Twelve hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, a television news reporter stood near Ground Zero with a sheaf of papers in her hand. She had picked them up from the street, which was littered with debris from the fallen twin towers. One sheet was part of a corporate financial report, another was a business proposal, and a third was a retirement plan. In light of the thousands of lives lost, those papers seemed so much less important than they were just hours before.

Calamity alters our perspective. When lives are on the line, we realize that people, not possessions, are what matter most. And if we take steps to realign our priorities and to treat people well, the lesson will not have been wasted.

New perspectives on life, including those God gives us from His Word, can quickly fade unless we put knowledge into action. James wrote, "Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. . . . He who . . . is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does" (1:22,25).

After great tragedies, many of us are challenged to put God and people first in our lives. Let's stay in the Word and take action to maintain our new perspective.  —David McCasland  — David C. McCasland