Today’s Worship Smoothie is dedicated to the pain and promise of 9/11.

There could be no worthier song I could offer to you this day, that is as beautiful and heartbreakingly honest about pain and promise, as the song Always by Christian rock band Building 429.

As I watched the music video and listened to the song, I cried. And in those tears, promise remained.

Why dedicate remembrance to pain?

In the lyrics of Always:

Even when all hope is gone
God knows our pain
His promise remains
He will be with you always

If you’ve given everything you’ve got and you’re still about to fall
Hold on
‘Cuz I  believe always
Our Savior never fails

A poem emerged from within:

Without pain, we cannot truly recover love.

Love for our country, love for the people we have lost.

Children, husband, wives, and friends.

All of them gone in a whisper, but laugh, talk and sing in our memories strong, loud and alive.

Love for our innocence, where has she gone now?

Without promise, we would all be empty handed with our loss.

Pain and God’s Promise for Us Today

In that one moment, when planes collided into buildings filled with people and countless lives, you and I came face to face with a broken world.

Our hearts trembled, our minds struggled to compute, What is this I’m seeing?  Is this real?

Where are you God?  Why is this happening?

If today, eight years later, you too are asking these same questions in the tragedies of your own life, your family or friends, there is a promise at the end of all our confusion.

“My child, I’m before you and I’ll be long after you… And always, I will be with you.”

These are the words that Building 429’s lead singer, Jason Roy, used to describe how God would respond to these questions.  They gave birth to this beautiful song Always, an anthem of pain and promise.

A sobering Friday, it is.   May we extend our arms of comfort to one another in our pain and God’s promise.  And with full confidence in God’s promise of always, we can step into tomorrow and into each other’s pain.

What thoughts and feelings fill you today on 9/11?

How has this song touched you, as you listened/watched the video?

Lyrics to Always - By Jason Roy (Building 429)
I was standing in the pouring rain one dark November night
Fighting off the bitter cold when she caught my eye
Her face was taut and her eyes were filled, and to my surprise
She pulled out a photograph and my heart just stopped inside
She said, "He would've been three today
I miss his smile, I miss his face"
What was I supposed to say, but
CHORUS
I believe always, always
Our Savior never fails
Even when all hope is gone
God knows our pain and his promise remains
He will be with you always
He was living in a broken world, searching for a home
His heart was barely keeping pace when I found him all alone
Remembering the way he felt when his daddy said goodbye
Fighting just to keep the tears and the anger locked inside
He's barely holding onto faith
But deliverance is on its way, cause
CHORUS
I believe always, always
Our Savior never fails
Even when all hope is gone
God knows our pain and his promise remains
He will be with you always
Friend, I don't know where you are and I don't know where you've been
Maybe you're fighting for your life or just about to throw the towel in
But if you're crying out for mercy, if there's no hope left at all
If you've given everything you've got and you're still about to fall
Well hold on, hold on, hold on, cause
I believe always, always
Our savior never fails
Even when all faith is gone
God knows our pain and his promise remains
Always, always, He will be with you always