September 11 still stops us. Names, faces, phone calls, quiet prayers. And for Pennsylvanians, a field near Shanksville.
At Pennsylvania Family Institute, our memories of that day are braided with a moment that has stayed with us ever since: our 2002 Friends of the Family Banquet, when Lisa Beamer—just one year after losing her husband Todd on Flight 93—stood before a hushed room and pointed us to what matters most when life is stripped to essentials.
From the very first minutes of her message, Lisa didn’t center fame, headlines, or even national policy. She centered faith—lived, tested, and chosen daily. She reminded us that Todd’s steadiness aboard Flight 93 didn’t appear out of thin air in a crisis. It was the fruit of thousands of small, unseen decisions to walk with Christ.
As Lisa put it, Todd’s calm in those final moments grew from a lifetime of discipleship—“very intentional decisions…to learn what it really meant to give his life to Jesus and to do it over and over again in all the little decisions of his life.” That is the kind of formation that holds when the world tilts.
“In light of the circumstances that Todd faced on Sept. 11th, his peace and his thoughts and his hope were only attributable to his choices throughout his life of walking hand-in-hand with the God of the Universe.”
That’s the heart of biblical wisdom: real courage is formed before the crisis. Lisa shared that Todd anchored his life in Micah 6:8—“to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God”—and echoed Joshua’s charge, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Todd had made that choice as a boy, and then kept making it—on ordinary Tuesdays, crowded commutes, diaper runs, office meetings, and quiet nights at home.
When the unthinkable came, the foundation was already poured.
Lisa also gave us a picture that we can all understand. She described holding her child’s hand through a busy parking lot—how little ones sometimes resist, throw tantrums, or dart toward danger. The safest, surest way across is simple: take the Father’s hand and keep step. That’s not passivity. It’s trust. It’s obedience. Its formation. And it is the only path that readies a soul to face both life and death with clear-eyed peace.
Her words were not sentimental. They were honest. She told us plainly that each of us will face a personal “September 11”—the day when our mortality is no longer theoretical and when loss visits our doorstep.
The question is not whether hardship will come; it’s whether we will be ready—truly ready—to meet it.
Readiness looks like this:
- Daily allegiance. Not a one-time nod, but a practiced “yes” to Jesus in the small choices.
- Humility before God. Walking hand-in-hand—not running ahead or pulling away when the path confuses us.
- Justice and mercy lived out. Micah’s “bottom line” moving from plaque to practice.
- Hope that endures. A hope rooted not in circumstances but in Christ.
On this September 11, we remember the lives taken and the heroes who stood in the gap—including Todd Beamer. We also remember Lisa’s witness among us in 2002: grief without bitterness, courage without bravado, faith without pretense. She pointed us past the headlines to the headline of every day—Who will you serve?
As Lisa said that evening in 2002, “I’ve been so encouraged here tonight to see how the Pennsylvania Family Institute takes these exact topics to heart. To be very intentional about who they are and why they do what they do, and knowing that things aren’t going to change by just floating along in the current of life, but that intentional choice of each and every moment deciding who you will serve is the only thing that prepares you for your Sept. 11th.”
As we honor the fallen and comfort the hurting, may we do the one thing within our reach today: choose. Choose the Lord. Choose His way in the small things. Choose to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
That is how a life—and a community—stands firm with courage when the ground shakes. That is how we truly remember 9/11.
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