This is a guest post. I asked Lynn Grassmeyer, who was featured HERE on my blog, to write in her own words what she experienced as she remembered 9-11 with a group of strangers at a mosque. These are her words…

JUST A SEED

by Lynn Grassmeyer

One day last week I turned on our local radio station to hear that the Murfreesboro Mosque had yet another bomb threat, this one was slated for 9/11. If you know anything about Murfreesboro in the last year or so you know that it has been a hotbed of controversy stemming from a request to expand the local mosque there. The non-Muslim population came out to protest, and the rest is history (documented in CNN’s “Unwelcome”.) As a humanitarian and believer in Jesus, I had stayed on the sidelines, not taking a stand one way or the other. Several times I attempted to write opinion pieces on the matter, but the words never came. But when I heard about the most recent attack I awoke to a call of action. A definite and precise one: to call the Murfreesboro Sheik and ask him what he wanted me to do for his people. How could I best serve them, I asked.

It was agreed that we would hold a candlelight vigil on 9/11 on the grounds of the mosque, with police protection.

I could hear the naysayers and critics screaming: “This is crazy! This is the wrong day, the wrong place to make a stand!” (I guess they meant, the ‘wrong people’.) And it wasn’t exactly the safest place to be either.

In fact, one well-meaning friend cautioned that the O.T. Prophets would never have stood with them. “It would have incurred the wrath of God!” Yikes! I certainly didn’t want the wrath of God on me for showing up and lighting a candle, praying for healing and a chance to be a testimony. At least the cautious friend did ask if I was sure this was from God and not “just another cause.” Good point. Well taken. I digested that and prayed some more. I pretty much knew what the Prophets were all about– but what would Jesus do? The devotions for that day mentioned being a bondservant or ‘minister’ of the Lord. ‘Minister’ or servant also acts as a verb as well as a noun. It is a word of action, not just something one is. That same day a friend put forth a challenge to Christians: “Who is our enemy? No person is our enemy, the devil is, and the Muslim is my neighbor, whom I am to love as I love myself.” It seemed clear enough to me that I was to go for it.

On 9/11 about 40 of us met in the parking lot of the Mosque. The rain shower gave way to a brilliant sunlight peaking through the trees just above us. The air was still and the atmosphere surreal. People from all over streamed in to join some members of the mosque. There were prominent doctors, moms, students and a Navy vet. Our mutual goal was to remember the victims of 9/11 and to celebrate the freedoms of religion, peace and justice in America. I opened with an Arab greeting and thanked everyone for coming.

We started expressing, in real and emotional terms, how 9/11 had affected us personally. One girl, featured in the CNN documentary said it was a “gut wrenching shock” that day. She said, as a 10-year-old Muslim girl, she felt responsible and it haunted her. Another young man said as a 4th grader 9/11 changed his life completely because his Dad went on to work for Homeland Security. As a Christian he had never met a Muslim before moving to Murfreesboro. He said he was honored to be at the vigil. A humble mom read a poem she wrote just for the event. She held back tears, as did we all. And finally one of the doctors said the most profound thing: “I open people daily and on the inside I cannot tell color, or faith—we are all the same.”

Then without a definite transition the conversation and topic shifted slightly. The hatred and violence against the Mosque community was obviously something on our minds also. The squad car 200 feet from us was a reminder that some people weren’t so friendly and carried serious grudges and prejudice against Islam and it’s followers.

All of us agreed it was only a few radicals who were perpetrating violence and hatred and that Murfreesboro was a good place, a decent city. The Sheik wanted us to acknowledge this to the world. The voice of violence would now be drowned out with the voice of love and forgiveness. It started with us. It started right then. I read parts of a message that MLK Jr. gave in ’57 to a packed Montgomery church after recent bombings nearby. He said “the only weapon that we have in our hands is the weapon of protest….the great glory of American Democracy is the right to protest for the right”. A most famous quote came after …”until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream!” As I was talking I looked into the faces of soft-spoken veiled women, strong but subdued men and their offspring-people undeserving of  what they’ve endured this past year.  Without warning I choked up as I tried to explain away the recent wrongs done in the name of Jesus and Christianity. As the Muslim teenager felt responsible for those who radicalized a message to suit their evil actions, I too felt the Bible was being grossly misquoted and used for ill-will among some of the Christian protesters against the mosque and more sinisterly by the still active KKK.

As darkness fell, we lit our candles and had a minute of silence. I was praying a number of things, some of which I will keep personal. One was to ask that Jesus be revealed to those present and to the city of Murfreesboro. For me, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. We ended by singing the ‘Star Spangled Banner ‘ together, with one voice, in one accord. Our candles were still lit, our American flags still waved.

I am not a preacher, nor a professed missionary, but I do consider myself a servant. I did not give a sermon or talk on the four spiritual laws. But I know the Holy Spirit was there and the beginning of a healing balm, a seed was planted right at that spot. And it was precisely there that God showed up. Many Christian friends were praying for me, some in Canada, Europe and elsewhere. One gave me this passage from James: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Where are your seeds being planted?

Lynn Grassmeyer is a youth leader, Realtor and humanitarian in Mt. Juliet, TN.

AN UPDATE: Remembering September 11 (at a mosque) is a post from: Jesus Needs New PR