Mal Fletcher looks at where our passion is directed

Mal Fletcher

It was just a few hours after the horror of September 11, 2001.

Standing amid the devastation on the dust covered streets of New York, a leading TV journalist stooped to pick up a piece of paper, one of the many business documents fluttering in the murky air.

"Yesterday," she said, "this piece of paper was probably the most important thing in the world to somebody. Today it is totally meaningless."

I'm sure that all of our hearts go out to the families of those who died on that tragic day. For them, this is not an international event, but a time of intensely personal loss and mourning.

Even for those of us who were not touched directly by the horror of this event, there is something to be learned from it.

For me, these events were a stark reminder of the power of passion.

The whole thing began with an unleashing of passion for evil - a commitment to a cause that led young men to commit mass murder and suicide. That kind of passion is incomprehensible to most of us.

Yet there was also a remarkable passion for good revealed on that day.

I'll never forget watching on TV the blackened faces of emergency workers - firemen, police officers and others - who boldly walked into the rising cloud of smoke, while others were running from it.

Their passion was of the totally admirable kind; a passion for service, for duty, for giving.

Today, we are proud of their legacy.

It seems that God has placed before us an awesome choice. We're all passionate about something.

The question is: will our passion be directed at things that count, things that live on when we die?

Up until now, the post-modern age of political correctness has produced a generation that has made being inoffensive its greatest virtue.