The tragic events of what will forever be known as 9/11 are most likely tucked away as memories in the minds of most Alabama Baptists. But for many others the reality of the terrorist attacks that hit New York, Washington, D.C., and a plane near Philadelphia Sept. 11, 2001, replay in their lives every day.
New Yorker Lisa Beamer is one who not only lives in the shadows of that day because of personal loss but also because of the message she carried away.
Beamer was thrust into the spotlight when her husband, Todd, became one of 40 people to die heroically in the crash of Flight 93 in Somerset County, Pa. Todd and other passengers launched an attack on the terrorists before the flight crashed, and according to a telephone operator some of his last
words as he initiated the action were “Let’s roll!”
Instant fame
Lisa Beamer was introduced to Congress and a worldwide television audience by President George W. Bush during a post-attack address to the nation and instantly became an American symbol of courage and strength.
Author of “Let’s Roll! Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage,” Beamer made her first visit to Alabama May 15. She spoke at Samford University during a morning convocation and then to a record crowd for the Samford Auxiliary spring luncheon. About 1,400 people attended the luncheon, which was held at the HealthSouth Conference Center.
Beamer told the Samford students that while everyone desires security for themselves and for their families, it is not humanly possible to ensure it. Many of the people who perished on Sept. 11, she said, were achievers who worked hard to plan and provide for their families’ security. Her husband, for example, was a “type A planner” who kept a checklist of goals.
“He knew where he was going and how he was going to get there,” she said.
“He kept a list of things he wanted to accomplish. Some of them he got to do and some were left unchecked,” she noted. “To leave anything unchecked was unacceptable to Todd.”
But in the end, the planning didn’t matter. What did matter, Beamer said, was the decision Todd made as a child to follow Jesus, and the growth following that decision.
“He grew into his way of living, who he was and why he was here,” she said.
“He tried to be more like Jesus. That, I think, made all the difference that day for Todd.”
In describing her husband and the faith that prompted his heroic actions aboard Flight 93, Beamer cited a portion of Micah 6:8 carved on Todd’s gravestone: “Act justly … love mercy … walk humbly with your God.” That bit of Scripture, she said, encapsulates who Todd was.
The concept of walking humbly with God, said Beamer, is how she judges her life today. She compared her relationship with God to that of her three-year-old son’s relationship to her. A parent’s perspective, she said, is bigger than that of a young child and trusting a parent’s judgment can make life easier for a child.
“I know when I walk humbly with my God, the road is so much more smooth, so much more peaceful,” she said. “If Todd were able to talk to me with the perspective he has now, that’s what it would be about.”
The Beamers met at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., and were married in 1994. They became the parents of two sons, David, age 4, Drew, 3, and a daughter, Morgan Kay, born on Jan. 9, 2002, four months after her father’s death.
At the time of Todd’s death, the Beamers were active members of Princeton Alliance Church in Plainsboro, N.J., where they were youth sponsors and Sunday School teachers. They also met regularly with a small care group for Bible study and prayer.
Their shared compassion for children, and the plight of children left parentless after Sept. 11, led Beamer to create the Todd M. Beamer Foundation in memory of her husband. Her own children are exempt from the foundation.
“You will face a Sept. 11 — something you have no idea is coming — and your life will be suddenly different,” she said. “God can make the bumps in the road smoother. They have been for me, and they will be for you, too.”
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