MY WORST DAY AT A JOB I LOVED

i was in the radio studio I had just finished the weather and was preparing for an interview with an artist who'd come early morning to talk about his new album. The television that was on in front of me all of the time since the A&M Log stack tragedy, that way we wouldn't miss anything. I looked up at the television and there was a beautiful cloudless blue sky above New York City's World Twin Towers....and at that moment a large place flew into view and crashed into one of the towers. I immediately began gathering news about the crash in order to go back on with a special news announcement. While the news organizations were as confused as I was, I was able to go on air and at least give the news that it appeared that a plane had somehow crashed into the tower and there was fire. But before I could say more....the live feed on the television showed a second plane come into the view and crash into the second tower. This was no longer the accident we thought the first plane had been, this was purposeful and terrorism

I don't really know what my on air partner was doing, but I knew he had taken the artist out of the studio and explained that the interview would not be happening that morning. Then both returned to the studio. The news began to pour into the studio and quickly I found myself using words like "death toll" "no survivors" and the second tower that had been hit suddenly began to turn to dust as it quickly collapsed onto itself and came down in a cloud of white. Then the television flashed the picture of the Pentagon where a third plane had crashed into the side and was now on fire inside the outer ring of the building. Before the hour was up , the second tower had crumbled to the ground and word of an airliner in Pennsylvania that had crashed after the brave passengers on board decided to crash the plane rather than let it do more damage . I reported the news for hours using the terms "terrorism" "Hero First responders". "Thousands are believed to be dead..." " All planes have been grounded because of the potential of more terrorism."

I finally called in my friend Beth Moore to balance my news with her knowledge of appropriate scriptures to comfort others in this time of crisis.

9/11 lasted for days and it was one of the hardest stories for me to cover as a reporter. While I wanted to cry, fall apart and grieve with everyone else, I knew my job was to inform and as a Christian to comfort and remind others of the Hope we have in Christ.

I've been told hundreds of times since then, that I will always be the voice that they remember when they think of 9/11. I've thought about that a lot, it's an honor and at the same time a sadness unless what they remember is the scriptures we shared with them and the hope we instilled in the worst day of my broadcast career.

As we remember this day...remember the bravery of the men and woman on the fourth plane, the courage it took for the First Responders to climb the stairs to save those on the upper floors - while others were escaping down the same stairs to save their own life.

Remember those who saved strangers and for those who fed and gave water to those at Ground Zero on the pile. Now take THAT memory and please find a way to reach out and help someone today in honor of those on 9/11. As a favor to me...because it was the worst day of my broadcast career and I want it to be redeemed.