Twenty-five years ago, Americans watched towers fall.

On September 11, 2001, airplanes became weapons. The World Trade Center collapsed. The Pentagon was struck. Passengers aboard Flight 93 fought back before the plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Thousands of people who began an ordinary Tuesday never came home.

Then came the fear. Was another plane coming? Was another city next? Was the water safe? The mail? The subway? The stadium? For a time, many of us were not simply grieving. We were waiting to see what might happen next.

Tragedy does that. It reminds us how quickly the world can change and how little control we actually have.

And it raises the questions people have asked for centuries: Where is God? Why did He allow this? Why did they die?

Jesus was once confronted with sudden, violent death. Some people told Him about Galileans whom Pilate had killed. Jesus then brought up another tragedy that everyone around Jerusalem apparently knew about: a tower in Siloam had fallen and killed eighteen people.

Jesus rejected the easy explanation that the victims must have been worse sinners than everyone else. Their deaths were not proof that they were more wicked.

But He did not leave the conversation there. He turned the tragedy back toward the living: unless you repent, you too will perish.

That answer can sound severe until we understand the mercy in it. Jesus was saying: Do not use someone else’s death merely to explain them. Let it awaken you.

Life is short. Death is real. None of us knows how many ordinary mornings we have left. The right response to tragedy is neither self-righteous judgment nor paralyzing fear. It is to be reconciled to God.

We sometimes talk about faith as though trusting God means believing nothing terrible will happen to us. Jesus never promised that.

When He described the troubles that would mark the age before His return, He spoke plainly about wars, persecution, deception, famine, earthquakes, and lawlessness. Then He told His followers something remarkable:

Notice the reason Jesus gave for courage. He did not say, “Do not be afraid because none of this will happen.”

He said it will happen. Do not be alarmed.

Christian peace is not confidence that tragedy cannot reach us. It is confidence that tragedy cannot take Christ from us.

The world may be surprised. Jesus is not.

Fear lives in the words, “What happens next?”

What if there is another attack? Another war? What if violence reaches my city? What if the economy collapses? What if persecution comes here? What if the world becomes worse than anything I have known?

Scripture does not answer those questions by promising our worst fears are impossible. It gives us something better: a God who is still our refuge when the things we feared actually happen.

The psalm does not say the earth cannot give way. It says we do not have to collapse with it.

Revelation describes a coming time so terrifying that people will cry out for the mountains and rocks to fall on them. Scripture is not naïve about suffering. It tells us that dreadful things have happened and dreadful things will happen.

But prophecy was never given so Christians would become frightened people staring nervously at every headline. God tells us beforehand so that when the world begins to look like the world He described, we remember that history has not slipped out of His hands.

He is where He has always been.

He is not pacing heaven in confusion. He has not surrendered His throne. Human beings can commit terrible evil, and they remain responsible for it. Nations can rise and fall. Terrorists can attack. Governments can fail. Towers can fall.

None of it makes God less sovereign.

But knowing that God is sovereign is not yet the same as knowing His peace.

Peace becomes personal when I stop treating faith as an idea and actually put my trust in Christ.

That has to be lived.

There are moments when I cannot see the outcome, when the situation gives me reasons to be afraid, and I have to decide whether I really believe what I say I believe. When I put my faith in Him and act upon it—when I take the next step because I trust Him—I discover that He is there.

I know His presence in a way that cannot be reduced to an argument. The circumstances may not change. The danger may still be real. But something deeper steadies the heart.

That peace really does pass understanding. It cannot be manufactured by positive thinking. It comes from belonging to Christ and learning, step by step, that He is faithful.

Following Jesus does not mean saying, “Nothing bad can happen to me.” Faithful Christians have suffered in every century.

Our confidence is stronger than that.

Whatever happens, I belong to Christ.

Jesus did not merely tell us what will happen in the future. He calls us to Himself. We put our trust in Him, follow Him, and rest our eternal hope in what He accomplished through His death and resurrection.

Our assurance is not that tomorrow will be safe. Our assurance is that we are His.

That changes the question. Instead of asking only, “How do I make sure nothing frightening ever happens?” we can ask, “If it does, whom will I trust?”

Maybe fear has been controlling you.

Maybe you believe in God in the abstract, but you have never entrusted yourself to Christ. Or maybe you already belong to Him, yet there is one place where fear keeps telling you not to move.

Take the next step of faith.

That does not mean doing something reckless. Faith is not pretending danger is not real. It means obeying Christ when fear tells you to stay frozen. It means giving Him the burden you cannot carry, doing the next thing He has called you to do, and trusting Him with what you cannot control.

You do not have to understand how everything will work out before you trust Him.

Sometimes the peace comes as we step forward.

Twenty-five years ago, towers fell in New York. Long before that, a tower fell in Siloam. Jesus used that tragedy to tell the living to wake up.

Life is short. We are not promised tomorrow. Terrible things will happen. But Christ has not left us without hope.

Do not surrender to fear.

Turn to Christ. Trust Him. Follow Him. And take the next step.

If you prayed that sincerely and are placing your trust in Jesus Christ, do not keep it to yourself. Let us know. We would be honored to pray for you and help you begin following Him.