CASE STUDIES: Religion in
Media / Modern World
On
Let’s Roll, written in a Christian perspective by Lisa Beamer (with the help of Ken Abraham), was a New York Times #1 best seller in the non-fictional category. The book briefly talks about interesting aspects regarding Lisa and Todd, such as their childhoods, college days (they both attended Wheaton College, which is a Christian-based college in Illinois), courtship, marriage, children, etc., but most significantly, the book discusses how Todd lived his entire life for God, and how Lisa was able to carry on through God’s strength after Todd was gone. There are many specific sections of the book that really focus on Christianity and God’s compassion for the grieving, as well as Todd’s love for the Lord and his courageous martyrdom.
During the first few chapters of the book, it expresses how much love and devotion both Todd and Lisa had for each other, their children, and most importantly God. It then goes on to sorrowfully yet inspirationally discuss the morning of September 11th and how Lisa found out about her husband’s death. Lisa reminisces about the overwhelmingly support from her family, relatives, and church friends, and she recalls how thankful she was that God sent the right people to her side to comfort her on that dreadful day. Lisa then talks about Todd’s heroic death. She discusses how he died to save the lives of thousands of other Americans (the plane he was on was supposed to crash into a nationalistic building in Washington) and she talks about his last words on the plane which were saying the Lord’s prayer and reciting the passage Psalm 23, which is “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.” Next she goes on to recalling how she had to give a national televised speech after the tragedy, and she talks about how God gave her the wisdom and righteous words to say during her televised speech. Another painful aspect she talks about is the birth of her daughter without Todd being there. She bravely declares, though, that God will provide her with everything she needs even though Todd is no longer there with her. There are three key chapters, however, that I find hold the most religious meaning and they’re the chapters that I was most moved by. These three chapters are: ‘How To Tell The Children?’, ‘The Shanksville Crash Site’, and ‘It Is Well With My Soul’.
‘How To Tell The Children’ is a heartbreaking chapter concerning how Lisa broke the horrible news to her children. She softly used God’s comforting words to explain to her children what had happened to their father and she used the ‘daddy’s-in-heaven’ phrase as a promising reassurance to her children. This chapter truly conveys how God’s love can even comfort little children. The main reason why I find this chapter so inspiring though, is simply because I know what it’s like being a child who has to face unexpected tragedies such as grieving a loved-one getting murdered. This chapter brought back painful memories of mine, but it really made me think about how much God did comfort me when I went through a similar situation as Lisa’s children did.
‘The Shanksville Crash Site’ is a chapter regarding Lisa’s visit to her husband’s crash site. This chapter is religiously significant because it’s here (Shanksville) that Lisa was able to really feel God’s peaceful presence in the midst of all the chaos she was going through. The spiritual lines in this chapter are so amazingly written and it declares a clear message of who God really is. Here’s one of my most favourite parts in the book that talks about Lisa finding God’s peace (found on page 232):
“As I gazed out over the site one last time, I saw a hawk soaring high in the sky above the field where the plane had crashed. Suddenly a sense of peace flowed over me. I couldn’t explain it, but I was reminded of Isaiah 40:30-31:
Even youth grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Never before in my life had the difference between those who put their hope in God and those who put their hope in this world been so obvious to me…My family and I mourned the loss of Todd deeply that day, and we still do. But because we hope in the Lord, we know beyond a doubt that one day we will see Todd again.” These lines in the chapter really spiritually affected me, especially the Bible verse Isaiah 40:30-31, simply because they are such powerful words that evidently convey God’s continual love and sympathy towards us grief-stricken humans.
The last spiritually rewarding chapter is ‘It Is Well With My Soul’. In this particular chapter (it’s the last chapter of the book), Lisa summarizes everything she has previously discussed. She then goes on to stating that God absolutely could have prevented the terrorist attacks on September 11th, but He chose not to because with everything, God has a perfect purpose and He allows everything to happen for a reason. She further goes on to say that instead of all of us questioning God’s purpose, we should just trust in God’s purpose. Lisa ends the book with the lyrics of an old Christian hymn called ‘It Is Well With My Soul’, and it was originally written by a Christian man who had lost his family to a ship accident. He had written this hymn to tell God that it was ‘well with his soul’ because he had so much trust in God’s purpose behind the tragedy he faced. The lyrics are written in the book Let’s Roll, and part of the song goes:
“When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.”
This was the hymn that was sung at Todd Beamer’s memorial service and it was a song that basically summarized Lisa Beamer’s entire book, Let’s Roll. For myself, like Lisa, I find this particular hymn to be one of my favourites because the religious meaning behind it describes exactly how I feel about the person that I lost in my own life: it is well with my soul…
All in all, this book Let’s Roll is filled with Christian religious meaning and deep Christian lessons. It discusses how hopeful one can be if they have Christ in their life, even during brutal times of tribulation and mourning. I can directly relate to this book because I’ve gone through tragedies in my own life, and like Lisa Beamer, I’ve finally been able to say ‘it is well with my soul.’ Let’s Roll gives living proof and testimony on how powerful and compassionate God really is, and how everything that He allows is because of His perfect purpose for our lives here on Earth. One of my most favourite lines in Let’s Roll is when Lisa says that, “this world is only the preparation for an eternity of joy beyond compare in heaven.” I love this line because it describes exactly how I feel about our lives here on Earth. I feel that our lives here on Earth are merely preparations for our afterlives.
I’d like to leave you with the last lines of the book. These religiously courageous lines portray my exact sacred feelings at this very moment in time:
“It is well…it is well…with my soul.
Are you ready? Okay. Let’s roll.”
Bibliography
Beamer, Lisa and Abraham, Ken. Let’s Roll.
Publishers Inc., 2002.
Barker, Kenneth, ed. The NIV Study Bible.
1985.