Remember how Americans flocked to church for several weeks after September 11, 2001?

4 passenger jets were hijacked and used to kill 3,000 Americans and bring down the Twin Towers in New York.

We were inundated by commentators seeking to answer how and why such things could have happened.

Even national leaders could not give soulsatisfying explanations, so we went to church.

Perhaps we wanted to add our amen to prayers that were offered up to God.

Maybe we hoped to hear from pulpits what God had to say to help us make sense of it all.

I believe that many wanted to join hearts and hands together as we cried out to God on behalf of the dead and wounded.

We also wanted to proclaim our trust in God and affirm that our faith was still strong.

But as the days turned into weeks and months, our cries unto God became softer.

Life went on, but that attack made permanent changes in surveillance and security procedures for our national safety.

Since then we have adjusted to the point of accepting certain restrictions to our freedom and privacy as normal.

And with the return to feeling safe, we lost the felt need to cry out to God.

You do not need to be religious or a conspiracy theorist to know that our nation is once again in trouble.

I encourage people of faith to intentionally be crying out to God for His mercy and not wait until our cries are a reaction to catastrophe.

On September 26, a movement of prayer began in Washington, D.C., with some estimates of 50,000 people in attendance crying out to God.

It was called The Return.

More than 11,000 gatherings of various sizes took part in this groundswell of prayer around the world.

God is calling people to return to Him and learn how to cry out proactively rather than waiting for the next sudden attack.

Next week: Squeeze the most out of life.

Dan Williams is the senior adult pastor at Lexington Baptist Church.