As my road trip continued, it was filled with Rush Limbaugh while I witnessed wild horses in New Mexico and was met with the Painted Desert sunsets to fall in love with. The closer I got to the west coast, the more I had an urge to clean out closets and simplify my life, highlighting what was important and that was not having so much “stuff”. I had come to learn that was a normal societal reaction and I wasn’t alone, when there is a tragedy of life as America had just endured, we respond in this manner. I had plans. Plans to heal and to remove the clutter in my life. God wanted that too, in a spiritual way, though. That weekend when I got settled in So Cal after 7 days of travel, I decided to go to my church as usual to connect with my church family.
Nothing was usual though for me. I sat down, looked around…suddenly I felt somewhat uncomfortable and that feeling grew. Within 15 minutes a very big impressionable feeling overcame me as if God was pushing me to leave; I felt the message from Him was to leave the church and not go back. As I have shared in another commentary, Calvary Church was my church home, altar calls with Greg Laurie and meaty sermons from the late Chuck Smith…that was my life, my comfort zone, but I obeyed and got up and left the building…to never return.
My obedience to God brought me to a very different place once I left church that September. The Bible was to become more real to me than ever before and the Old Testament was tuning up to not be that boring book about the Jewish people that I always experienced it to be…oh how wrong I was. The next three years were about the pages of the Bible coming to life for me, with the help of the Barney family, leaving (over time) the man-made traditions with pagan roots and getting to know the One that created me; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God wanted me to get to know Him through His Word, and not through a man on a pulpit anymore. I have never been more connected to God and never have I ever been this close to Him.
September 11, 2001…so many of our lives had changed. I never want my sharing of my experiences to seem self-indulgent from that day and time or to take away from the lives that were lost; New York City’s heart had cracked that day. I am blessed to live to tell you about all of this and my journey stemming from that tragic day. To truly NEVER FORGET for me is also to embrace TRUTH each and every day (about 9/11 as well) and to give massive reverence to God for opening up my heart and mind to Him the way He did on that trip.